Genocide in the Classical World

8/2/2019 Genocide in the Classical World

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OTHER BOOKS BY BEN KIERNAN BLOODP ea sa nt s a nd P o li ti cs i n K amp uc he a, 1942-1981 (coauthor)R ev ol utio n a nd I ts A fte rm ath in K am pu ch ea (coeditor)H ow P ol P ot C am e to P ow er: C olo nia lism , N atio na lism , a nd C om mu nism in

Cambodia, 1930-1975B ur ch ett : R ep or tin g t he O th er S id e o f t he W orld , 1939-1983 (editor)P o l P ot P la ns t he F ut ur e: C o nf id en ti al L ea de rs hi p D o cum en ts f rom D emo cr at ic

Kampuchea, 1976-1977 (coeditor)G en oc id e a nd D em oc ra cy in C am bo dia : T he K hm er R ou ge , th e U nite d N atio ns ,

a nd t he I nt er na ti on al C ommu ni ty (editor)T he P ol P ot R eg im e: R ac e, P ow er , a nd G en oc id e i n C am bo dia u nd er th e K hm er

Rouge, 1975-1979L e g en oc id e a u C amb od ge , 1975-1979: Race , i d eo lo g ic e t p ou v oi rC on flict a nd C ha nge in C am bo dia (editor)T he S pe ct er o f G e no ci de : M a ss M u rd er i n H is to ri ca l P er sp ec ti ve (coeditor)Ge no ci de a nd R es is ta nc e i n S ou th ea st A si a: D o cum en ta ti on , D e ni al , a nd J us ti ce

in C am bo dia a nd E ast T im or

ANDSOIL

A World History ofGenocide and Extermination

fromSparta to Darfur

Ben Kiernan

Yale University Press New Haven &London


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The author has made his best efforts to secure permiss ion for the use of allcopyrighted images and material. Any rightsholders with questions are encouraged

to contact the author care of YaleUnivers ity Press .Published with assistance from the Kingsley Trust Association Publica-

tion Fund established by the Scroll and Key Society of YaleCollege. Also publishedwith ass is tance from the Mary Cady 'Iew Memorial Fund.

Copyright (C ) 2007 by Ben Kiernan.All rights reserved.

This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illus trat ions , in any form(beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S.Copyright Law and

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The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition asfollows:Kiernan, Ben.

Blood and soil: a world his tory of genocide and exterminationfrom Sparta to Darfur / Ben Kiernan.

p.cm.Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 978-0-300-10098-3 (cloth: alk.paper)

1. Genocide 2.Crimes against humanity. 1. Title.Hv63227K542007304.6'63-dc22

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For Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore


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MAP 1. The ancient eastern Mediterranean

LIBYA

Jericho.~


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MAP 2. 'The ancient western. Mediterranean

CHAPTER 1

Classical Genocide andEarly Modern Memory

The cults of classical antiquity and of agriculture that emerged duringand after the Renaissance, along with new religious and racial think-ing, made key intellectual contributions to the outbreaks of genocidal

violence that accompanied Europe's early modern expansion. From the turnof the sixteenth century, as leaders and thinkers began to build new empires,they looked for lessons and inspiration from antiquity. At their classical height,Sparta and Rome stood out as martial models of successful longevity. Rome'sinternal decay and corruption by exotic luxuries also served as a cautionarytale, and the legendary annihilations of Troy and Carthage provided prece-dents for harsh treatment of new enemies. As empires grew, so did culturaland racial prejudices. Newly uncovered and occasionally inaccurate, ancientmodels and agricultural roles helped define conquered peoples and even jus-tify their destruction.

Writing of his native village of Ascra in central Greece in the eighth cen-tury B.C.E., the poet Hesiod composed two ofthe first texts that idealized agri-cultural "fair husbandry:' He also criticized commerce and set down notionsof race and gender hierarchy, but he lacked an obsession with domination orviolence that later appeared in the writings of some of his classical succes-sors. ' Celebrating "the rich-pastured earth" with advice to farmers in Worksa nd Da ys , Hesiod praised the "rich man who hastens to plough and plant andmanage his household:' In his view, the "wheat fields of the fortunate" requirea disciplined "sturdy man" to "drive a straight furrow" and make grain "nodtowards the earth with thickness:' Only to "straight-judging men" who "feast

43


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44 EARLY IMPERIAL EXPANSIONon the crops they tend" would "womenfolk bear children that resemble theirparents: ' Such farmers earned a lyr ica l pastora l l ife : "When the golden thist leis in flower, and the noisy cicada sitting in the tree pours down its clear songthick and fast, ... then goats are fattest and wine is best, women are mostlustful, but men are weakest/Yet "the trouble women cause" made them "a ca-lamity for men who live by bread:' Hesiod warned: "No arse-rigged womanmust deceive your wits with her wily twi tte rings when she pokes into your gra-nary." He compared men to productive bees, and women to "drones" who "pi lethe toi l of others into the ir own bel lies ,"?

His idea liza tion of the patriarchal rural hearth car ried a similar pre judiceagainst t rade and travel , While "prof it deludes men 's minds;' commerce takesthem from the land to brave "the violet-dark sea:' TIle prudent, happily self-suff icient farmer does no t "ply on ships;' but should sto re "al l your substanceunder lock inside the house:' "If now the desire to go to sea (disagreeable as itis) has hold of you;' then "come home again as quickly as you can." Only thegods could stop a farmer growing enough in one day "to provide you for awhole year without working. Soon you would stow your rudder" and live onthe fruit of "the grain-giving ploughland" 3

Hesiod combined his notions of the sturdy farmer, devious woman, anddeluded merchant with an emerging theory of race." Early Greeks took theNear Eastern myth of five successive "ages" or "races" of mankind, symbol--ized by different metals, and elaborated a concept of racial hierarchy and re-peated extinctions. Hesiod's first "race of men" lived in the golden age, when"the gra in -giving soi l bore i ts frui ts of i ts own accord in unstinted plenty; ' andthey "harvested the ir fields in contentment :' Their demise was not f ina l: "Sincethe ear th covered up that race, they have been divine spiri ts ." But the succeed-ing , "much infer ior" silver race was shor t-l ived and soon exterminated . Unableto "restrain themselves from crimes against each other;' they were "put awayby Zeus: ' Likewise, their successors, "aterrible and fierce race" of bronze, "werelaid low by their own hands, and they went to chill Hades' house of decay leav-ing no names ... dark death got them:' Next, in turn, the "demigods" were de-stroyed, as a t Troy, by "ugly war and fear ful fight ing :' Survivors l ive in the Islesof the Blessed where "the gra in-g iving soi l bears i ts honey-sweet fru its ." Last ,there came a fifth "race of iron:' which Hesiod lamented was his own. He pre-dicted: "Zeus will destroy this race of men also . ... Nor will father be like chil-dren nor children to father:' Among this race, Hesiod distinguished Greeksfrom "the black men; ' bu t he assigned no hierarchy or prej ud ice, 5

Possibly for the first time, Hesiod connected cultivation, gender, "race;' and

Classical Genocide and Early Modern Memory 45ex tinct ion. Yet he d isapproved of the aggression essen tial to genocide . He ad-v ised his brother to"hearken to Righ t" and "not promote violence . For v io lenceis bad for a lowly man; not even a man of worth can carry it eas ily . ... Right getsthe upper hand over v io lence in the end: ' People who "occupy themselves withviolence;' not its victims, are the ones whose "womenfolk do not give birth,and households decline:' Hesiod' s legendary "bronze age" men were prone to"acts of violence; ' in his view perhaps precisely because they were nonagricul-tu ra l, "no eaters of corn: ' Though he innovat ive ly l inked race and agr icu lture,he did not foster militarism. That was the role of a powerful state emerging tothe sou th of h is homeland, a state tha t in Hesiod's l ife time "committed hersel fto an almost pure ly agricu ltu ra l future. " Spar ta 's combination of agrarianismand violence against i ts enemies made i t a precursor of genocida l regimes.

Sparta and Its NeighborsAncient Sparta was a society without cities. It prohibited the circulation ofmoney and domestic t rade, careful ly control led external commerce, and madea "concerted effort to depreciate family life: ' 7 Based on an unpaid subjec t laborforce, it was a secretive, militaristic, expansionist state that practiced frequentexpulsions of fore igners and demonstra ted a capaci ty for mass murder ."

