Slavery and Rebellion in the Roman World, 140-70 BC

In the 70 years between 140 B.C. and 70 B.C., Rome was confronted with three major slave rebellions. Two of the uprisings occurred in the province of Sicily. The third and most memorable, led by the gladiator Spartacus, took place in Italy and posed a serious threat to the city of Rome. Bradley's work carefully describes and analyzes these rebellions in their respective contexts. In addition to examining the immediate historical context of each rebellion and the relationship of the uprisings to the overall development of Roman slavery in the second century, B.C., Bradley offers an original analysis of the rebellions against the broad background of resistance in modern slave societies. Emphasizing the material conditions that led slaves to resist and the practical means by which their resistance was maintained, Bradley demonstrates the relationship of the Roman slave wars to other types of slave resistance.