29 Facts About Eunus

Eunus was a Roman slave from Apamea in Syria who became the leader and king of the slave uprising during the First Servile War in the Roman province of Sicily.

Eunus rose to prominence in the movement through his reputation as a prophet and wonder-worker and ultimately declared himself king.

Eunus claimed to receive visions and communications from the goddess Atargatis, a prominent goddess in his homeland whom he identified with the Sicilian Demeter and the Roman Ceres.

Since Eunus was a defeated enemy of Rome, their accounts of both the slave uprising and its leader were likely biased.

Eunus likely based his details about Eunus' worship of Atargatis in his personal knowledge of the goddess's priests.

Eunus' life prior to slavery is not known, besides the fact that he was born in Apamea, Syria.

Eunus was probably trafficked by pirates to Sicily, eventually being sold by his previous owner Pytho to a Greek man of Enna named Antigenes.

Eunus was reputed in Enna to be an oracle who received visions from the gods when he was both awake and asleep.

Eunus was so well regarded for this that Antigenes would introduce him to his guests to divine their fortune.

Eunus blew fire from his mouth during his oracular trances, which he held as proof of his supernatural powers.

In one of these trances, Eunus claimed to have received a dream that he would one day become a king, and told his master Antigenes; Antigenes found this amusing and had him mention this at a banquet to guests.

Eunus approved, and prophesized the fall of Enna to the rebel slaves.

Eunus participated: Diodorus describes him standing in the front ranks of the assault, blowing fire from his mouth.

Eunus' ascension, following a military victory, mirrors the traditional acclamation of Hellenistic Kings by their armies.

Eunus soon raised an army of 6,000 slaves, took on bodyguards and personal servants, and formed a council of advisors.

Eunus called his followers, who numbered in the tens of thousands, Syrians, and had his wife named queen.

Diodorus reports scornfully that Eunus was chosen as king by the slaves not for his courage, but for his skill in wonderworking and role in initiating the revolt.

Eunus' name, meaning "the Benevolent one" apparently influenced the slaves into choosing him as their leader.

Eunus organized the slaves and seems to have attempted to build a state independent of Rome, a "Seleucid Kingdom of the West which would recall the great days of Antiochus III", minting his own coins, entrenching his rule, and evolving a command and supply structure capable of sustaining his forces in the field for long periods.

Eunus's armies took several other cities in central and eastern Sicily, including Tauromenium.

Eunus' kingdom was largely focused in eastern Sicily, and encompassed roughly half of the island at its greatest extent.

Eunus' success inspired slave revolts across the Mediterranean, and his army grew to number in the tens of thousands.

Eunus was successful in defeating Roman forces sent against him for several years through "strong and vigorous leadership".

Eunus fought his way out of the city with a bodyguard of 1,000, and eventually took refuge in a cavern with members of his court, where he was captured.

Eunus was sent to prison, where he died of illness before he could be punished.

Eunus' revolt was the first mass slave uprising in the Roman Republic, and, according to ancient sources, the largest of its kind in antiquity.

Eunus' revolt inspired slave uprisings in Rome and Italy, which later slave leaders, including Spartacus in the Third Servile War, were unable to replicate.

Eunus was held as an example of the threat slaves could pose to Roman society even in the times of the late Roman Empire.

Green concludes that it is ironic Eunus chose two traditionally counter-revolutionary systems, religion and kingship, as bases of his revolt, but that "The tragedy and moral of the whole episode is that no conceivable alternative existed".