Sparta's "uniquely military society," in the words ofhistorian Paul Cartledge,was "a conquest- state; ' a "workshop of war." Its expansion, he wr ites , proba-bly began in the eighth century B.C.E., with the "conques t and annihilation ofAigys," a town in its own region, Lakonia, Fifty years later, Sparta launched aninvas ion of the neighboring region of Messenia. This conquest, completed ina 20-year war of pacification, doubled Lakonias population base and madeSparta the wealthiest state in Greece, facing no foreign invasions of its terri-tory for three and a half centuries." Sparta dominated and exploited Messeniaf rom 735 to 370 B.C.E. , repressing local revol ts like the seventh-century Sec-ond Messenian War, and another in the fifth century. Messenias populationmade up most of Sparta's Helots, i ts serf -l ike labor fo rce whose name denoted"capture:'ll In the sixth century, Sparta conquered Tegea and took control ofArcadia." Its defeat of Argos in 546 led to the subjugat ion, Herodotus wrote,o f"m05t of the Peloponnese," By500, Sparta dominated i ts ne ighbors and con-trolled the "Peloponnesian League:' It reached the zenith of its power with itskey role in the Greek victories over Persia in 480-479 and i ts defea t of Athensin the Peloponnesian War of 431-403.13

Sparta based its lasting power partly on ethnic domination, maintained


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by violence. A minor ity of Sparta's Helots were domest ic ser fs from Lakonia,but most were Messenian in origin and these, historian G.E. M. de Ste. Croixwrites, "never lost their consciousness of being Messenians," Thus, the Spartansfeared that could rebel at any time, as they did, with Thebanhelp, in 369, when they reestablished the polis of Messene.!" Sparta's rulingephors had long ritually declared war on the Helots, in what Cartledge callsa unique but "typically Spartan expression of politically calculated religiositydesigned to absolve in advance from ritual pollution any Spartan who killed aHelot:' 15 Thucydides descr ibes a case where the Spar tans had "ra ised up someHelot suppliants from the temple of Poseidon at Taenarus [in Lakonia], ledthem away and slain them." A great earthquake then struck Sparta, in c. 465.Over 20,000 people perished, and Lakonian Helots rose up alongside Mes-senians in a revolt that raged for much of the next decade."

One ethn ic conf lict led to another. Sparta ca lled on Athens for aid in figh t-ing the Helots. However, Thucydides tells us, when their combined assaulton the Helot stronghold at Mt. Ithome failed, the Spartans were not only dis -heartened, but worse: they were "apprehensive of the enterprising and revo lu-t ionary character of the Athenians, and further looking upon them as of alienextraction," the Spartans feared both pol it ica l cha llenge and a po tent ia l Helot -Athenian al liance . They sent the Athenians home. Insul ted , Athens a ll ied i tsel fwith Sparta's enemy Argos.The Messenian rebels on Mt. Ithome finally surren-dered, on Spar ta's condi tions: " that they should depar t from the Peloponneseunder safe conduct, and should never set foot in it again; anyone who mighthereafter be found there was to be the slave of his captor:' 17

War crimes compounded Sparta's domestic brutality and xenophobia. Fromthe ou tbreak of the Peloponnesian War, the Spartans "butchered as enemies al lwhom they took on the sea , whether a ll ies of Athens or neutra ls ;" Thucydideswrote. After Spar tan troops took Pla taea they co ld-bloodedly "massacred . ..not less than two hundred" of its men, "with twenty-five Athenians who hadshared in the Siege:' In 419, Spartans captured the town Hysiae, "killing allthe freemen tha t fel l into thei r hands." 18

The subjugated Messenian and Lakonian Helots made up Spar ta's agricu l-tural workforce. 'Their servitude released every Spartan "from productivelabour; ' freeing them for war." Bound to a plot o f land , the Helots per formedthis labor "under pain of instant death"; even Lakonian Helots were often ex-pendable. Ste. Croix writes that Spartans could the throats of their Helotsat will, provided only that they had gone through the legal formality of de-

C la ss ic al G en oc id e a nd E ar ly Moderr: Memory 47daring them 'enemies of the state,"?" adds that Helots were even"culled" youth as part of their TIle Krypteia, or Secret Ser-vice Brigade, a group of select assigned to forage for themselves inthe countryside, was specifically commissioned "to kill, dark:' any"whom they should accidental ly-on-purpose come upon:' Besides these ran-dom executions, some Spartan massacres of Helots were organized on a largescale. Around 423,Thucydides informs us, 2,000 Helots who had served cred-itably in army in the Peloponnesian War were invited to request emanci-pat ion . When they did, Spartan forces massacred them, "as i t was thought tha tthe first to claim their freedom would be the most high-spirited and the most

b 1"21apt to re e.The Perioikoi, a category of people practicing trade, fishing, and crafts

(particularly weaponry) in the service of the Spartans, from whom they weresegregated, occupied the rung of the social ladder above the Helo ts . 'These werethe town dwellers of Lakonia and Messenia, "free men but subjected to Spar-tan suzerainty and not endowed with citizen-rights at Sparta:' The LakonianPerioikoi were "indistinguishable ethnically, linguistically and culturally fromthe Spartans.":"

Finally, the citizens of Sparta formed an elite cadre. Only a tenth of thepopulation, fewer than 10,000 people, were full citizens. 'Ihese Spartiates, themale inhabitants of Sparta's four villages and the village of Arnyklai,lived and trained there but were barred from agricultural labor. "Their saleskill and their major preoccupation was warfare:' Spartiate citizenship de--pended on payment of common mess dues from the produce delivered to theSpar tia tes by the individual Helots permanen tly t ied to work ing the ir pr ivateplots. This system evolved to "perpetuate Spartan control over the Helots andPerioikoi wi thout abol ishing the wide and growing dispar it ies with in the c it i-zen body itself." Spartiates had to adopt "a and uniformTraditional "land-oriented values" the polity. Thucydides re-ported tha t Spar ta was no t "brought together in a single town . .. but composedof villages after the old fashion Greece:' Its "dosed and archaic" system con-t rasted with the Greek ci ty-states . Favoring autarchy, Spar ta discouraged bothtrade and towns and approached Hesiod's ideal of the self-sufficient, near-subsistence farmer, spurning the commercial producer and merchant. Lawsbarred Spart ia tes f rom engaging in t rade or "expendi tures fo r consumptionand display:' writes that Lakonia "was autarchic inessential foodstuffs" and abundant deposits of iron ore. Sparta decided


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EARLY IMPERIAL EXPANSION C la ss ic al G en oc id e a nd E ar ly M od er n M em or y 49around 550 not to import silver, and coined none until the third century, un-like other Greek states in their prime. Iron spits apparently figured in Spartanexchanges, but Cartledge finds the evidence "unclear whether they are mone-tary or purely functional:' Plutarch asserted that the early Spartan lawgiverLycurgus had "introduced a large iron coin too bulky to carry off in any greatquantity" Seneca wrote that Spartans had to pay debts "in gold or in leatherbearing an official stamp:' Coins, presumably permitted among the Perioikoi,"have been found on only two Perioikic sites:' 24 Sparta seems to havebeen oneof history's few states without a widely circulating currency.

Sparta was a collective under strict state control. In a "social compromisebetween rich and poor citizens;' the Spartiates or Homoioi (Peers) submittedto sta te interests . From the age of seven, they underwent "an austere publicupbringing (the agoge) followed by a common lifestyle of participation in themesses and in military training and service in the army: '25The state, not theindividual landowners, owned the Helots working the Spartiates' private land-holdings. Only the state could emancipate them. It enforced communal eatingand simple uniformity of attire and, according to Thucydides, "did most to as-similate the life ofthe rich to that ofthe common people" among the Spartiatecitizens. The state even prohibited individual names on tombstones."

Communal living facili ta ted state supervision. Xenophon tells us thatLycurgus had deliberately arranged for the Spartans to eat their meals in com-mon, "because he knew that when people are at home they behave in theirmost relaxed manner." A Spartiate who married before age 30 was not allowedto live with his wife: "[H]is infrequent home visits were supposed to be con-ducted under cover of darkness, in conspiratorial secrecy from his messmatesand even from the rest of his own household:' Fathers who had married after30 lived most of their lives communally and publicly with male peers, while"the Spartan boy left the parental household for good" at age seven."The links between Sparta's agrarian ideology, domestic repression, ethnicdomination, and expansionist violence highlight its role asa precursor ofgeno-cide. Agrarianism was common in Greek thought and influenced later civili-zations. Writing during the fourth century, Aristotle stated in Politics: "Hesiodwas right when he wrote, 'First and foremost a house and a wife and an ox forthe ploughing:" Aristotle preferred agriculturalists to "idle" pastoralists, andhe, too, denigrated trade and usury." An early pupil of his, writing in Oeco-nomica, termed cultivation the prime "natural" vocation that was "attendanton our goods and chattels:' For,"by Nature's appointment all creatures receive

sustenance from their mother, and man kind like the rest from the commonmother the earth:' Moreover, "Agriculture is the most honest of all such occu-pations; seeing that the wealth itbrings isnot derived from other men;' distin-gUishing it from trade and wage employment. Finally,"agriculturenotably to the making of a manly character." Cultivation, "unlike the mechani-cal arts:' Aristotle's pupil wrote, does not "weaken" men but inures them "to ex-posure and toil and invigorates them to face the perils of war. For the farmer'spossessions, unlike those of other men, lie outside the city's defenses."29His-torian Victor Davis Hanson argues that the "ethos of the land" representednear-religious feeling among the Greeks that yeoman agriculture, manual workon one's own farm, was morally uplifting:' The very term for landed property,ousia, also meant "essence:' Even in an urban polis like Athens, agrarian ideol-ogy was pervasive if not asinfluential as in Sparta; in an exceptional episode ofviolence that has been described asgenocide, Athenian forces murdered all themen they captured on the island of Melos,at the height of their city'smaritimepower during the Peloponnesian War.However, Hanson distinguishes "urban,democratic and imperialist Athens" from the "ten-acre farmer" who providedthe Greek hoplite infantry." Sparta's agrarianism produced a territorial, land-based expansion distinct from that of commercial, maritime Athens. The firstclassical genocide would combine agrarian ideology with both sea power andterritorial imperialism.

