   #copyright

Third Servile War

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Ancient History,
Classical History and Mythology; Military History and War


   This is a featured article. Click here for more information.
   Third Servile War
   Part of the Servile Wars
   Italia and surrounding territory, 218 BC

     Date   73 to 71 BC
   Location Italia
    Result  Decisive Roman victory
   Combatants
   Army of escaped slaves Roman Republic
   Commanders
   Crixus †,
   Oenomaus †,
   Spartacus † ^a,
   Castus †,
   Gannicus † Gaius Claudius Glaber,
   Publius Varinius,
   Gnaeus Clodianus,
   Lucius Gellius Publicola,
   Gaius Cassius Longinus,
   Gnaeus Manlius,
   Marcus Licinius Crassus,
   Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus,
   Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus,
   Lucius Quinctius,
   Gnaeus Tremellius Scrofa
   Strength
   120,000 escaped slaves and gladiators, including non-combatants; total
   number of combatants unknown 3,000+ militia,
   8 Roman Legions (40,000-50,000 men),
   12,000+ - organization unknown.
   Casualties
   Almost all killed in action or crucified Unspecified but heavy
   (50, 1,000, or 4,000 lost through decimation)
   ^a Presumed dead, body never found
        Servile Wars
   First – Second – Third
                             Roman Republican Civil Wars
   1st Servile – 2nd Servile – Social – Sulla's 1st – Sertorian – Sulla's
   2nd – 3rd Servile – Catiline Conspiracy – Caesar's – Post-Caesarian –
   Liberators' – Sicilian – Fulvia's – Final

   The Third Servile War, also called the Gladiator War and The War of
   Spartacus by Plutarch, was the last of a series of unrelated and
   unsuccessful slave rebellions against the Roman Republic, known
   collectively as the Servile Wars. The Third Servile War was the only
   one to directly threaten the Roman heartland of Italia and was doubly
   alarming to the Roman people due to the repeated successes of the
   rapidly growing band of rebel slaves against the Roman army between 73
   and 71 BC. The rebellion was finally crushed in 71 BC through the
   concentrated military effort of a single commander, Marcus Licinius
   Crassus, although the rebellion continued to have indirect effects on
   Roman politics for years to come.

   Between 73 and 71 BC, a band of escaped slaves — originally a small
   cadre of about 70 escaped gladiators which grew into a band of over
   120,000 men, women and children — wandered throughout and raided the
   Roman province of Italia with relative impunity under the guidance of
   several leaders, including the famous gladiator-general Spartacus. The
   able-bodied adults of this band were a surprisingly effective armed
   force that repeatedly showed they could withstand the Roman military,
   from the local Campanian patrols, to the Roman militia, and to trained
   Roman legions under consular command. Plutarch described the actions of
   the slaves as an attempt by Roman slaves to escape their masters and
   flee through Cisalpine Gaul, while Appian and Florus depicted the
   revolt as a civil war in which the slaves waged a campaign to capture
   the city of Rome itself.

   The Roman Senate's growing alarm about the continued military successes
   of this band, and about their depredations against Roman towns and the
   countryside, eventually led to Rome's fielding of an army of eight
   legions under the harsh but effective leadership of Marcus Licinius
   Crassus. The war ended in 71 BC when, after a long and bitter fighting
   retreat before the legions of Crassus, and the realization that the
   legions of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus and Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus
   were moving in to entrap them, the armies of Spartacus launched their
   full strength against Crassus' legions and were utterly destroyed.

   While Spartacus' war is noteworthy in its own right, the Third Servile
   War was significant to the broader history of ancient Rome mostly in
   its effect on the careers of Pompey and Crassus. The two generals used
   their success in putting down the rebellion to further their political
   careers, using their public acclaim and the implied threat of their
   legions to sway the consular elections of 70 BC in their favour. Their
   actions as Consuls greatly furthered the subversion of Roman political
   institutions and contributed to the eventual transition of the Roman
   Republic into the Roman Empire.

Slavery in the Roman republic

   Through varying degrees throughout Roman history, the existence of a
   pool of inexpensive labor in the form of slaves was an important factor
   in the economy. Slaves were acquired for the Roman workforce through a
   variety of means, including purchase from foreign merchants and the
   enslavement of foreign populations through military conquest. With
   Rome's heavy involvement in wars of conquest in the first and second
   centuries BC, tens if not hundreds of thousands of slaves at a time
   were imported into the Roman economy. While there was limited use for
   slaves as servants, craftsmen, and personal attendants, vast numbers of
   slaves worked in mines and on the agricultural lands of Sicily and
   southern Italia.

