The Slave-Owner Narratives of the ‘First Sicilian Slave War’: Eunus and His Rebels

This chapter critically examines the literary evidence for the First Sicilian 'Slave War', focusing on Diodorus Siculus' Bibliotheke through a narratological lens. It argues that the portrayal of rebel leaders Eunus and Kleon relies on Hellenistic stereotypes, questioning the reliability of these characterizations. The study demonstrates how key narrative moments are rhetorically constructed to emphasize the rebels' mistreatment by their masters, potentially obscuring other motivations. This analysis extends to other literary sources, including Florus, Livy, and Valerius Maximus. The chapter concludes by reconciling the disparate images of the war presented in literary and numismatic sources, proposing that they represent competing interpretations of the conflict: one as a cautionary tale about master-subordinate relations, and the other as the emergence of a new Hellenistic monarchy unrelated to servitude.