Rome and CarthageTIlemost famous incitement to genocide is probably Delenda est Carthage, or"Carthage must be destroyed!" the words of the second-century B.C.E. RomanofficialMarcus Porcius Cato, the Censor," Plutarch tells us that this injunctionended every speech Cato made in the Senate matter whatsoever;'153 to his death at 85 in 149. Scipio Nasica-vson-in-law of Scipio Africanus,conqueror of Hannibal in the Second Punic War (218-202 B.c.E.)-wouldalways reply: "Carthage should be allowed to exist:' Ultimately, Cato silencedsuch challenges." Rome decided on war "long before" it launched the ThirdPunic War in 149.33 Cato even denounced Carthage in front of its delegationto the Senate , in one ofhis last Senate speeches: "Who are the ones who haveoften violated the treaty? ... Who are the ones who have waged war mostcruelly? . .. Who arethe ones who ravaged Ita ly?The Carthaginians. Whoare the ones who demand forgiveness? The Carthaginians. See then how it


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50 EARLY IMPERIAL EXPANSIONwould suit them to get what they want:' The Senate forbade a response fromthe Carthaginian delegates. Just before Cato's death, Rome began a siege of theworld's wealthiest city.34

Unaware that the Senate had secretly decided "to destroy Carthage for good,once the war was ended;' the Carthaginians quickly complied with the Romandemand to surrender their 200,000 individual weapons and 2,000 catapults."Then came the surprise demand that they abandon their city, deserting itsshrines and religious cults." To this, the Carthaginians said no, and a brutalthree-year war ensued. Appian described one battle in which "70,000, includ-ing non -cornbatants" were killed, probably an exaggeration. But Polybius, whoparticipated in the campaign, confirmed that "the number of deaths was in-credibly large;' and that the Carthaginians were "utterly exterminated." 37

In 146, the Roman legions led by Scipio Aernilianus, Cato's ally and thebrother-in-law of his son, finally broke through the city's walls. Appian re-counts its end:

Allplaceswere filledwith groans,shrieks,shouts,and everykind of agony.Somewere stabbed,others were hurled alivefrom the roofs to the pavement,some ofthem falling on the heads of spears, or other pointed weapons,or swords. Noone dared to set fife to the houses on account of those who werestill on theroofs,until Scipioreached Byrsa. Then he setfireto the three streets alltogether,and gaveorders to keepthe passage-waysclear of burning material so that thecharging detachments of the army might move back and forth freely.Then came new scenes of horror. The fire spread and carried everythingdown, and the soldiers did not wait to destroy the buildings little by little,butpulled them alldown together.So the crashing grew louder, and many fellwiththe stones into the midst dead.Others were seen stillliving,especiallyold men,women,and young children who hadhidden in the inmost nooks of the houses,some of them wounded, some more or lessburned, and uttering horrible cries.Stillothers, thrust out and fallingfrom such a height with the stones, timbers,and fire,were torn asunder into allkinds of horrible shapes,crushed and man-gled.

Tokeep the streets open for their attacks, Roman soldiers threw "the dead andthe living together into holes in the ground, sweeping them along like sticksand stones or turning them over with their iron tools , and man was used forfillingup a ditch. Some were thrown in head foremost, while their legs, stickingout of the ground, writhed a long time. Others fellwith their teet downwardand their heads above ground. Horses ran over them, crushing their faces andskulls , not purposely on the part of the riders, but in their headlong haste.. .. Six days and nights were consumed in this kind of turmoil , the soldiers

Classical Genocide and Early Modern Memory 51being changed so that they might not be worn out with toil, s laughter, wantof sleep,and these horrid sights:' The next day the remaining Carthaginianssurrendered, including their commander, Hasdrubal, Then his wife appearedat the burning temple ofAsclepius." Polybius saw her there, "dressed like agreat lady, but holding her children, who wore nothing but their smocks, byeach hand and wrapping them in her cloak: ' She reproached Hasdrubal forhis surrender, adding, "this fire will entomb me and my children:' Then, Ap-pian writes, "she slew her children, f lung them into the fire, and plunged inafter them."As flames consumed the rest of the city, Scipio turned to Polybius,grasped his hand, and said: ''A glorious moment, Polybius; but I have a dreadforeboding that some day the same doom willbe pronounced upon my owncountry:'39

Of Carthage's population of 200,000 to 400,000, at least 145,000had per-ished, and Scipio dispersed into slavery all 55,000 survivors, including 25,000women." "The Senate sent ten ofthe noblest of their own number asdeputiesto arrange the affairs of Africa;' Appian wrote. "These men decreed that if any-thing was still leftof Carthage, Scipio should raze it to the ground, and that no-body should be allowed to live there:' The Senators also"decided to destroy, tothe last one;' all the African towns "that had allied themselves consistently withthe enemy:' Roman troops duly demolished at least six cities of Punic culture.TIleyspared seven other towns that had defected to them." This was no Kul-turkrieg, nor a war of racial extermination; the Romans did not massacre thesurvivors, or the adult males, as the Athenians had at MeloS.42 YetRome haddecided on "the destruction of the nation:'43 Its policy of "extreme violence;'the "annihilation of Carthage and most of its inhabitants;' ruining "an entireculture;' fits the definition in the 1948 UN Genocide Convention: intentionaldestruction "in whole or in part, [of] a national, ethnical, racial or religious

h"44group, as sue .Cato's policy had overcome spirited opposition in Rome. As Plutarch con-

eluded: "The annihilation of Carthage ... was primarily due to the advice andcounsel of Cato:'45The Censor ultimately won a Senate majority, but the depthof his personal preoccupation was unusual. Cates catalogue of Punic atroci-ties resonated with his audience, who remembered the suffering Hannibal'sarmy had visited on Italy.Badian writes that "hatred and resentment towards[Carthage 1 seem to have smouldered in the minds of the Senate, althoughright down to the fifties there was never any reasonable doubt of Carthaginian10yalty:'46Catos purported list of Carthaginian treaty breaches was not only


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Iegalistic=-no other writer "put such emphasis on the topic"-but historicallyflimsy."

What ideology demanded the disappearance of a disarmed mercant ilecity? Whatever the military reasons for pursuing the siege after 149, the socio-political motivation of the destruction's leading proponent is significant. Catoliked to claim for himself Spartan descent, and his broader thinking recalledfeatures of Sparta at its zenith: militaristic expansionism, the idealization ofcultivation, notions of gender and social hierarchy, and cultural prejudices.Despite "the amazing regularity with which Rome went to war" in this era,its preplanned and well-executed policy to destroy Carthage totally was alsounusual. Historians differ on the threat the city posed to Rome, and whetherRome's demands were calculated to minimize it or stemmed from "extremepower hunger:'48 But to Cato, the danger was asmuch internal. In his view,Ro-man society suffered from domestic flaws that made it inadequately resilient tothe threat of Carthage's existence.

A distinguished Roman administrator and orator, man ofletters and action("Stick to the point; the words will follow"), Cato was a veteran of the SecondPunic War, when he had first criticized Scipio Africanus for profligacy. Withrelentless corruption allegations, Cato hounded Scipio to his death in 183. Plinynoticed that Cato's history of the first two Punic Wars "removed the names" ofseveral Scipios and other commanders, caustically naming only Hannibal's ele-phant." Cato considered fame a dangerous temptation, while domestic "ava-rice and extravagance ... have been the destruction of all great empires.T" Heinsisted on Roman military domination. "The Carthaginians are already ourenemies; for he who prepares everything against me, so that he can make waratwhatever t ime he wishes, he isalready my enemy even though he is not yetusing arms:'5!

Elected consul in 195,Cato took command in formerly Carthaginian-ruledSpain, where he put down major rebellions. A courageous and effective gen-eral, he was noted "for his cruelty towards his defeated enemies:' 52 TheRomanhistorian Livy sympathized: "Cato had more difficulty subduing the enemy ...because he had, as it were, to reclaim them, like slaveswho had asserted theirfreedom:' Cato commanded his officers in Spain "to force this nation . .. toaccept again the yoke which it has cast off." In one battle, Livy cites an esti-mate of 40,000 enemies killed. When seven towns rebelled, "Cato marchedhis army against them and brought them under control without any fightingworth recording;' but after they again revolted, he ensured that "the conquered

Cla ss i ca lGenoc id e and Earl y Mode rn Memory 53were not granted the same pardon asbefore. They were all sold by public auc-tion:' said Cato subdued some tribes by force, others by diplomacy."Cato himself claims that he captured more cities in Spain than he spent daysthere. Nor is this an idle boast, jf indeed it is true that they numbered morethan four hundred:' Nevertheless, Cato "stayed in Spain rather too long;' andone of the Scipios tried to relieve him of his command. In response, Cato took"fivecompanies of infantry and fivehundred horse and subdued the tribe ofthe Lacetani by force of arms. In addition, he recovered and put to death sixhundred of those who had gone over to the enemy:' 53 Like other commanders,Catowas murderous against military opposition and tolerant of societies whooffered surrender. His military career ended in 191 after a fearless feat of armsthat clinched Rome's victory in Greece.