   For the most part, slaves were treated harshly and oppressively during
   the Roman republican period. Under Republican law, a slave was not
   considered a person, but property. Owners could abuse, injure or even
   kill their own slaves without legal consequence. While there were many
   grades and types of slaves, the lowest — and most numerous — grades who
   worked in the fields and mines were subject to a life of hard physical
   labor.

   This high concentration and oppressive treatment of the slave
   population led to rebellions. In 135 BC and 104 BC, the First and
   Second Servile Wars, respectively, erupted in Sicily, where small bands
   of rebels found tens of thousands of willing followers wishing to
   escape the oppressive life of a Roman slave. While these were
   considered serious civil disturbances by the Roman Senate, taking years
   and direct military intervention to quell, they were never considered a
   serious threat to the Republic. The Roman heartland of Italia had never
   seen a slave uprising, nor had slaves ever been seen as a potential
   threat to the city of Rome. This would all change with the Third
   Servile War.

The rebellion begins (73 BC)

The Capuan revolt

   The Gladiator Mosaic at the Galleria Borghese
   Enlarge
   The Gladiator Mosaic at the Galleria Borghese

   In the Roman Republic of the first century BC, gladiatorial games were
   one of the more popular forms of entertainment. In order to supply
   gladiators for the contests, several training schools, or ludi, were
   established throughout Italia. In these schools, prisoners of war and
   condemned criminals — who were considered slaves — were taught the
   skills required to fight to the death in gladiatorial games. In 73 BC,
   a group of some 200 gladiators in the Capuan school owned by Lentulus
   Batiatus plotted an escape. When their plot was betrayed, a force of
   about 70 men seized implements from the kitchen ("choppers and spits"),
   fought their way free from the school, and seized several wagons of
   gladiatorial weapons and armor.

   Once free, the escaped gladiators chose leaders from their number,
   selecting two Gallic slaves — Crixus and Oenomaus — and Spartacus, who
   was said either to be a Thracian auxiliary from the Roman legions later
   condemned to slavery, or a captive taken by the legions. There is some
   question as to Spartacus's nationality, however, as "Thraces" were a
   type of gladiator in Rome.

   These escaped slaves were able to defeat a small force of troops sent
   after them from Capua, and equip themselves with captured military
   equipment as well as their gladiatorial weapons. Sources are somewhat
   contradictory on the order of events immediately following the escape,
   but they generally agree that this band of escaped gladiators plundered
   the region surrounding Capua, recruited many other slaves into their
   ranks, and eventually retired to a more defensible position on Mount
   Vesuvius.

Defeat of the praetorian armies

   Initial movements of Roman and Slave forces from the Capuan revolt up
   to and including the winter of 73 BC.
   Enlarge
   Initial movements of Roman and Slave forces from the Capuan revolt up
   to and including the winter of 73 BC.

   As the revolt and raids were occurring in Campania — which was a
   vacation region of the rich and influential in Rome, and the location
   of many estates — the revolt quickly came to the attention of Roman
   authorities. It took Rome some time to realize the scale of the
   problem, viewing the slave revolt as more of a major crime wave than as
   an armed rebellion.

   However, in 73 BC, Rome dispatched military force under praetorian
   authority to put down the rebellion. A Roman praetor, Gaius Claudius
   Glaber, gathered a force of 3,000 men, not as legions, but as a militia
   "picked up in haste and at random, for the Romans did not consider this
   a war yet, but a raid, something like an attack of robbery." Glaber's
   forces besieged the slaves on Mount Vesuvius, blocking the only known
   way down the mountain. With the slaves thus contained, Glaber was
   content to wait until starvation forced the slaves to surrender.

   While the slaves lacked military training, Spartacus' forces displayed
   ingenuity in their use of available local materials, and in their use
   of clever, unorthodox tactics when facing the disciplined Roman armies.
   In response to Glaber's siege, Spartacus' men made ropes and ladders
   from vines and trees growing on the slopes of Vesuvius and used them to
   rappel down the cliffs on the side of the mountain opposite Glaber's
   forces. They moved around the base of Vesuvius, outflanked the army,
   and annihilated Glaber's men.

