Anxieties of Violence

Abstract

Mass-violence in warfare was an acknowledged fact of the Roman world and carried great symbolic resonance, particularly when it involved the destruction of cities (Isaac 2004; Purcell 1995; van Wees 2010). Nonetheless, its use carried anxieties for the perpetrators that could manifest in at least three ways. First, anxieties could motivate mass-violence. Here we are considering anxieties beyond the military threat that someone may have posed. The second aspect is anxiety as to the justification and/or validation of violence (eg, Konstan 2007). In this regard, the Romans frequently were concerned that their use of violence be seen as justifiable against prevailing paradigms. Third, on occasion Romans displayed some anxiety as to the consequences of mass-violence. This paper will explore all three of these aspects through the prism of Rome's destruction of Carthage (eg, Chalk and Jonassohn 1990; Kiernan 2004, 2007; Miles 2011; Purcell 1995). Here we find existential anxieties driving Carthage's destruction, particularly expressed through the figure of Cato the Elder. These anxieties took two forms: one was hostility to mercantile peoples, born from Rome's own idealization of the peasant farmer. A second anxiety was a sense of collapse of Rome's internal morals, and the desire to remove Rome's strongest rival to enable an inward focus on these concerns (eg, Plut. Cato Mai. 27.3; Kiernan 2004). The second aspect - anxiety as to validation - can be found in Rome's hesitation before declaring war, despite 'long ago' resolving on Carthage's destruction, out of a desire to have first a pretext acceptable to others (Polybius 36.2.1). Finally, anxiety as to the consequences of violence can be found in the concern expressed by later writers that the destruction of Carthage marked a negative peripeteia for Rome (eg, Sallust, Bell. Cat. 10) and a realization of Scipio Nasica's fears of the dangers of removing Rome's greatest rival (Plut. Cato Mai. 27).