Page:Cicero And The Fall Of The Roman Republic.djvu/68

50 error was that pirates swarmed over the Mediterranean. A half-hearted attempt was made to create a High Admiral in the person of Antonius, but he proved both corrupt and incapable; he plundered the subjects of Rome remorselessly, and was defeated by the pirates. After this, the Senate desisted from its efforts. Still nearer home, a serious danger befell the Romans in the slave insurrection headed by Spartacus. The great plantations worked by slave-labour, which were so convenient and profitable to the wealthy Nobles, filled Italy with men whose extreme misery made them ready for any desperate attempt; and bold bandit chiefs were reared for them in the gladiatorial training-schools, which for the purposes of the game were obliged to cherish in their victims habits of endurance, contempt of pain and death, and a sense of honour to be kept bright in spite of social degradation. Cicero has described how "gladiators, barbarians or criminals though they be, stand to the stroke; how those who have perfected themselves in their calling will rather take the wound than avoid it by foul play; how manifest it is that their first object is to do their duty to their master and to the public. Even when sinking under his wounds the man sends a message to his master to know whether he has any further orders; if his master thinks he has done enough, he should be glad to be allowed to lie down and die." Spartacus, a gladiator of this type, escaped from his barrack and soon collected round him an army recruited from among the slaves of