   A second expedition, under the praetor Publius Varinius, was then
   dispatched against Spartacus. For some reason, Varinius seems to have
   split his forces under the command of his subordinates Furius and
   Cossinius. Plutarch mentions that Furius commanded some 2,000 men, but
   neither the strength of the remaining forces, nor whether the
   expedition was composed of militia or legions, appears to be known.
   These forces were also defeated by the army of escaped slaves:
   Cossinius was killed, Varinius was nearly captured, and the equipment
   of the armies was seized by the slaves. With these successes, more and
   more slaves flocked to the Spartacan forces, as did "many of the
   herdsmen and shepherds of the region", swelling their ranks to some
   70,000. The rebel slaves spent the winter of 73 BC arming and equipping
   their new recruits, and expanding their raiding territory to include
   the towns of Nola, Nuceria, Thurii and Metapontum.

   The victories of the rebel slaves did not come without a cost. At some
   time during these events, or possibly during one of the winter raids in
   late 73 BC, leader Oenomaus was lost — presumably in battle — and is
   not mentioned further in the histories.

Motivation and leadership of the escaped slaves

   Spartacus, by Denis Foyatier, c. 1830, displayed at the Louvre. An
   example of a modern heroic depiction of Spartacus.
   Enlarge
   Spartacus, by Denis Foyatier, c. 1830, displayed at the Louvre. An
   example of a modern heroic depiction of Spartacus.

   By the end of 73 BC, Spartacus and Crixus were in command of a large
   group of armed men with a proven ability to withstand Roman armies.
   What they intended to do with this force is somewhat difficult for
   modern readers to determine. Since the Third Servile War was ultimately
   an unsuccessful rebellion, no firsthand account of the slaves' motives
   and goals exists, and historians writing about the war propose
   contradictory theories.

   Many popular modern accounts of the war claim that there was a
   factional split in the escaped slaves between those under Spartacus,
   who wished to escape over the Alps to freedom, and those under Crixus,
   who wished to stay in southern Italia to continue raiding and
   plundering. This appears to be an interpretation of events based on the
   following: the regions that Florus lists as being raided by the slaves
   include Thurii and Metapontum, which are geographically distant from
   Nola and Nuceria. This indicates the existence of two groups: Lucius
   Gellius Publicola eventually attacked Crixus and a group of some 30,000
   followers who are described as being separate from the main group under
   Spartacus; Plutarch describes the desire of some of the escaped slaves
   to plunder Italia, rather than escape over the Alps. While this
   factional split is not contradicted by classical sources, there does
   not seem to be any direct evidence to support it.

   Fictional accounts — such as Stanley Kubrick's 1960 film Spartacus —
   sometimes portray Spartacus as an ancient Roman freedom fighter,
   struggling to change a corrupt Roman society and to end the Roman
   institution of slavery. Similarly, this is not contradicted by
   classical historians, but no historical account mentions that the goal
   of the rebel slaves was to end slavery in the Republic, nor do any of
   Spartacus' actions seem specifically aimed at ending slavery.

   Even classical historians, who were writing only years after the events
   themselves, seem to be divided as to what the motives of Spartacus
   were. Appian and Florus write that he intended to march on Rome itself
   — although this may have been no more than a reflection of Roman fears.
   If Spartacus did intend to march on Rome, it was a goal he must have
   later abandoned. Plutarch writes that Spartacus merely wished to escape
   northwards into Cisalpine Gaul and disperse his men back to their
   homes.

   It is not certain that the slaves were a homogeneous group under the
   leadership of Spartacus. While this is the unspoken assumption of the
   Roman historians, this may be the Romans projecting their own
   hierarchical view of military power and responsibility on the ad hoc
   organization of the slaves. Certainly other slave leaders are mentioned
   — Crixus, Oenomaus, Gannicus, and Castus — and we cannot tell from the
   historical evidence whether they were aides, subordinates, or even
   equals leading groups of their own and travelling in convoy with
   Spartacus' people.

Defeat of the consular armies (72 BC)

   In the spring of 72 BC, the escaped slaves left their winter
   encampments and began to move northwards towards Cisalpine Gaul.

   The Senate, alarmed by the size of the revolt and the defeat of the
   praetorian armies of Glaber and Varinius, dispatched a pair of consular
   legions under the command of Lucius Gellius Publicola and Gnaeus
   Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus. Initially, the consular armies were
   successful. Gellius engaged a group of about 30,000 slaves, under
   command of Crixus, near Mount Garganus and killed two -thirds of the
   rebels, including Crixus himself.

