Nicomedes of Bithynia complained that he could not supply the levy because so many of his people had been captured and sold into slavery. In response, the Senate passed a law freeing all slaves that had been illegally taken from allied states. The proprae-tor of Sicily, Nerva, started to carry out the act of manumission. That obviously provoked slaves who were not originally from a client kingdom. Nerva was forced to back down and revoke the law after disgruntled landowners complained. The backlash to this swift reversal of policy was immediate as a number of slave revolts broke out.
Nerva attempted to suppress the revolt quickly and sent 600 troops from the local garrison to deal with them. His forces were outnumbered, and the slaves took advantage of the rough terrain to rout them. The slaves then chose one Salvius to be their leader. He was meant to have been skilled at divination and a flute player at performances for women. His army quickly grew in size as local slaves who worked as shepherds and
