Slavery and Rebellion in Second-Century BC Sicily: From Bellum Servile to Sicilia Capta

In second-century BCE Sicily, two major rebellions shook a society in which Roman-backed political arrangements and slavery were deeply entwined. The conflicts are usually remembered as the Sicilian Slave Wars, a name inherited alongside narratives written from the perspective of slave-owning elites.

Literary accounts and material evidence do not necessarily tell the same story. This study examines the rebellions from the rebels’ perspective and argues that wider social and economic grievances are essential to understanding what happened. Comparisons with uprisings in the United States, Brazil and the Caribbean also challenge the categories through which the Sicilian struggles have been described, both in antiquity and afterward.