   At this point in the history, there is a divergence in the classical
   sources as to the course of events which cannot be reconciled until the
   entry of Marcus Licinius Crassus into the war. The two most
   comprehensive (extant) histories of the war by Appian and Plutarch
   detail very different events. However, neither accounts directly
   contradicts the other, but simply reports different events, ignoring
   some events in the other account, and reporting events that are unique
   to that account.

Appian's history

   The events of 72 BC, according to Appian's version of events.
   Enlarge
   The events of 72 BC, according to Appian's version of events.

   According to Appian, the battle between Gellius' legions and Crixus'
   men near Mount Garganus was the beginning of a long and complex series
   of military maneuvers that almost resulted in the Spartacan forces
   directly assaulting the city of Rome itself.

   After his victory over Crixus, Gellius moved northwards, following the
   main group of slaves under Spartacus who were heading for Cisalpine
   Gaul. The army of Lentulus was deployed to bar Spartacus' path, and the
   consuls hoped to trap the rebel slaves between them. Spartacus' army
   met Lentulus' legion, defeated it, turned, and destroyed Gellius' army,
   forcing the Roman legions to retreat in disarray. Appian claims that
   Spartacus executed some 300 captured Roman soldiers to avenge the death
   of Crixus, forcing them to fight each other to the death as gladiators.
   Following this victory, Spartacus pushed northwards with his followers
   (some 120,000) as fast as he could travel, "having burned all his
   useless material, killed all his prisoners, and butchered his
   pack-animals in order to expedite his movement".

   The defeated consular armies fell back to Rome to regroup while
   Spartacus' followers moved northward. The consuls again engaged
   Spartacus somewhere in the Picenum region, and once again were
   defeated.

   Appian claims that at this point Spartacus changed his intention of
   marching on Rome — implying this was Spartacus' goal following the
   confrontation in Picenum — as "he did not consider himself ready as yet
   for that kind of a fight, as his whole force was not suitably armed,
   for no city had joined him, but only slaves, deserters, and riff-raff",
   and decided to withdraw into southern Italia once again. They seized
   the town of Thurii and the surrounding countryside, arming themselves,
   raiding the surrounding territories, trading plunder with merchants for
   bronze and iron (with which to manufacture more arms), and clashing
   occasionally with Roman forces which were invariably defeated.

Plutarch's history

   The events of 72 BC, according to Plutarch's version of events.
   Enlarge
   The events of 72 BC, according to Plutarch's version of events.

   Plutarch's description of events differs significantly from that of
   Appian's.

   According to Plutarch, after the battle between Gellius' legion and
   Crixus men (whom Plutarch describes as "Germans") near Mount Garganus,
   Spartacus' men engaged the legion commanded by Lentulus, defeated them,
   seized their supplies and equipment, and pushed directly into northern
   Italia. After this defeat, both consuls were relieved of command of
   their armies by the Roman Senate and recalled to Rome. Plutarch does
   not mention Spartacus engaging Gellius' legion at all, nor of Spartacus
   facing the combined consular legions in Picenum.

   Plutarch then goes on to detail a conflict not mentioned in Appian's
   history. According to Plutarch, Spartacus' army continued northwards to
   the region around Mutina (modern Modena). There, a Roman army of some
   10,000 soldiers, led by the governor of Cisalpine Gaul, Gaius Cassius
   Longinus attempted to bar Spartacus' progress and were also defeated.

   Plutarch makes no further mention of events until the initial
   confrontation between Marcus Licinius Crassus and Spartacus in the
   spring of 71 BC, omitting the march on Rome and the retreat to Thurii
   described by Appian. However, as Plutarch describes Crassus forcing
   Spartacus' followers to retreat southwards from Picenum, one might
   infer that the rebel slaves approached Picenum from the south in early
   71 BC, implying that they withdrew southwards from Mutina to winter in
   southern or central Italia.

   Why they might do so, when there was apparently no reason for them not
   to escape over the Alps — Spartacus' goal according to Plutarch — is
   not explained.

The war under Crassus (71 BC)

   The events of early 71 BC. Marcus Licinius Crassus takes command of the
   Roman legions, confronts Spartacus, and forces the rebel slaves to
   retreat through Lucania to the straits near Messina. Plutarch claims
   this occurred in the Picenum region, while Appian places the initial
   battles between Crassus and Spartacus in the Samnium region.
   Enlarge
   The events of early 71 BC. Marcus Licinius Crassus takes command of the
   Roman legions, confronts Spartacus, and forces the rebel slaves to
   retreat through Lucania to the straits near Messina. Plutarch claims
   this occurred in the Picenum region, while Appian places the initial
   battles between Crassus and Spartacus in the Samnium region.

