[57]. The servile wars of Sicily assumed a far more important character, and resembled rather those civil commotions in states in which one division of the citizens carries on hostilities against the other; for the wealth of the islanders increasing rapidly after the expulsion of the Carthaginians, they purchased great multitudes of slaves, chiefly from the East, whom they employed in the usual drudgery, and treated with extraordinary rigour, branding them in the body like cattle:—Χαρακτῆρα ἐπέβαλλον καὶ στιγμὰς τοῖς σώμασιν. Diodor. Sicul. 34. ap. Phot. Biblioth. Cod. 244. p. 384. Bekk.
[58]. We may probably, however, form some conjecture respecting the injuries they endured from the description of the atrocities practised by the Sicilians against their slaves. These unhappy men were compelled, as history informs us, to forego even the common reward of labour, and, though they toiled incessantly for their owners, to provide for their daily subsistence by plunder and murder:—βαρέως δ᾽ αὐτοῖς κατά τε τὰς ὑπηρεσίας ἐχρῶντο, καὶ ἐπιμελείας παντελῶς ὀλίγης ἠξίουν ὅσα τε ἐντρέφεσθαι καὶ ὅσα ἐνδύσασθαι· ἐξ ὠν οἱ πλείους ἀπὸ λῃστείας τὸ ζῇν ἐπορίζοντο, καὶ μεστὰ φόνον ἦν ἅπαντα καθάπερ στρατευμάτων διεσπαρμένων τῶν λῃστῶν. Diodor. Sicul. ap. Phot. ubi supra.
[59]. They, as well as the Achæans, had a prison called Zetreion, where their slaves worked in chains. Etym. Mag. 411. 33.
[60]. The history of the servile revolt in Sicily offers numerous points of resemblance to that of Chios, though Eunus, the leader of the Sicilian slaves, by no means deserves, either for character or abilities, to be compared with Drimacos. Eunus was an impostor, who, by visions and pretended prophecies, excited the slaves to insurrection. He obtained credit for his predictions by concealing a bored walnut-shell, filled with some fiery substance, in his mouth, and then breathing forth sparks and flames like a chimera. His mind, however, was capable of ambition, for, among the other events which he foretold, he was careful to introduce the fact, that he was one day, by the decrees of heaven, to be a king. Diodor. Sicul. 34. Ap. Phot. Biblioth. Cod. 244. p. 384. Bekk. The contrivances by which he supported his pretensions to miraculous powers are thus described by Florus, iii. 19: Syrus quidam nomine Eunus (magnitudo claudium facit, ut meminerimus) fanatico furore simulato, dum Syriæ deæ comas, jactat ad libertatem et arma servos, quasi numinum imperio concitavit idquæ ut divinitus fieri probaret, in ore abdita nuce quam sulfure, et igne stipaveret, leniter inspirans flammam inter verba fundebat.
[61]. In illustration of the ancient practice of sealing storehouses and other places where valuable things were kept, we may cite the following anecdote from Diogenes Laertius. (iv. 8. 3.) Lacydes, who succeeded Arcesilaus as principal professor in the New Academy, having, as it would appear, a set of thievish domestics, was in the habit of carefully sealing the door of his storeroom; but, in order not to run any risk of losing the seal, he used, unobserved, as he thought, to slip it into the chamber through an aperture in the door. The slaves, however, diligently reconnoitering his movements, discovered the old gentleman’s secret, and visiting his stores as often as they thought proper, they escaped detection by sealing the door again, and placing through the hole the signet where he had left it.
[62]. The conduct of Eunus and his followers, when, immediately after their revolt, they took possession of the city of Euna, presented the most striking contrast with this moderation of the Chian slaves: they pillaged the houses, and, without distinction of age or sex, slaughtered the inhabitants, plucking the infants from the breasts, and dashing them to the ground. Over part of their atrocities the historian modestly drops a veil: Εἰς δὲ τὰς γυναῖκας observes he, οὐδ᾽ ἔστιν εἰπειν (καὶ τότε βλεπόντων τῶν ἀνδρῶν) ὅσα ἐνύβριζόν τε καὶ ἐνησέλγαινον, πολλοῦ αὐτοῖς πλήθους τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς πόλεως δούλων προστεθέντος οἱ καὶ κατὰ τῶν κυρίων πρότερον τὰ ἔσχατα ἐνδεικνύμενοι οὕτω πρὸς τὸν τῶν ἄλλων φόνον ετρέποντο. Diodor. Sicul. ap. Phot. Biblioth. p. 385.
[63]. The Romans, it must be owned, conducted the war against Eunus, who had adopted the style and title of a king, in a manner more worthy of the republic. The number of the insurgents amounted at one time to sixty thousand men, who, armed with axes, slings, stakes, and cooking-spits, defeated several armies, and carried on hostilities during upwards of three years. Pursuing them, however, without relaxation, the state prevailed at length, utterly crushed the insurrection, and carried Eunus a prisoner to Rome, where, according to Plutarch, he, like the dictator, Sylla, was devoured by vermin: Εἰ δὲ δεῖ καὶ των ἀπ´ οὐδενὸς μὲν χρηστοῦ γνωρίμων δ´ ἄλλως ἐπιμνησθῆναι, λέγεται τὸν ἄρξαντα τοῦ δουλικοῦ πολέμου περὶ Σικελίαν δραπέτην, Εὔνουν ὄνομα μετὰ τὴν ἄλωσιν εἰς Ῥώμην ἀγόμενον ὑπὸ φθειριάσεως ἀποθανεῖν. Vit. Syl. § 36. Cf. Diod. Sicul. 34. Ap. Phot. Biblioth. 386. The conclusion of the war by Perperna is thus related by Florus: Tandem Perperna imperatore supplicium de eis sumptum est. Hic enim victos et apud Eunam novissimè obsessos quum fame quasi pestilentia consumpsisset reliquias latronum compedibus catenis religavit, crucibusque punivit fuitque de servis ovatione contentus, ne dignitatem triumphi servili inscriptione violaret. iii. 19.
[64]. Nymphiodor. ap. Athen. vi. 88, sqq.
[65]. Herod. viii. 105.
[66]. Athen. vi. 91.