ABSTRACT
This essay explores the practice and logic of ancient genocide. It begins by arguing that the command to exterminate the idolatrous Canaanites, while of enormous theological significance, reflects a fictitious myth of origins rather than a historical reality. To put the study of ancient genocide on sound historical footing, attention shall be paid to an example of imperial genocide: the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and its populace (70 CE). This study utilizes classical sources and the Jewish historian Josephus and draws on genocide theory and analyses of Roman siege warfare. It posits that, like other genocides, this case of mass extermination was the end result of a cumulative and contingent process. The factional events in Jerusalem and the destabilizing and anxiety-producing final days of Nero’s Rome started a process that could have led to any number of outcomes. After the Flavian victory in the civil war, options narrowed to submission or a genocidal assault on Jerusalem. When the competing rebel factions which controlled Jerusalem refused to surrender, Rome’s gendered view of virtue led Titus to choose genocide as this crisis’ only logical and honorable solution.
