this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2025
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Explanation: Romans placed a relatively high value on the idea of bellum iustum - ‘justified war’, rather than just conquering their enemies to hear the lamentations of their women and all that jazz. On one hand, this is a very good and civilized thing, to demand of oneself justification for acts of violence, a step, however small, in the right direction.
On the other hand, as the Romans were a very warlike people, this meant that Rome was generally eager to pounce on any slight that could give them a justification for intervening and putting yet another province under their heel. Raid a ‘friend of Rome’? Full-scale war. Mistreat a Roman citizen? Full-scale war. Technical violation of some minor clause of the last peace treaty you signed? Oh, you better believe that’s full-scale war.
They also seemed to hold a grudge.
Rome lost a battle to you 100 years ago. They remembered.