   Despite the contradictions in the classical sources regarding the
   events of 72 BC, there seems to be general agreement that Spartacus and
   his followers were in the south of Italia in early 71 BC.

Crassus takes command of the legions

   The Senate, now alarmed at the apparently unstoppable rebellion
   occurring within Italia, gave the task of putting down the rebellion to
   Marcus Licinius Crassus. Crassus had been a praetor in 73 BC, and
   although he was known for his political connections and family, he had
   no reputation as a military commander.

   He was assigned six new legions in addition to the two formerly
   consular legions of Gellius and Lentulus, giving him an army of some
   40,000-50,000 trained Roman soldiers. Crassus treated his legions with
   harsh, even brutal, discipline, reviving the punishment of unit
   decimation within his army. Appian is uncertain whether he decimated
   the two consular legions for cowardice when he was appointed their
   commander, or whether he had his entire army decimated for a later
   defeat (an event in which up to 4,000 legionaries would have been
   executed). Plutarch only mentions the decimation of 50 legionaries of
   one cohort as punishment after Mummius' defeat in the first
   confrontation between Crassus and Spartacus. Regardless of what
   actually occurred, Crassus' treatment of his legions proved that "he
   was more dangerous to them than the enemy", and spurred them on to
   victory rather than running the risk of displeasing their commander.

Crassus and Spartacus

   When the forces of Spartacus moved northwards once again, Crassus
   deployed six of his legions on the borders of the region (Plutarch
   claims the initial battle between Crassus' legions and Spartacus'
   followers occurred near the Picenum region, Appian claims it occurred
   near the Samnium region), and detached two legions under his legate,
   Mummius, to maneuver behind Spartacus, but gave them orders not to
   engage the rebels. When an opportunity presented itself, Mummius
   disobeyed, attacked the Spartacan forces, and was subsequently routed.
   Despite this initial loss, Crassus' engaged Spartacus and defeated him,
   killing some 6,000 of the rebels.

   The tide seemed to have turned in the war. Crassus' legions were
   victorious in several engagements, killing thousands of the rebel
   slaves, and forcing Spartacus to retreat south through Lucania to the
   straits near Messina. According to Plutarch, Spartacus made a bargain
   with Cilician pirates to transport him and some 2,000 of his men to
   Sicily, where he intended to incite a slave revolt there and gather
   reinforcements. However, he was betrayed by the pirates, who took
   payment and then abandoned the rebel slaves. Minor sources mention that
   there were some attempts at raft and shipbuilding by the rebels as a
   means to escape, but that Crassus took unspecified measures to ensure
   the rebels could not cross to Sicily, and their efforts were abandoned.

   Spartacus' forces then retreated towards Rhegium. Crassus' legions
   followed and upon arrival built fortifications across the isthmus at
   Rhegium, despite harassing raids from the rebel slaves. The rebels were
   under siege and cut off from their supplies.

Reinforcement legions arrive; the end of the war

   The last events of the war in 71 BC, where the army of Spartacus broke
   the siege by Crassus' legions and retreated toward the mountains near
   Petelia. Shows the initial skirmishes between elements of the two
   sides, the turn-about of the Spartacan forces for the final
   confrontation. Note the legions of Pompey moving in from the north to
   capture survivors.
   Enlarge
   The last events of the war in 71 BC, where the army of Spartacus broke
   the siege by Crassus' legions and retreated toward the mountains near
   Petelia. Shows the initial skirmishes between elements of the two
   sides, the turn-about of the Spartacan forces for the final
   confrontation. Note the legions of Pompey moving in from the north to
   capture survivors.

   At this time, the legions of Pompey were returning to Italia, having
   put down the rebellion of Quintus Sertorius in Hispania.

   Sources disagree on whether Crassus had requested reinforcements, or
   whether the Senate simply took advantage of Pompey's return to Italia,
   but Pompey was ordered to bypass Rome and head south to aid Crassus.
   The Senate also sent reinforcements under the command of "Lucullus",
   mistakenly thought by Appian to be Lucius Licinius Lucullus, commander
   of the forces engaged in the Third Mithridatic War at the time, but who
   appears to have been the proconsul of Macedonia Marcus Terentius Varro
   Lucullus, the former's younger brother. With Pompey's legions marching
   out of the north, and Lucullus' troops landing in Brundisium, Crassus
   realized that if he did not put down the slave revolt quickly, credit
   for the war would go to the general who arrived with reinforcements,
   and thus he spurred his legions on to end the conflict quickly.

