Top ten Roman Atrocities?

[jesuisavectoi]

I don't have my Plutarch's Roman Lives with me but I wrote an essay for a class this past semester about Sulla. The scene that Plutarch sets I think is one of the most horrific ones, Romans were fleeing Rome for the protection of Sulla's camp during a battle, which immediately seems bizarre - people leaving their home, the Capitol, for protection in a battlefield, I think it was Marius who had taken control of Rome, or was at least a major player in it and they begged Sulla to come back to Rome and help. As you can imagine bloody chaos ensues and they basically trade one dictator for another. He also describes Sulla leading the way with a blazing torch burning the city, citizens throwing roof tiles to protect their homes etc; Thousand were killed during this siege, and no mercy was shown. The proscriptions mentioned before as well were brutal.

 

That being said, I'm a little skeptical of Plutarch's accounts (a topic my essay ending up revolving around!) it just seems a little too sensationalized for a secondary source.

[Centurion-Macro]

I remember skimming over an event in Northern Spain, where the Romans killed everyone they could find. I can not remember the name of the war, but I wondered if you guys did?

 

It was in Northern Spain, and it was the last part of Spain to be captured.

[Late Emperor]

Caracalla killing his own brother Geta and then killing several thousands of Geta's supporters in 211.

After that massacre, Caracalla moved to Egypt in 215 and killed thousands citizens in Alexandria, allegedly for making fun of him about his fratricide.

 

Another roman atrocity are the tens of thousands citizens killed by Justinian and Theodora in 532 (Nika Revolt), although the hooliganist costantinopolians actually deserved it by rejecting the Justinian's attempts to peacefully placate them and going on to riot and devastate the City.

[Yehudah]

It may pale in comparison to some of the examples given above, but IIRC 400 young Celtiberian warriors had their right hands cut off for conspiring to aid the Numantines.

 

Not an enormous atrocity, but not exactly nice either.

Edited November 23, 2010 by Yehudah

[Viggen]

Let's see, quantity or quality of depravity? One account of a royal child's execution sticks in my mind due to the sick way they solved a certain legalistic snag about killing youngsters...

 

Would this perchance be an allusion to the execution of Sejanus' nine year old daughter?

 

...on a personal level thats the most revolting thing, if you dont know what we are talking about, Tacitus explains it...

 

It was next decided to punish the remaining children of Sejanus, though the fury of the populace was subsiding, and people generally had been appeased by the previous executions. Accordingly they were carried off to prison, the boy, aware of his impending doom, and the little girl, who was so unconscious that she continually asked what was her offence, and whither she was being dragged, saying that she would do so no more, and a childish chastisement was enough for her correction. The archivists of the time record that because there was no legal precedent for the execution of a virgin, the hangman had intercourse with her beside the noose with the rope still on her neck. Then they were strangled and their bodies, mere children as they were, were flung down the Gemoniae.

 

...on a grand scale, the genocide of the Dacians by Trajan....

[Vibius Tiberius Costa]

I would think (as this is my era) that the sacking of Corinth in 146 should be there.

 

-Every man to the sword

-Every woman and child to slavery

-Then set fire to the place

 

Lucius Mummius got 'a medal' (cognomen) for it too.

I know it was war but the battle was won, I am still trying to see the motive of the sacking maybe that needs a new topic.

 

I might put the slavery thing as a whole in as well,

 

vtc

[Hus]

Has anyone mentioned Suetonius Paulinus' brutal punitive campaigns against the post-Boudica Iceni and Trinovantes people?

 

He seemed to relish an almost personal vendetta against them, as his eventual successor, Classicianus, put it in his letters to Nero.

[Metella]

I know you have talked about focusing this to Roman actions - I know we are all here for some form of admiration of the Romans ....

 

Like another post from last year, I have to call for historical context .... such as the slaughter by order of Mithridates of every Roman man, woman, child civilians almost all - what was it - about 88,000 humans killed in one night? If we take into consideration the percentage of the population that represented - it must have affected nearly every other living Roman. So with things like this - making a determined and strong showing may have been more necessary than we can even imagine in today's world. Ghandi may not have lasted a day in this world.

 

Anyway - atrocity is a pretty strong word for some things - when they not only a part of life, but sometimes part of their culture and religion.

 

Also the putting to death of criminals in the area fights .... it was a way to not just kill them, but to allow them to find a way to die as a man. Reclaim some honor before death (well, for some of them!). I think that was some of thrill - seeing the men plough through fear and act like a Roman in the arena.

[GhostOfClayton]

I

[Divus Iulius]

1) Created the Abrahamic Religions

2) Imperator Constantine established Christianity as Official Religion

3) Created the Vatican

4) Burnt down the Library of Alexandria

5) Destroyed the Egyptian Kingdom

6) Destroyed Druid Cultures

7) Claudius Naumachia where 19,000 POWs fight and die.

8) War of Iudaia

9) Commodus slaying groups of cripples http://en.wikipedia....s_the_gladiator

10) Plagiarism of other Cultures