He suppressed the first
rebels by treachery. But he was a weak man, and delayed so long in
attacking another body near Heraclea, that when he sent a lieutenant
to attack them with 600 men they were strong enough to beat him.
[Sidenote: Salvius elected king.] By this success they supplied
themselves with arms, and then elected Salvius as their king, who
found himself at the head of 20,000 infantry and 2,000 horse. With
these troops he attacked Morgantia, and, on the governor coming to
relieve it, turned on him and routed him; and by proclaiming that
anyone who threw down his arms should be spared, he got a fresh supply
for his men. [Sidenote: Athenion heads the slaves in the west.] Then
the slaves of the west rose near Lilybaeum, headed by Athenion, a
Cilician robber-captain before he was a slave, and a man of great
courage and capacity, who pretended to be a magician and was elected
king. [Sidenote: Salvius takes the name of Tryphon.] Salvius took the
name of Tryphon, a usurper of the Syrian throne in 149. Athenion,
deferring to his authority, became his general, and Triocala, supposed
to be near the modern Calata Bellotta, was their head-quarters. In
some respects this second slave revolt was a repetition of the first.
As the Cilician Cleon submitted to the impostor Eunous, who called
himself Antiochus, so now the Cilician Athenion submitted to the
impostor Salvius, who called himself Tryphon. [Sidenote: Lucullus sent
to Sicily, 103 B.C.] The outbreak had probably begun in 105, but it
was not till 103 that Lucullus, who had put down Vettius, was sent
to Sicily with 1,600 or 1,700 men. [Sidenote: Battle of Scirthaea.]
Tryphon, distrusting Athenion, had put him in prison. But he released
him now, and at Scirthaea a great battle was fought, in which 20,000
slaves were slain, and Athenion was left for dead. Lucullus, however,
delayed to attack Triocala, and did nothing more, unless he destroyed
his own military stores in order to injure his successor C. Servilius.
To say that if he did so, such mean treason could only happen in
a government where place depends on a popular vote, is a random
criticism, for, though nominally open to all, the consulship was
virtually closed, except to a few families, which retained now, as
they had always done, the high offices in their own hands, and, when
Marius forced this close circle, Metellus is said to have acted much
as Lucullus did.

Servilius was incapable. Athenion, who at Tryphon