Spartacus was an entertaining series while it was on the air. And it contained a simple but profound message: injustice doesn’t pay in the long run.

The show was–loosely I’m sure– based on the slave revolt in ancient Rome. Spartacus was minding his business in Thrace when the Romans came by asking them to fight a common enemy. When their commander, Claudius Glaber instead used the men to fight a different enemy to gain greater glory for himself, Spartacus led a mutiny. When it was put down, Spartacus’ village was burned down, his wife was sold into slavery, and he was sentenced to die.

Surviving his execution, Spartacus became a slave to a gladiatorial trainer. He and his fellow gladiators lived in cages. Their sole purpose in life was to amuse Roman crowds in brutal spectacle where someone invariably died. It already wasn’t much of an existence, but then his master promised to buy his wife, only to have her killed lest she distract him from his gladiatorial pursuits.

Unsurprisingly, he came to hate the Roman system enough to revolt. He started by killing the master who had treated him so horribly and convincing his fellow slaves to join him. Across two seasons, he pillaged, killed, and humiliated his Roman enemies until subdued in a costly battle. And it’s wasn’t only slaveholders affected. I suspect many of the soldiers who fought him and the civilians killed by enraged followers did not have slaves. Slavery may have brought the Romans free labor and entertainment. But then it brought them destruction.

You’d think would-be slave owners throughout history would have learned. You’d think the Romans would have said “this whole slavery thing hasn’t turned out that well for us, maybe we should give it up. We could even pay people a fair salary to compete as gladiators and keep all the spectacle.” You’d think plantation owners in the antebellum era would have said “slavery sure brought those Romans a lot of pain. Being out here in this heat is no fun, but maybe we should do our own work.”

But no. The lure of cheap labor was too strong. People weren’t willing to pay for their wealth with honest work. So amid slave revolts, some paid with their lives. When people are robbed of hope and dignity like Spartacus was, they will consider doing desperate things like, I don’t know, stirring up a bloody rebellion.

Oppression doesn’t just hurt the oppressed. It eventually results in ruinous consequences for the oppressors. And everyone left in their wake.