Athenion of Cilicia

Athenion was a man of ancient Cilicia who was a major figure in the Second Servile War in Sicily, and had a career similar to that of the Cilician Cleon.

Athenion had been a herdsman or leader of bandits (or both) in Cilicia, and was captured there and sold into slavery, and shipped off to Sicily.

After the war broke out on the eastern side of the island, led by the Syrian slave and ostensible prophet Salvius Tryphon, Athenion killed his own masters and led a slave rebellion of the 200 slaves on the farm he worked. Five days later, they had liberated 800 more slaves from nearby slavemasters, and his army ultimately grew to 10,000. Ancient sources call out that Athenion was an advanced strategic thinker, and did not unilaterally accept all western slaves into his army, and compelled many to keep at their former tasks, mostly farming, in order to insure the continuity of the army's supply chain. After a fruitless attack upon Lilybaeum, he joined Tryphon, who, under the influence of a suspicious jealousy, threw Athenion into prison initially, but afterwards released him.

Athenion and his armies tore through the forces of two Roman praetors, Gaius Servilius and Lucius Licinius Lucullus, and in the latter battle, the Battle of Scirthaea, Athenion was severely wounded.