The preamble to the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide recognizes "that at all periods of history genocide has inflicted great losses on humanity". Studies of the phenomenon of genocide have, however, tended to concentrate on the modern world. The original contributions in this volume turn the focus to the question of genocide and mass violence in the ancient world, with a particular emphasis on the worlds of Greece, Rome and the Near East. This volume presents a range of views on the challenges of applying the modern concept of "genocide" to an ancient context. It also considers the causes, motivations, and justifications of ancient mass violence, as well as contemporary responses to, and critiques of, such violence, along with how mass violence was represented and remembered in ancient literature and iconography. In addition, chapters analyse what drove the perpetrators of mass violence, and the processes of victimization, as well as the consequences of mass violence and ravaging warfare, including in particular mass enslavement and sexual violence.

The first volume in the comprehensive six-volume reference work which thematically covers the history of genocide from antiquity through to the present day.

About the Author
Tristan S. Taylor is Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History at the University of New England, Australia, and a University Associate of the University of Tasmania, Australia. He was Visiting Fellow at the Yale University Genocide Studies Program (2013-14) and Visiting Scholar at the University of Texas, Austin (2015), USA.


Book Information
ISBN 9781350469747
Author Dr Tristan S. Taylor
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC