Funny enough, feeding slaves well was usually not an issue. Roman slave rations, even by cheap-ass misers like Cato the Elder, are generally pretty sufficient, providing a good quantity of wheat, olive oil, salt, and wine. Fish sauce was also considered a basic necessity even for slaves. Romans believed diet was core to health, and keeping slaves healthy was thus an investment. On top of that, the Roman understanding of human psychology - that people, including slaves, are better motivated by ‘carrots’ than ‘sticks’ - often rears its head here as well to enable slaves access to better food (or the threat of better food being withheld) in exchange for ‘good behavior’ of one sort or another.

The change that made the Third Servile War the last was that they dismantled the ability of slaves to gather together and organize in large numbers. Once that was gone, the stomach of slaves for mass uprisings dried up. There is power, and bravery, in numbers and solidarity.

G-good thing there are no efforts to disrupt our ability to gather or organize these days… w-we live in a golden age of unions, right…?