Murdered by slaves
In any slave system, the owners fear being murdered by their slaves. Ancient Rome was no exception. The great slave revolts lead by Eunus and Spartacus that rocked Sicily and Italy during the last century of the Republic made the Romans even more apprehensive about their slaves. The unspeakable did happen on more than one occasion, driving home the reality of the potential danger of keeping slaves. An anxious letter by Pliny the Younger gives a rare personal glimpse at the fear such incidents could cause.
Particularly interesting is Pliny's lack of sympathy for the slaves and their lot - in fact, he speaks of them more as brutish animals who deserved the punishment they got. The cruel treatment they had received from their master, a freedman himself who had risen to prominence, is given only scant note and, in Pliny's mind, appears to be no justification for what happened. The interesting assessment is made by a man who shows himself elsewhere to be an intelligent, sensitive and understanding individual.
Pliny writes:
This horrible affair demands more publicity than a letter - Larcius Macedo, a senator and ex-praetor, has fallen a victim to his own slaves. Admittedly he was a cruel and overbearing master, too ready to forget that his father had been a slave, or perhaps too keenly conscious of it. He was taking a bath in his house at Formiae [in Latium] when suddenly he found himself surrounded; one slave seized him by the throat while the others struck his face and hit him in the chest and stomach and - shocking to say - in his private parts. When they thought he was dead they threw him on to the hot pavement, to make sure he was still not alive. Whether unconscious or feigning to be so, he lay there motionless, thus making them believe he was quite dead. Only then was he carried out, as if he had fainted with the heat, and received by his slaves who had remained faithful, while his concubines ran up, screaming frantically. Roused by their cries and revived by the cooler air he opened his eyes and made some movement to show that he was alive, it being now safe to do so. The guilty slaves fled, but most of them have been arrested and a search is being made for the others. Macedo was brought back to life with difficulty, but only for a few days; at least he died with the satisfaction of having revenged himself, for he lived to see the same punishment meted out as for murder. There you see the dangers, outrages, and insults to which we are exposed. No master can feel safe because he is kind and considerate; for it is their brutality, not their reasoning capacity, which leads slaves to murder their masters.
Letters 3.14