   Hearing of the approach of Pompey, Spartacus attempted to negotiate
   with Crassus to bring the conflict to a close before Roman
   reinforcements arrived. When Crassus refused, a portion of Spartacus'
   forces broke out of confinement and fled toward the mountains west of
   Petelia (modern Strongoli) in Bruttium, with Crassus' legions in
   pursuit. The legions managed to catch a portion of the rebels – under
   the command of Gannicus and Castus – separated from the main army,
   killing 12,300. However, Crassus' legions also suffered losses, as some
   of the army of escaping slaves turned to meet the Roman forces under
   the command of a cavalry officer named Lucius Quinctius and the
   quaestor Gnaeus Tremellius Scrofa, routing them. The rebel slaves were
   not, however, a professional army, and had reached their limit. They
   were unwilling to flee any further, and groups of men were breaking
   away from the main force to independently attack the oncoming legions
   of Crassus. With discipline breaking down, Spartacus turned his forces
   around and brought his entire strength to bear on the oncoming legions.
   In this last stand, Spartacus' forces were finally routed completely,
   with the vast majority of them being killed on the battlefield. The
   eventual fate of Spartacus himself is unknown, as his body was never
   found, but he is accounted by historians to have perished in battle
   along with his men.

Aftermath

   The Fall of Spartacus.
   Enlarge
   The Fall of Spartacus.

   The rebellion of the Third Servile War had been annihilated by Crassus.

   Pompey's forces did not directly engage Spartacus' forces at any time,
   but his legions moving in from the north were able to capture some
   5,000 rebels fleeing the battle, "all of whom he slew". Because of
   this, Pompey sent a dispatch to the Senate, saying that while Crassus
   certainly had conquered the slaves in open battle, he himself had ended
   the war, thus claiming a large portion of the credit and earning the
   enmity of Crassus.

   While most of the rebel slaves had been killed on the battlefield, some
   6,000 survivors had been captured by the legions of Crassus. All 6,000
   were crucified along the road between Rome and Capua.

   Pompey and Crassus reaped political benefit for having put down the
   rebellion. Both Crassus and Pompey returned to Rome with their legions
   and refused to disband them, instead encamping them outside Rome. Both
   men stood for the consulship of 70 BC, even though Pompey was
   ineligible to do so because of his age, nor had he ever served as
   praetor or quaestor. Nonetheless, both men were elected consul for 70
   BC, partly due to the implied threat of their armed legions encamped
   outside the city.

   The effects of the Third Servile War on the Roman attitudes towards
   slavery, and the institution of slavery in Rome, are harder to
   determine. Certainly the revolt had shaken the Roman people, who "out
   of sheer fear seem to have begun to treat their slaves less harshly
   than before." The wealthy owners of the latifundia began to reduce the
   number of agricultural slaves, opting to employ the large pool of
   formerly dispossessed freemen in sharecropping arrangements. With the
   end of Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars in 52 BC, the major Roman wars of
   conquest would cease until the reign of emperor Trajan (reigned 98-117
   AD), and with them the supply of plentiful and inexpensive slaves
   through military conquest, further promoting the use of freemen
   laborers in agricultural estates.

   The legal status and rights of the Roman slave also began to change.
   During the time of emperor Claudius (reigned 41-54 AD), a constitution
   was enacted which made the killing of an old or infirm slave an act of
   murder, and decreed that if such slaves were abandoned by their owners,
   they became freedmen. Under Antoninus Pius (reigned 138-161 AD), the
   legal rights of slaves were further extended, holding owners
   responsible for the killing of slaves, forcing the sale of slaves when
   it could be shown that they were being mistreated, and providing a
   (theoretically) neutral third party authority to which a slave could
   appeal. While these legal changes occurred much too late to be direct
   results of the Third Servile War, they represent the legal codification
   of changes in the Roman attitude toward slaves which would have been
   evolving for decades.

   It is difficult to determine the extent to which the events of this war
   contributed to the changes in the use and legal rights of Roman slaves.
   It seems that the end of the Servile Wars coincided with the end of the
   period of most prominent use of slaves in Rome, and the beginning of a
   new perception of the slave within Roman society and law. The Third
   Servile War was the last of the Servile Wars, and Rome would not see
   another slave uprising of this type again.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Servile_War"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