After all his efforts in Spain and the eastern Mediterranean, he took a closeinterest in subsequent events. Rebellions in Spain in 154, in Macedonia in lSI,and in the Peloponnese two years later probably troubled him. But a crowningblowmay have come when Cato actually saw Carthage. On a mission there in15 2 at age 81 , he was shocked bythe city 's recovery from its defeat a half cen-tury before. Unburdened of overseas territories, Carthage was again a thrivingmercantile metropolis, "burgeoning with an abundance of young men, brim-ming with copious wealth, teeming with weapons." He returned to Rome witha sense of assault.While "he was rearranging the folds ofhis toga in the senate,Cato by design let fall some Libyan figsand then, after everyone had expressedadmiration for their size and beauty, he said that the land that produced themwas but three days' sailfrom Rome:'54This threat had to be destroyed.

Cato was posturing. His figs could not have come from Carthage, morethan a six-day voyage even in the summer's fine sailing weather. His audienceof "senatorial gentlemen farmers" probably knew the figs came from Cato'sown estate near Rome. Some may even have read his advice on how to plantAfrican figsin Italy." Carthage was not an economic threat; its products barelypenetrated the Italian market, and its annihilation would have helped few ofRome'smerchants. In fact, Cato cared little for traders, Roman or Carthaginian.Questioned about moneylending, he replied: "Youmight as wellask me what Ithink about murder," 56

Cato idealized farmers, not merchants. His only extant work, De Agri Cul-iura, began by contrasting the trader with his ideal cit izen-the farmer: "It istrue that to obtain money by trade issometimes more profitable, were it not sohazardous; and likewise money-lending, if itwere ashonourable. Our ancestors


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54 EARLY IMPERIAL EXPANSIONheld this view and embodied it in their laws .... And when they would praise aworthy man their pra ise took this form: 'good farmer' and 'good se tt le r' ; one sopra ised was thought to have received the greatest commendation . The traderI consider to be an energetic man, and one bent on making money; but, as Isaid above, it is a dangerous career and one subject to disaster:' "On the otherhand;' Cato went on, "it is from the farming class that the bravest men and thesturdiest soldiers come, their calling is most highly respected, their livelihoodis most assured and is looked on with the least hostility, and those who are en-gaged in tha t pursui t are least incl ined to be disaffec ted: ' 57

Cato saw the loyal peasant farmer, of ten using slave labor captured in for -eign campaigns, as the foundation of Roman power at home and abroad. Ac-cording to Polybius, "Cato once declared in a publ ic speech tha t anybody couldsee the republic was going downhill when a pretty boy could cost more thana plot of land and jars of fish more than ploughrnen,":" Yetrhetorical ly ideal -izing the peasantry and lauding its ut il ity did not necessari ly mean advancingpeasant interests . From an old plebeian family, Cato cul tiva ted "fondly the l ifeof simplicity and self-discipline" even as he owned "great plantations" of slavesand "preferred to buy those pr isoners of war who were young and sti ll suscep-t ible , l ike puppies ." Moreover, Plutarch asser ts , Cato pract iced "the most dis-reputable branch of moneylending.T"

Cates a lleged hypocr isy is less impor tant than his romanticizat ion of peas-ants in opposition to merchants, its pervasive ideological influence, and itsmilitary significance for his Carthaginian policy. After Rome disarmed theCarthaginians in 149, the consul Censorinus had commanded them to move10miles from the sea , "for we are resolved to raze your city to the ground." Heexplained tha t proximity to the sea had tempted and corrupted Carthage: "Thesea made you invade Sicily and lose it again ... [it] always begets a graspingdisposition by the very faci li ties which i t offers gain, , . . prowess islike merchants' gains-a good profit today and a total loss tomorrow .. , , Be-l ieve me, Car thaginians, l ife inland, wi th the joys of agriculture and quiet, ismuch more equable. Although the gains of agriculture are, perhaps, smallerthan those of mercantile life, they are surer and a great deal safer ... an inlandcity enjoys all the security of the solid earth." But the Carthaginians refusedthis injunction, and were slaughtered. W V. Harris poin ts out that the Romansmay have recalled Plato's advice that "if a city was to avoid being full of tradeand the moral consequences of trade, it must be 80 stades (ten miles) f rom thesea,"?" Rome itself is 16miles inland.

C la ss ic al G e no ci de a nd Early Modem JvIemory 55Cato wanted women kept in their place, like peasants and traders:

is the greatest danger from any class of people, once you andconferences and secre t consul tat ions:' Cato opposed the repea l in 195 of a war-time law denying women the right to "possess more than half an ounce of gold,or vv~ar patti-coloured clothing, or ride in a horse-drawn vehicle in a city ortown: ' Clamor ing for repea l of this law, increasing numbers of womenin from the towns and rural centres [and] beset all the streets the andall the approaches to the Forum;' wrote. Cato was outraged: "Are you inthe habit of running out into the streets, blocking the roads, addressing otherwomen's husbands?" he asked. "Or are you more alluring in the street than inthe home, more attractive to other women's husbands , .. ? And yet, even athome, ... it would not become you to be concerned about the question of whatlaws should be passed or repea led in this place; ' he scolded. Cato denouncedthe female throng as an "untamed animal;' a "secession of the women:' Hecompared it to a plebeian riot, but he also made an example of "that richwoman over there" who simply wanted to f launt her weal th. Perhaps invokingthe Spartan model, he preferred that "the dress of all [bel made uniform:' Hesaw pol it ic ized women, l ike any dissenters , as an internal threa t to the repub-lic: "Our l iberty, overthrown in the home by female indiscipl ine, is now beingcrushed and trodden underfoot here, too, in the Forum. It is because we havenot kept them under control individually that we are now terrorized by themcollectively .... But we (heaven preserve us) are now allowing them even totake part in politics, and actually to appear in the Forum and to be present atour meetings and assembl ies! What they are longing for iscomplete l iberty, orrather ... complete license. , . . TIle very moment they begin to be your equals,they will your superiors . Good heavens!"?'

For Cato, women out of place threatened social control . According to Plu-tarch, "since he believed that, among sex was the cause ofquency, he made it a rule that his male slaves could, for a set fee, have inter-course with his female slaves, but no one of them was allowed to consort withanother woman:' After Cato' s wife died, a prostitute "would come to see himwithout anyone's knowing of if'In public life he was more severe. In Spain,one of his officers hanged himself after Cato discovered he had bought threecaptive boys, "Cato sold the boys and returned the price to the treasury:' Heonce banished from the Senate a man who "had kissed his own wife in broaddaylight and in sight of his daughter:' Cato joked publicly that had "neverembraced his wife except after a loud thunderclap" __-Jupiter 's blessing."


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56 EARLY IMPERIAL EXPANSIONControl ling gender roles preoccupied Rome's rulers. Women were not

the only domestic group whose independent activities raised fears of externalthreats or justified external expansion. In 186,Roman magistrates uncoveredand prosecuted an alleged conspiratorial Bacchic cult that sponsored illicitsexual acts, violating a ban on secrecy and male priests. The main purpose ofthe cult, formerly composed ofwomen, had become male homosexual activity.The magistrates "convicted a large number of men and women of foul sexualacts" in the service of a cult they labeled "alien" and "uri-Roman" The Senatelaunched an invasion of Dalmatia in 156 largely "because they did not want themen of Italy to become womanish through too lengthy a spell of peace:' 63

A warrior abroad, Cato feared Romans were becoming soft at home. Incivilian life he "never stopped taking on feuds;' becoming a pugnacious prose-cutor and "vigorous opponent of the nobili ty, of luxurious l iving, and of theinvasion into Italy of Greek culture: ' As Roman nobles adopted "Greek lux-urv and refinement ;' Cato saw it as exotic corruption, a threat to Rome's cul-ture:"Wehave crossed into Greece and Asia (regions full of all kinds of sen-sual allurements) and are even laying hands on the treasures of kings-I amthe more alarmed lest these things should capture us instead of our captur-ing them:' At that time, explained Plutarch, "Rome was, on account of its size,unable to preserve its purity; because of its domination over many lands andpeoples itwas coming into contact with various races and was exposed to pat-terns of behavior of every description:' Its "urban li fe was half imported;' asRamsay MacMullen has shown. Romans used Greek terms not only for do-mestic architecture, equipment, containers, and food, but also for cosmetics,"little embellishments and treats, the things one would enjoy at evening partiesor in the performing arts, technical terms of science and mechanics, cult actsand items, the terminology ofmaritime travel and commerce: ' Members of thearistocracy "were surrounded by,they floated upon, a sea of products and arti-facts and daily usages that had originated in the east: ' There were "two schoolsof thought among the upper classes,at war over the right style of life: '64

Cato devoted himself to preserving Roman culture. He produced the firsthistorical work in Latin. His innovation was a statement of conservative ide-ology, since previous Roman historians had written in Greek. Its seven booksdo not survive, but an outline by Cornelius Nepos reveals the preoccupationsof Catos "didactic moralizing and pioneer ethnography" One book told of theearly Roman kings, and four dealt wi th "the origins of all the communities ofItaly" and the Punic Wars.65Cato focused on Rome's lineage, as distinct from

ClassicalGenocide and Early Modern Memory 57those of its enemies, and on the secrets of its success-s-husbandry, morals, anddiscipline. Racial prejudice, as we know it, was relat ively uncommon in theancient world." Yet Cato wrote that Rome followed the mores of the Sabines,his own who claimed descent from Spartans. He theLigurians, by contrast, to be "illiterate and liars:' The Greeks of his day were"an utterly vile and unruly race,""? He admired aspects of their history andeven learned their language late in life,but he condemned "all Greek literatureacross the board" and promoted a series of repressive measures, including ex-pulsion of teachers of Epicureanism and destruction of Greek philosophicalworks. Cato's hostility toward Greek rhetoric led to another crackdown againstphilosophers and teachers in 161.68 A t age 79, he expelled the visiting Greekskeptic Carneades, whose brilliant rhetoric was attracting young Romans tophilosophy. Cato "resolved to exorcize all the philosophers from the city:'saysPlutarch. "Disturbed bythis passion for words . .. he had come to blows withphilosophical pursuits in general and was zealously trying to discredit Greekcivilization and culture as a whole,"?" He attacked a political foe tor singing andperforming Greek verse. Greek "luxury and laxity; ' even culture, like coloredclothing and Libyan figs,fostered Roman extravagance and decline. Cato wasconvinced that "the citywas in need of a great purgation:' 70 just sevenyears after the destruction of came the first expulsion of Jews fromRome, in 139.

