[88] Plautus, Asinaria, ii. 4. 88.
[89] Mommsen, Römisches Strafrecht, p. 622 sqq.
How little regard is felt for the lives of strangers also appears from the readiness with which war is waged on foreign nations, combined with the estimation in which the successful warrior is held by his countrymen. The ancient Mexicans were never at a loss for an excuse to pick a quarrel with their neighbours, so as to be able to procure victims for sacrifices to their gods.[90] “No profession was held in more esteem amongst them than the profession of arms. The deity of war was the most revered by them, and regarded as the chief protector of the nation.”[91] The Mayas not only wanted to increase their dominions by encroachments upon their neighbours’ territory, but undertook raids with no other object than that of obtaining captives for sacrifice.[92] Speaking of the wars of the ancient Egyptians, M. Amélineau observes, “Nous n’avons pas un seul mot dans la littérature égyptienne, même dans les œuvres égypto-chrétiennes, qui nous fasse entendre le plus léger cri de réprobation pour la guerre et ses horreurs.”[93] Among the Hebrews the most cruel wars of extermination were expressly sanctioned by their religion. That an idolatrous people had no right to live was taken as a matter of course; but wars were also unscrupulously waged from worldly motives, and in their moral code there is no attempt to distinguish between just and unjust war.[94] Among the Mohammedans it is likewise the unbeliever, not the foreigner as such, that is regarded as the most proper object of slaughter. Although there is no precept in the Koran which, taken with the context, justifies unprovoked war,[95] the saying that “Paradise is under the shadow of swords”[96] is popularly applied to all warfare against infidels. Among the Celts[97] and Teutons a man’s highest aspiration was to acquire military glory. The Scandinavians considered it a disgrace for a man to die without having seen human blood flow;[98] even the slaying of a tribesman they often regarded lightly when it had been done openly and bravely. In Greece, in ancient times at least, war was the normal relation between different states, and peace an exception, for which a special treaty was required;[99] while to conquer and enslave barbarians was regarded as a right given to the Greeks by Nature. The whole statecraft of the early Republic of Rome was no doubt based upon similar principles;[100] and in later days, also, the war policy of the Romans was certainly not conducted with that conscientiousness which was insisted upon by some of their writers.
[90] Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, ii. 420. Clavigero, History of Mexico, i. 371.
[91] Clavigero, op. cit. i. 363.
[92] Bancroft, op. cit. ii. 740, 745.
[93] Amélineau, L’évolution des idées morales dans l’Égypte ancienne, p. 344.
[94] Cf. Seldeft, De Synedriis et Præfecturis Juridicis veterum Ebræorum, iii. 12, p. 1179 sqq.; Lament, Études sur l’histoire de l’humanité, i. 384 sq.
[95] This was later on admitted by Lane (Modern Egyptians, p. 574), who had previously maintained that the duty of waging holy war is strongly urged in the Koran.
[96] Pool, Studies in Mohammedanism, p. 246.