Origins
The uprising was mostly caused by great changes in the ownership of land in Sicily following the final expulsion of the Carthaginians during the Second Punic War. Speculators from Italy rushed into the island and bought up large tracts of land at a low price, or became the occupiers of estates which had belonged to Sicilians of the Carthaginian party and had been forfeited to Rome after the execution or flight of their owners.
The Sicilians of the Roman party also became rich out of the distress of their countrymen. An over-abundance of slaves caused them to be ill-fed by their masters, and they soon began to provide for themselves by robbery. The poorer Sicilians were the sufferers. Several decades of increasing tension finally broke out into war.
Read more about this topic: First Servile War
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