Cates viewof Carthage represen ted his most sustained response to a pano-rama of perils. His perception of combined foreign and domestic subversionofRoman culture helps explain Cato's determination to destroy Carthage. Plu-tarch speculated that Scipio Nasica, for his part, preferred to keep the threathandy,"like a bridle, to serve as a correct ive to the impudence of the masses,since he feltthat Carthage was not sopowerful that it could prevail over Rome,nor yet so that it could be treated with as far as Cato wasconcerned, it was precisely that seemed to be a cause for alarm, that athat had always been great and had now,in addit ion, been sobered and chas-tened by hardships was threatening the Roman people at a t ime when theywere to a great extent intoxicated and staggering as a resul t of the authori tythat they now possessed. Rather, he felt, they should eliminate altogether theforeign threats to their supremacy and themselves anopportunity tomendtheir domestic faults: ' Indeed, Rome's destruction of Carthage and its sack ofCorinth occurred in the same year," One speculates that in harping onCarthage, Cato had aimed "to launch Rome into a long and difficult war in the


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58 EARLY IMPERIAL EXPANSION Classical Genocide and Early Modem Memory 59West" against a t radi tiona l enemy, fear ing tha t fur ther involvement in Greeceand the East would threaten Rome's cul tural identity." Cato's broader notionsof cul ture and pol it ics fostered a violent , v indict ive hosti li ty toward Carthageno t app lied to other regions.

Car thage's threa t to Rome paled before Cato's threa t to Carthage. His idealof the control led, militarized ethnic rural community, cor rup tible by externa linfluences and weakened by others' successes, provided a formula for genocide.His vision also threa tened the righ ts of c it izens of Rome, which he consis tent lypatrol led for signs ofweakness. Cates thinking under lines the connect ions be-tween the domestic and transnational aspects of genocidal policies, ancientand modern.

History and Memory

burning al l thei r v il lages and bui ldings and cut ting down their crops,"?" Whena fourth group, the Eburones, dest royed a Roman leg ion, Caesar annihi la tedthem. He described his " in tent ion" as to "overwhelm the Eburones with a hugeforce of men, and so wipe out that tribe and its very name, as a punishmentfor the grea t crime it had committed:' Soon, "[e]very part of the territory ofthe Eburones was now being plundered:' 74 They vanished from the historicalrecord, but the Sugambri fought on, defeat ing another legion in 17B.C.E. Aftera decade of military retal iat ions, Rome deported 40,000 surviving Sugambriwest of the Rhine, setting another precedent. A half century later, during theRoman conquest of south Wales, Tacitus repor ted: "Conspicuous above all instubborn resistance were the Si lures , whose rage was f ired by words rumouredto have been spoken by the Roman general, to the effect, that as the Sugambrihad been formerly destroyed or transplanted into Gaul, so the name of theSilures ought to be b lo tted out ," One histor ian wri tes that only the death of tha tgeneral "saved the Silures from extinction:'75

As civil wars wracked the Roman republic itself 49 B.C.E., some of itsmen of let te rs immortal ized genocida l massacres even as others evoked idyl licrural scenes. Itwas in these troubled times that Virgil began composing pas-toral poetry in Latin. His fourth Eclogue recalled Hesiod, as it foreshadowed"a new race" descending from the skies to "end the iron race and bring in thegolden al l over the wor ld :' In the Georgics, which appeared in 29,Virgi l took upa more agricultural theme: 76

The destruction of Carthage set a precedent for genocide. Rome ruled theMedi terranean, and i ts legions marched into northern Europe, occasionallyemploying genocida l massacres against enemies. Campaigning in what is nowthe Netherlands in 55 D.C.E., Julius Caesar almost annihilated two Germantribes, the Usipetes and the Tencteri, which he claimed numbered 430,000,probably an exaggera tion. Af ter ini t ial dashes, the t ribes had requested a truce."A large number of Germans, including all their chiefs and eldersj.] came tovisi t me in my camp: ' Caesar wrote:

I ordered that they should be detained. I led the whole of my army out of thecamp ... reaching the enemy camp before the Germans could realize what washappening. . .They were given no t ime to make plans or arm themselves .. ..[T]those Germans able to arm themselves fast enough resis ted our men for ashort time, fighting among their carts and baggage wagons. But because the Ger-mans had brought everything they had with them when they left the ir homesand crossed the Rhine, there was also a great crowd ofwomen and children andthese now began to flee in a ll di rec tions. I sent the cavalry to hun t them down.When the Germans heard cries behind them and saw that their own peoplewere being killed, they threw away their weapons, abandoned their standards,and rushed out of the camp .. .. A large number of them were ki lled and the restflung themselves into the river, where they perished overcome by panic, exhaus-t ion, and the force of the cur rent . Our men re tu rned to camp without a singlefatal casualty.

The husbandmanWith hooked ploughshare turns the soil; fromSprings his year's labour; hence, too, he sustainsCountry and cottage homestead, ...Meanwhile about his lips sweet children cling;His chaste house keeps its purity.

Caesar crossed the Rhine in relentless pursuit of the survivors, who wereshelte red by a thi rd t ribe, the Sugambri . "I s tayed a few days in thei r ter ri tory,

Virgi l t raced th is agrarian bl iss to the Italian her itage that gave Rome i ts"Such life of yore the ancient Sabines led, such Remus and his brother ... andRome became the fair world's fairest."? The civil wars ended in 30 B.C.E. withOctavians defea t of Anthony and Cleopatra in Egypt . The next year Octavianreturned to Rome, becoming the emperor Augustus in 27 .

Such a splendid empire meri ted a complete explanat ion and celebrat ion.Virgi l spent his fina l decade (29-19) composing h is imperial epic, the Aeneid,having set down a view of "1 shall lead the Muses home as captivesin a t riumphal procession."78 In Virgi l' s idea l, women were seen rather


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heard. Ellen Oliensis writes, "In the world of Virgilian pastoral, girls are notsingers; they do not perform, and while they are sometimes quoted, we neverhear them speak:' 79 In the Aeneid, recalling Cato, women are "alarming andviolent creatures, prone to the making of terrible scenes;' even embodying a"dash between Western civilization and the barbaric glitter and animal deitiesofthe East," When Cleopatra commanded her warships, "Anubis barked and allmanner of monstrous gods leveled their weapons:' 80

TheAeneid traced Rome'sand Octavian's glory to the city'sputative founder,a survivor of the Greek destruction of Troy.Cato had written ofAeneas's 'Iro-jans and their legendary arrival in Latium, when they killed its king, Latinus,in battle. Now Virgil transformed Latinus into an ally of Aeneas, nationalizingAeneas just as he had called the hardworking bees of the Georgics "little Ro-mans:' Octavian claimed descent from Aeneas's son Iulus." And just as Octa-vian had conquered Cleopatra, Virgil pits Aeneas's destiny against that of an-other North African queen-Dido of Carthage.

The story of the Aeneid begins: "There was an ancient city . . : ' Virgil'sreaders might have thought of Rome, or Troy.But he is referring to Carthage,"held bycolonists from Tyre, opposite Italy ... a city of great wealth and ruth-lessin the pursuit ofwar... . Juno issaid to have loved it more than any otherplace... . But she had heard that there was rising from the blood of Troya raceofmen who in days to come would overthrow this Tyrian citadel ... [and] sackthe land of Libya:'82

Book 2 of the Aeneid offers an astonishing literary depiction of genocide-the destruction of Troy.Aeneas narrates the city's calamitous fall and his ownnarrow escape. "Who could speak ofsuch slaughter? Who could weep tears tomatch that suffering? ... The bodies of the dead lay through all its streets andhouses and the sacred shrines of its gods.. .. Everywhere there was fear, anddeath in many forms:' Aeneas recounts an "orgy of killing" near King Priam'spalace, adding: "I saw Hecuba with a hundred women, her daughters and thewives of her sons. I saw Priam's blood allover the altar . . .. Down fell the fif tybedchambers with all the hopes for generations yet to come... . Hecuba andher daughters were sitting flocked round the altar,like doves driven down in ablack storm. ... Soended the destiny ofPriam, ... a corpse without a name:' Heperished "with Troy ablaze;' while Aeneas's men "had all deserted and thrownthemselves from the roof or given their suffering bodies to the flames"83-justas the wife of Carthage's last commander, Hasdrubal, would plunge with her

Classical Genocide and Early Modem Memory 61children into the flames of her city centuries later.Vivid description of a leg-endary genocide substituted for the unstated historical one.

