So we’re doomed, and Bezos & Musk will have a childish spat over our dead bodies. Thanks for the crystal ball reading.
Comment on Revolting!
PugJesus@piefed.social 20 hours ago
Explanation: In the Third Servile War, a large group of slaves, led by one gladiator called “Spartacus”, participated in an uprising against the Roman Republic. As this was in Italy - considered safe territory at the time - Rome had no army garrisoned to confront the slave army, and so had several militia forces routed by the slave revolt before reinforcements could arrive.
Marcus Licinius Crassus, the richest man in Rome, raised several legions and defeated the slave army - which had become rather directionless since their initial escape, meandering up and down the Italian peninsula. The survivors - around 6,000 - were then crucified along the main roads of Italy. A gruesome fate.
Pompey Magnus, a political rival of Crassus, arrived shortly thereafter, mopping up a small force of slave stragglers, and then claimed all the glory for himself! How irritating! Crassus and Pompey would become enemies over this, and never fully reconcile.
WhoIzDisIz@lemmy.today 20 hours ago
PugJesus@piefed.social 20 hours ago
Holding out for a
heroCaesar.tbqf, Crassus, while an immense shithead, was far from the worst politician in Rome at the time, unfortunately. Crassus occasionally did align with reformist causes.
Also, if it makes you feel any better, Crassus supposedly ended up with a painful and humiliating death, having molten gold poured down his throat after being paraded as a prisoner by the Persians.
Also, it should be remembered that the Third Servile War was not over the issue of slavery as an institution - just a desire to change who was free and who was enslaved.
WhoIzDisIz@lemmy.today 19 hours ago
On that last bit, I’m not seeing much difference. It’s not like if the repressed won that they’d all just suddenly let bygones be bygones & let those currently at the top just live out their lives peacefully (as if those types of people even could.)
The more things change, the more they stay the same, & all that.
PugJesus@piefed.social 19 hours ago
While one should always remain wary of that happening, I would like to emphasize that philosophical (and thus ideological) thinking has come a long way since antiquity. Fighting for high principles - and seeing them carried through - is possible, and does still happen.
By lacking a robust philosophical framework with which to envision a society entirely without slavery, on the other hand, the slave revolts of antiquity were robbed of even the possibility of carrying forward such high ideals.
NotEasyBeingGreen@slrpnk.net 18 hours ago
Defeating a slave revolt didn’t result in much glory. No triumph (a kind of parade into the city to show off loot) for the general defeating slaves.
PugJesus@piefed.social 16 hours ago
It’s sometimes considered that Crassus could have gotten an ovation, should he have asked for one, but the combination of Pompey claiming credit and Pompey claiming the more prestigious triumph convinced him not to.