Bret Devereaux

Oh, I am so up for that!

Have anything pertinent on Rome?

I can certainly talk about Roman pacification strategies in the provinces. Obviously the political and cultural environment is a lot different - Rome can 'get away' with a lot more brutal pacification in a situation where the 'norms of war' are more permissive.

But at the same time, the total level of force for the Romans is a lot lower. No police forces, they are reliant on local (non-Roman) authorities in many cases. Flood-the-zone COIN for them is impossible, so they're forced to work through local agents.

I suppose one could argue then that mass indiscriminate killings were partly a result of the prohibitive costs of intelligence collection?

Roman authorities often rely on local leaders for intelligence collection (this is clearest, ironically, in the persecution of Christians). I think the better way of seeing mass violence is 'exemplary violence' is one a in the Roman toolbox. pour encourager les autres.

And the Romans tend to pick targets for such violence - and even commemorate such violence - in ways that I think clearly intend to communicate that to other members of the same group or other groups.

Like the IUDAEA CAPTA coins, which commemorated the very violent suppression of the First Jewish Revolt (66-73), which were minted and distributed, pretty much empire wide - but *especially* in Judaea itself as a warning.