The Sicilian Revolt, also known as the Bellum Siculum, was a Roman civil war waged between 42 BC and 36 BC between the Second Triumvirate and the piratical republican Sextus Pompey on the island of Sicily and in the Mediterranean Sea. The war marked the end of any organized resistance to the Triumvirate, but it also resulted in the disintegration of the triumvirate due to disagreements between the triumvirs Gaius Octavius and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus over control of Sicily.
Background[]
The Battle of Munda in 45 BC marked Julius Caesar's decisive victory over the conservative and republican Optimates faction of Roman politics, with Caesar defeating the sons of Pompey the Great in the hardest-fought battle of his career. While Gnaeus Pompeius was slain in a "last stand" encounter at the Battle of Lauro, his brother Sextus Pompey fled to Sicily and raised another dissident army in Hispania.
Back in Rome, Caesar was assassinated by dissident senators on 15 March of 44 BC, and Caesar's killers, the self-proclaimed Liberatores, formed an alliance with Pompey in 43 BC as Caesar's adoptive son Gaius Octavius and right-hand man Mark Antony prepared to confront the conspirators and avenge Caesar's death. Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, who was commended by the Roman Senate for forging the alliance between the Liberatores and the Pompeians, went on to join Octavian and Antony in turning against the conspirators.
While the "Second Triumvirate" confronted and defeated Caesar's killers at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC, Pompey built his army and navy on Sicily, using the whole island as his base.
War[]
With Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus slain by their own hands at the Battle of Philippi, the triumvirs soon turned their attention to Sextus Pompey. In 40 BC, Sextus' admiral Menas seized control of Sardinia and Corsica from Octavian's Rome, and early attempts by the triumvirate to recapture Sicily were foiled by storms. Sextus' navy menaced the city of Rome's grain shipments, leading to riots in the starving capital. With Mark Antony in need of legions to fight off a Parthian invasion in the east, and with unrest growing in Rome, the triumvirs concluded the Pact of Misenum with Sextus Pompey, recognizing him as ruler of Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, and the Peloponnese.
However, this peace soon broke down, as Antony refused to hand over Achaea to Sextus, and Menas betrayed Sardinia to Octavian. Octavian's naval attack on Messina in 37 BC was unsuccessful, but Marcus Aemilius Lepidus raised 14 legions in North Africa to help defeat Pompey. Meanwhile, Octavian's general Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa built a navy at Lake Avernus from scratch. In 36 BC, while Agrippa's fleet defeated Pompey at Mylae (Milazzo), Lepidus and Octavian's general Titus Statilius Taurus invaded Sicily. At the Battle of Naulochus, Agrippa destroyed the remainder of Sextus' fleet, and Sextus fled to Asia Minor, where Antony had him executed without trial. Lepidus and his army ravaged the Sicilian countryside and captured several major cities; the Triumvirate's campaign on Sicily left 200,000 men dead and 1,000 warships destroyed.
Pompey's defeat marked the end of organized resistance to the Triumvirate. However, the Triumvirate soon fell apart after a jealous Lepidus - feeling that Octaviah was treating him as a subordinate, and claiming Sicily for himself - had Octavian thrown out of his camp after his soldiers hailed Octavian as Caesar's son. This incident led to Lepidus' legions deserting him for Octavian, and Octavian accused Lepidus of usurping power in Sicily and of attempting rebellion.
Lepidus was exiled to Circeii (San Felice Circeo) in southern Latium and stripped of all of his offices apart from Pontifex Maximus, while all of his provinces were seized by Octavian. Much of the ruined and empty farmlands of Sicily was redistributed to the triumvirs' legions, ensuring Sicily's loyalty and rejuvenation. 30,000 slaves were recaptured during the Sicilian campaign and returned to their masters, and 6,000 were impaled upon wooden stakes as an example.