The dramatic irony is that Aeneas is telling his story to Dido, Carthage'sfounder. Virgil's readers all knew, and he had just reminded of the fateofCarthage itself.When Aeneas lands in North Africa before reaching Italy,hefinds Dido, herself a refugee from Tyre, founding her new city.But Jupiterpromised that Aeneas's Rome will be "an empire that will know no end" (im-p er ium s in e f in e) . Jupiter subdues the Carthaginians' "fiery temper;' lest Dido,"in her ignorance of destiny, should bar her country" to the Trojan anteced-ents of the Romans destined to destroy it. Virgil'sironies come thick and fast."TheTyrians were working with a will; some of them were laying out theofwalls or rolling up great stones for building the citadel; others were choos-ing sites for building ... drawing up laws and electing magistrates and a senate.. .. ' Ihey were like bees at the beginning of summer, busy in the sunshine allthrough the flowery meadows, bringing out the young of the race:' Waiting tomeet Dido, Aeneas seesthem erecting a temple. Then a"strange sight ... allayedhis fears; ' giving him "better confidence for the future: ' Painted on the newtemple's walls were scenes from battles recently fought at Troy! Aeneas wept:"Isthere anywhere now on the face of this earth that isnot full of the knowl-edgeof our misfortunes? Look at Priam. Here too ... there are tears for suffer-ing and men's hearts are touched by what man has to bear. .. . Weare knownhere."84 Virgil built the destruction of Carthage into its very creation.

AsAeneas "stood gazing" at the murals, even recognizing himself "in theconfusion of battle:' Dido arrives. Roman readers must have gasped. Heighten-ing the drama, a Trojan even assures Dido that "we have not come to Libya topillage your homes:' Dido unwittingly tells them: "The city which I am found-ing isyours. Draw your ships up on the beach:' Aeneas says:"Weare the rem-nants left by the Greeks ... whatever survives of the Trojan race, scattered asit isover the face of the wide earth. May the gods bring you the reward youdeserve,if there are any gods who have regard for goodness, ifthere isanyjus-tice in the world." Dido then tells ofher own wanderings, adding: "Through myown suffering, I am learning to help those who suffer'?"

Not everyone thinks Dido is going to be helpful. Aeneas's mother, Venus,fears "the treacherous house of Carthage and the double-tongued people ofTyre,"The goddess learns that Aeneas is sending to Carthage his son Iulus, an-cestor of its eventual Roman conquerors, "giftswhich have survived


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the burning of Troy"-a cloak brought there by Helen and the scepter of Pri-am's daughter . Venus sends Cupid with the gifts, disguised as Iulus. And soCupid makes Dido fall in lovewith Aeneas. Unadvised to beware Trojans bear-ing gifts and "doomed to be the victim of a plague that was yet to come; ' Didotoasts this "dayof happiness for the Tyrians and the men of Troy,and may ourdescendants long remember it."Attended, like the unfortunate Hecuba, by 100female slaves, Dido asks "question after question about Priam:' It i s at her in-sistence that Aeneas tells his tale of "the doomed Priam" and "the last day of adoomed people:' She hears how, as the survivors crept from the city,"[hlorrorwas everywhere and the very silence chilled the blood ... . Troylaysmoking onthe ground:' 86

The dramatic power ofVirgil's multiple ironies came from Roman readers'knowledge of the similar, much more recent fate of Carthage. It is forecast toDido unwittingly by Aeneas's narration of the fall of Troy.Virgil acknowledgesthat Romans needed no reminder of Carthage's destruction, passing over itwith a silence that compounds the drama, but indeed chills the blood. Aeneas'sdecision to leave Carthage and found Rome brings Dido an ominous night-mare, "looking for her Tyrians in an empty land:' Wishing she had destroyed"father and son and all their race;' she curses Aeneas: "Mayhe ... see his inno-cent people dying.... Asfor you,my Tyrians, you must pursue with hatred thewhole line of his descendants . .. shore against shore, sea against sea, swordagainst sword. Let there be war between the nations and between their sonsforever:' Dido's suicide by fire as Aeneas's ships depart not only recounts thelegendary beginning of Carthage but, asVirgil's audience knew, also foreshad-ows its end, when Hasdrubals wife followed Dido's example."

Later,Aeneas meets Dido on his journey to the underworld. Weeping, heasks:" 'Was I the cause ofyour dying?' . .. Her features moved no more when hebegan to speak than if she had been a block of flint or Parian marble; ' l iketherazed stones of Carthage. "Then at last she rushed away,hating him, into theshadows ... . Aeneas was no less stricken by the injustice of her fate, and longdid he gaze after her, pitying her;' as if Virgil himself was silently contemplatingthe more recent disappearance of her city.Then the shade of Aeneas's father,Anchises, shows him the future, "the glory that l ies in store . .. for the men ofItalian stock who will be our descendants:' Romulus, Caesar, "and all the sonsof Iulus"parade by."Who would leave you unmentioned, great Cato? ... or thetwo Scipios,both of them thunderbolts ofwar, the bane of Libya?"88

The Aeneid depicts centuries of deadly mutual enmity between Rome and

Classical Genocide and Early Modern MemoryCarthage and links them both to Troy.Virgil's dramatic metaphor of Rome's"empire without end" as t he product of genocides a apart still re-verberates through Western civilization two millennia later. Along with theGeorgia, which Dryden termed "the best poem of the best poet; ' the Aeneidguaranteed Virgil an "unbroken ascendancy of eighteen centuries.t'"

In the three decades after Virgil's death, Livy (64 R.C.E.-I7 C.E.)a massive 142-book History of Rome from Its Foundation. In the first thirdthis work, covering the period up to 167 B.C.E., Livy praised Cato "far above"his peers for his "force of character" and "versatile genius: ' The Censor was"the bravest soldier in a fight;' an "outstanding general;' the "most skilled"yer,and "the most eloquent advocate" whose words were "preserved inviolatein writings of every kind: ' To Livy; Cato was "aman of iron constitution, inbody and in mind; ' with "arigid integrity and a contempt for popularity andriches."90 Along with Virgil's subtle relocation of the Carthaginian tragedy inTrojan legend and Roman glory, Livy's assessment of the early Cato guaran-teed his historical reputation asa model leader of the republic.

However, Livy's account of the 'Ihird Punic War was lost sometime afterSt.Augustine read it in the early fifth century. Its loss played a key par t in aprolonged erasure of Carthage from compounding its physical anni-hilation. 'Thedisappearance of all of Livy's books 46-142 ended his extant ac-count of Rome's history in the year 167-91For part ofhis narrative of the PunicWars, Livyhad relied on the Greek writer Polybius, an eyewitness to the fate ofCarthage." Yet the major part of Polybiuss works was also subsequently lost,a long with much of the entire classical corpus. A thirteenth-century writereven attributed Homer's Iliad and Odyssey to Sophocles."

The medieval world thus had lit tle knowledge what had happened toCarthage. Apart from brief passages of Cicero and Sallust,the only extant clas-sical descriptions of the city's destruction were the Greek texts of Polybius,the second-century historian Appian, who had read Polybius, and Strabo, Lessaccessible in western Europe, these were republished only in the late fifteenthcentury. Fragments survived of Polybiuss books 7-40, including excerpts onthe Third Punic War.Books 1-5 were first translated into Latin only in 1454.Book 6 and other excerpts first appeared in various European languages inthe second quarter of the sixteenth century. The first English translation, ofbook 1,appeared only in 1568.94 'Themost detailed extant account of the ThirdPunic War, that of Appian, was first published in Latin in 1452. ac-count in his Geography appeared in Italy in 1423,was translated into Latin in


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EARLY IMPERIAL EXPANSIONthe 14505, and first publi shed in 1469.95Even Livy's book 44, with its clippedprediction of "the destruction of Carthage;' was rediscovered and pr inted aslate as 1531.Only then did the story of Rome' s annihilation of the city becomewidely known, as wes tern Europe's own expansion began."

Meanwhile, V irgil's pastora l had become the poetry of new empire s mod-eled on Roman antiquity. Court poetry of the Holy Roman Empire likened anofficial in Bavaria to the shepherd of the Eclogues, "coming from his apple-richestate. '?" Imperial expans ion was brutal, but medieval warfare rarely reachedthe leve l of genoc ide . Charlemagne, who inherited the Frankish terr itories in768, soon launched a jo-year war against the Saxons. After they almost de-s troyed a Frankish army, Charlemagne had 4,500 Saxon pri soners "beheadedon a single day;' according to the Royal Frankish Annals. Posing as Israeli tes ina new promised land, Charlemagne 's army had apparently drawn inspir ationfrom the biblica l massacres of Amalekites and Moabite s. Yet deportation wasmore common than exte rmina tion in the Middle Ages. Other anna ls recordedthat "the Franks slew a multitude of men;' but also "led back many Saxonsinto Francia in fetters:' The Royal Annals reported that as many as "7070 weretaken away" from Saxony in 795, and late r another "1600 leading men:' Then,in 804, Charlemagne "transported all the Saxons who dwelt beyond the Elbeand in Wihmodia .. . together with their wives and children into Franc ia ." TheSaxons, his ninth-century biographe r wrote , were thus "made one people withthe Pranks,"?"

