Spare No One

Gabriel Baker provides a grim but important contribution to our understanding of Roman violence: atrocity and massacre were not simply adjacent or ancillary to Roman warfare but rather represented fundamental modalities of Roman military practice, alongside pitched battles and sieges. Military histories that gloss over such atrocities not only sanitize Roman war making but misunderstand it. Baker's book presents us with a clear-eyed and unflinching vision of Roman violence.--Michael Taylor, University at Albany How did the Roman Republic build Mediterranean dominance? The focus has often been upon the legions on the battlefield and the senate in the curia. But in this stimulating book, Baker turns the focus to the legions and their senatorial commanders off the battlefield, who visited horrors upon civilian populations. He provides a vivid, detailed account of the effort Romans invested in mass killings and other atrocities, for what purposes, and under what conditions. Baker has staked out the position that Rome's practice of mass violence was exceptionally persistent, often strategically purposeful, and a significant, horrifying contributor to Roman expansion during the Middle Republic.--Paul Johstono, Air University Spare No One is a must-read for anyone interested in the brutality of Roman warfare: it documents the acts of extreme violence carried out by Roman armies as a matter of routine in all periods, and it explains how and why victory on the battlefield was often followed by mass executions, the enslavement of civilian populations, or the looting and physical destruction of cities. A model of how to craft a narrative that combines careful readings of the ancient sources with modern parallels and interdisciplinary theoretical approaches, this book is an essential resource for the scholarly and general reader alike.--Alexander Thein, University College Dublin