Later medieval writers drew upon Virgil to depict Aeneas's founding ofRome, its destruction of Carthage , and the forging of an empire as events tha toccurred according to God's plan. Boccaccio told the tale as part of a jour-ney"to establish Christianity as a univer sa l religion with Rome as its sea t, "? "Others, such as the twelfth-century French author of the R om an d 'E ne as ,ignored the Aeneid's religious and national, dynastic ethos, simply preservingthe love s tory, recast in to a medieval court set ting .'?"

In Europe, as in Catos Rome, domestic division accompanied imperialconquest. In his study T he M a kin g o f E ur op e, his torian Robert Bart le tt traces a"hardening of ant i- Jewish feeling" over the f irst hal f of the second mil lennium,accompanying European expansion.'?' In the "f irst great s laughter of Europe'sJews by Christians;' e rrant Crusader bands massacred possibly 8,000 Jews ineight German c ities in May-june 1096. Marching into Jerusalem three year slater, according to the archbishop of Tyre, Crusaders murdered "about tenthousand infidels" -both Muslims and Jews-in the Temple enclosure. They

ClassicalGenocide and Early Modern Memoryburned more Jews alive in the synagogue and butchered thousands of Musl imsin the al-Aqsa mosque.l'"

Meanwhile, England's Norman conquerors were expanding into Wales.Contemporaneous Norman histor ians wrote that the invaders "caused the ruinand wretched dea ths of many thousands" and subjec ted the native Britons to"unrestrained plunder and slaughter' "? " Medieva l Welsh chronicles, too, ac-cused "the French" ( i. e. , the Normans) of imposing "tyranny and injustice"upon 'A/ales, using "law and judgments and violence:' By these means, onechronicle a sse rted, "the French seized all the lands of the Britons" and in sev-er al regions, "drove away a ll the inhabitants from the land:' It added that in thetwelfth century, King Henry Iof England dispatched an army to Wales to fightthe Britons: "And out of hate for them they set their minds upon exterminatingall the Britons, so that the name of the Britons should never more be calledto mind from that time forth."?" Yet these worst fears proved unfounded. Aselsewhere in medieval Europe, repress ion rarely extended to genocide.lOs

Racial thinking was yet to appea r in eithe r Christian or Jewish writing. Thefirst Jewish text to mention "the black slaves, the sons of Ham;' the twelfth-century commentary of Benjamin of Tudela , a lso referred to hones t b lack mer-chants, among whom lived black Jews.106 In the thirteenth to fifteenth cen-tur ies, the vague medieval European term barbarian gradually came to meannon-Christian peoples and races of any creed who were savage or "uncivil"in their behavior. In Italy and Spain, tr ansla tions of Aristotle's writings fromGreek and Arabic had star ted to appea r, and the Dominican William of Moer-beke translated Aristotle's Politics in 1260.107 Europeans could now considerthe term barbarian as used in Aristotle 's discussion of "natur al slavery"could note its ramifications for a new racia l division of the wor ld.

St il l far short of genocide, thi s amounted to fur ther eli sion of ethnici ty andagricul ture . Aris to tle had pref igured some of Catos agrar ian views , though notother positions Cato espoused, and he now played an ambiguous role in theirslow reemergence. Oeconomica, a work that depic ted agriculture as " a na tura loccupation" and "the most honest;' was in fact wr itten by Aristotle's pupil, butwas long incorrectly attributed to him after its first translation into Latin in1295. However, Ar istotle had romanticized neither cultiva tion nor ancommunity of f armer s. He wrote in Politics: "Those who are to cul tivate the soi lshould best of all, if the ideal system is to be stated, be slaves . .. but as a secondbes t they should be alien serfs :' lOB

Aristotle had coined the te rm n at ur al s la ve ry . Po li ti cs began with his as-


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sertion, "Every state ... is a sort of partnership;' based initially, he wrote, on"those who are unable to exist without one another;' men and women,and "the union of natural ruler and natural subject for the sake of security:' inwhich "master and slave have the same interest:' Aristotle added that, in con-trast to the Greeks, "barbarians have no class of natural rulers , but with themthe con jugal par tnership is a partnership of female slave and male slave . Hencethe say ing of the poets , 'Tis meet tha t Greeks should rule barbarians; implyingtha t barbarian and slave are the same in nature ." 109

Aristotle aired various views on whether all barbarians were "naturalslaves:' Thus, "some maintain that for one man to be another man's master iscontrary to nature ... and there is no difference between them by nature, andthat therefore it is unjust, for it isbased on force:' Aristotle considered "whetheror not anyone exists who is by nature" a slave, "or whether on the contrary alls lavery is against nature :' He d id find it "natural and expedient for the body tobe governed by the soul:' so "all men that differ as widely as the soul does fromthe body and the human being from the lower animal ... are by nature slaves:'and he added that "there are cases of people of whom some are freemen andthe others slaves by nature:' Yet Aristotle conceded that "those who assert theopposite are also right in a manner:' He wrote that "many jurists" denouncedthe enslavement of war captives and "say that it is monstrous if the personpowerful enough to use force, and superior in power, is to have the victim ofhis force as his slave." And those of the oppos ing view "do not mean to assertthat Greeks themselves i f taken pr isoners are slaves, but that barbar ians are .Yetwhen they say this they are merely seeking for the princ iples of natural s lavery; 'that some people "are essen tia lly slaves everywhere ." This was a view Aristot lerejected, "for they assume that just as from a man springs a man and from abrute springs a brute, so also from good parents comes a good son, but as amatter of fact nature frequently while intending to do this is unable to bring itabout :' Aristotle bare ly endorsed the view of "barbarian" races as natural s lavesbut opted for a compromise: "in some instances it is not the case that one setare slaves and the other freemen by nature;' while in other cases "such a dis-tinction does exist:' His conclusion-"the just acquiring of slaves, being like asort of warfare or hunting. Let this then stand as our definition of slave andmas ter" -was no resounding legitimation of either "natural slavery" or racialdivision. He even recommended that "all slaves should have their freedom setbefore them as a reward:' 110 Never the less, his term "natura l s lavery ;' wi th itsracialist connotations, later proved useful to expanding empires.

Clas si c alGenoci d e and Earl y Modern Memory 67Racial thinking gained ground slowly.

Dominican, Alber tus Magnus (c . 1206-80), refined the of "barbarian"with a Christ ian adap tat ion of Aris to tel ian ca tegor ies of human difference. Heasserted that man who does not observe the laws concerning orderingof social participation is mos t certainly a barbarus," Yet this was no genetict ra it : "Best ia l men, however , a re rare , s ince i t is a rare man who has no sparkof humanity. It does, however, occur, and usually from two causes: physicalhandicap and deprivation, or from disease:' Albertus Magnus's pupil St.ThomasAquinas (1225-74), in his commentary on Aristotle, gave the term barbarianfurther attention by investigating the conditions under which some races re-main barbaric and others become civi lized.1l l While he asserted the b iologica land psychological unity of mankind, Aquinas, also a Dominican, became thefirst Chr is tian au thor to revive the doctrine of "na tura l s lavery: ' 112 Thelying tensions in Aristotle had reappeared and now began to escalate, pittingconcepts of human commonality against emerging notions of racial difference,compounding the contradict ions between sectarianism and rel igious univer-salism.

Not ions of individual, re ligious, and cul tu ra l propert ies, s ti rring in a newconvection of class ical learning, slowly distilled into emerging ethnic pre-cipitations. The thirteenth century, Bartlett writes, saw the accentuation ofEnglish-Welsh divisions "in unmistakably racial terms:' A medieval Czechchronicle, too, tells of a prince who paid in silver "anyone who brought him ahundred noses cut off from the Germans:' In the later Middle Ages came a newbiological racism. From 1323, admission to the Brunswick guild of tailors re-quired proof of German descen t. The cobblers of Beeskow rejec ted Slavs, andthe bakers ' gui ld there accepted "[n]o one of Wend ish stock."-on ly appl icantsof "German blood and tongue: ' Riga bakers proh ibi ted members from marry-ing "il legi timate or non-German" women. Anglo-Norman gui lds in Droghedaexcluded the Ir ish. The Sta tutes of Kilkenny in 1366denounced "the manners,fashion and language of the Irish enemies:' In 1395, Richard II of Englandcoined the term w il d I ri sh with his formula savages, nos enemis."113

In the late fourteenth century the term race appeared in European Ian-guages.!" Fifty years later authorities in Limerick held that "[n]o one ofblood or birth" could obtain a civic office or apprenticeship; Dublin apprenticeshad to be "of Englis berthe" Bartlett concludes that now, "[b 1 iological descentreplaced cul tural ident ity as the fi rs t c ri te rion of race: ' epi tomized by Engl ishrulers' use of "the term 'blood' in century Irish discriminatory rules;'


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which fostered ghettoization, as in "all the newly settled, conquered or con-verted peripheries" of Europe.1l5Only in the sixteenth century did the medi-eval French term nation and Low German naiie (birth, origin, descent group)begin to assume their broader modern political meanings and the connotationof Volk.116

From their divergent intellectual roots, these political notions thrived. Ex-pounding on Aquinas's theory ofAristotle's "natural slavery;'the Scottish theo-logian John Mail' applied it in 1519 to the Caribbean Indians, who "live likebeasts on either side ofthe equator:' He added that "thefirst person to conquerthem, justly rules over them because they are by nature slaves."Mair incor-rectly quoted Aristotle as stating that "the Greeks should be masters over thebarbarians because, by nature, the barbarians and slavesare the same:' A con-temporaneous counternarrative sprang from the Thomist doctrine of universalhumanity, producing the Renaissance notion of "the republic of all the world"( re sp ubl ic a t ot iu s o rb is ), in the words of the Spanish theologian Francisco deVitoria (c. 1492-1546). Jean Bodin even wrote in 1650: "Allmen surprisinglywork together in a world state asif itwere one and the same citystate:' Bythattime, writes historian Anthony Pagden, such thoughts were "commonplace:' 117A concept of universal monarchy, too, could justify world conquest.

Meanwhile, Virgil's corpns, especially the Aeneid, had entered "the lifeblood of English readers:' 11M Geoffrey of Monmouth opened his H is to ry o f t heK i ng s o f B r it ai n, composed in 1136, with the story of Aeneas's great-grandson:"Brutus Occupies the Island of Albion:' It begins on a double note of agrariannationalism and Virgilian pastoral: "Britain, the best of islands ... has broadfieldsand hillsides which are suitable for the most intensive farming ... [and]flowers of every hue which offer their honey to the flitting bees:' 119 SirWalterRalegh's five-volume H is to ry o f th e W or ld , published in 1614, often quoted theAeneid and included almost an entire book on the Punic Wars.l20Ralegh wrotethat history had left no trace of "Carthage, Rome and the rest, no fruit, flower,grasse, nor leafe,springing upon the face ofthe Earth, ofthose seedes: No, theirvery roots and mines doe hardly rernaine," Rome, he said, had deliberated in"good Ieysure to devise upon the mine of Carthage; after which, the race of[Carthage's neighbor] Masanissa himselfe was shortly by them rooted up;' justas the Carthaginians had been.l21From the sixteenth century on, advocates ofreligious or ethnic violence often cited the Carthaginians as a prime precedentof an exterminated people.

Perpetrators even quoted Cato directly. During the English conquest of

Clas si ca lGenoc id e and Earl yMode rn Memorythe Scottish Highlands, London's secretary of state for Scotland, Sir John Dal-rymple, wrote in 1691 of the MacDonald clan of Glencoe: "[Tlhere is no reck-oning with them; delenda est Carthago." Dalrymple meant what he said. Hede-scribed the Catholic MacDonalds as"the only popish clan in the kingdom, anditwill be popular to take a severe course with them:' He instructed the authori-tiesin Scotland to use "fire and sword and all manner of hostility; to burn theirhouses, . .. and to cut off [kill] the men: ' Dalrymple termed this "rooting outthe damnable sept [clan]:' KingWilliam signed orders to attack the clan leaderMaclain of Glencoe "and that tribe" and "to extirpate that band ofthieves:' Dal-rymple urged "that the thieving tribe in Glencoe may be rooted out in earn-est:' 'Thesegenocidal orders passed down the chain of command. When theyreached Scotland, the commander in chief there, SirThomas Livingstone, knewthat MacIain had surrendered two weeks earlier and sworn an oath of loyalty.YetLivingstone told Lieutenant Colonel James Hamilton that "the orders areso posit ive from Court to me not to spare any of them that have not timelycome in; ' that he should "begin with Glencoe, and spare nothing which be-longs to him, but do not trouble the Government with prisoners:' Dalrympleinsisted that despite its surrender, the "thieving tribe" must be "rooted out andcut off.Itmust be quietly done:' Hamilton informed Major Robert Duncanson:"TIle orders are that none be spared:' Duncanson instructed Captain RobertCampbell "to put to the sword all under seventy: ' It was "the King's specialcommand" that "these miscreants be cut off root and branch:' Attacking Glen-coein a snowstorm, troops killed Maclain and 37of his men in their homes,and some women and children, but most of the dan escaped. Days later,whenHamilton reported taking prisoners, Livingstone ruled it"amistake that thesevillains were not shot;' and he ordered all prisoners "dispatched ... where theyare found:' Dalrymple wrote: 'All I regret is,that any ofthe sept got away:'122

Continued conflict and territorial expansion brought cumulative assaultson subject cultures, as rising racism fortified religious conquest. Spain de-prived the Muslims of Castil le of their jural autonomy in 1412, and of theirArabic schools by 1462. After the Turkish capture of Constantinople in 1453,Pope Nicholas empowered the Portuguese monarch to enslave "all Saracensand pagans whatsoever, and all other enemies of Christ wheresoever;' and toseize their lands and property. ':" In 1483, Spain enslaved captives taken in its"just war" against Muslims in Valencia, and six years later the Catholic crownapproved the enslavement of Canary Islanders, who were allegedly heretics,though in fact Christians.':"


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EARLY IMPERIAL EXPANSION

Theyear 1492 heralded Spain's expansion into the New World, but also theexpulsion of its Jewsand the conquest ofthe last Muslim state on the IberianPeninsula . Reporting on his voyage, Christopher Columbus wrote to KingFerdinand and Queen Isabella: "On 2 January in the year 1492, when your High-nesses had concluded their war with the Moors who reigned in Europe, I sawyour Highnesses' banners victoriously raised on the towers ofthe Alhambra ...Therefore having expelled all the Jewsfrom your domains in that same monthof January, your Highnesses commanded me to go with an adequate fleet tothese parts of India:' Historian LisaJardine writes that the Spanish crown now"announced an official policy" of "ethnic and doctrinal purity:' rejecting notonly the "vigorous and heterogeneous trade throughout the known world" butalso the contribution of specialist artisana1 manufactures produced by ethnicand religious communities. In itsnew westward search for commodities free ofthe "network of Christian, Jewish and Islamic agents, merchants and middle-men," Spain sought "an ethnically cleansed 'new world,"? 25

At home, forcible conversion of all Spanish Muslims neared completion by1526,but racialist thinking outstripped religious persecution. Now even theirpractice of Christianity failed to protect these converted "Moriscos" Madridbanned Moorish costumes, veils, and the use of Arabic and even imposedSpanish names, in what Bartlett calls"a policy of cultural genocide:' In the six-teenth century, race became a prominent feature of human categorization. Bythe seventeenth, Spain was demanding "purityofblood" -110 Jewish or Muslimforbears. In 1609-14, Madrid deported up to a third of a million Moriscos. ':"

The first biological racial theories arose in the New World, inspired by apastoral vision and justifying agricultural colonization. From the sixteenthcentury, Creole thinkers in the Americas considered the hemisphere a pastoralParadise , the Garden of Eden. Accepting the biblical doctr ines of Creationand common human descent from Adam and Eve, they avoided the heresy ofpolygenesis and instead traced what they considered the inferiority of NativeAmericans to Noah's curse on Ham. TI1is enabled Spanish intellectuals fromthe New World to rebut metropolitan critics of the colonies by asserting thatvirtue lay in "lands, not peoples;' and to abandon the hitherto influential envi-ronmental determinism that, in the case of a paradise, precluded Indian inferi-ority. In Mexico City in 1591, the emigre Spanish physician Juan de Cardenaspublished Problemas y s ec re to s ma ra v il lo so s d e l as I n di as , which the historianJorge Canizares Esguerra calls possibly "the first modern treatise on racialphysiology:' Predating modem scientific racism by two centuries, Cardenas

C la ss ic al G e no ci de a nd E a rl y M o de rn Memory 71distinguished Europeans from Indians by contrasting "the compositionorganization of our [body] and theirs:' The colonial intellectual Enrico Mar-tinez wrote in 1606 that Indians and blacks had mental "abilities far inferiorto that of the Spaniards:' as each group was made of different "matter"possessed its own "temperament, disposition of the brain and body organs:'Racial distinctions assumed agricultural import by the mid-seventeenth cen-tury, when a Jesuit in the Indies asserted that Indians were "phlegmatic by na-ture;' whereas "[i]n Spain a single man does more work in his fields than fourIndians will do here,"!"

Spain also imported antiquity to the New World. In what is now Colom-bia, conquistadors founded Cartagena in 1533, naming it after the town Han-nibal's brother-in-law Hasdrubal had established in Spain, "New Carthage;'in 227 B.C.E. Construction of Cartage itself began in Costa Rica in 1564.128Meanwhile, Hernan Cortes, having conquered Mexico, returned to Spain andsailedwith the putative heir ofAeneas, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V,in hisunsuccessful attack on Algiers in 1541.129 Thirty years later,Charles V's illegiti-mate son, the Spanish commander Don John of Austria, captured Tunis. DonJohn"went to hunt lions and wild bulls on the very site of Carthage:'130 Theimperial and the pastoral had returned to the scene of a classical crime.

Genocide in the Classical World

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