Did The Ancient Romans Actually Commit Genoc1de?

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All the good links: Come watch me live stream on Twitch! Almost every night 9pm CST https://www.twitch.tv/metatrongemini Join this channel to get access to more old school Metatron videos the algorithm wouldn't prioritize! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIjGKyrdT4Gja0VLO40RlOw/join I have a Patreon page with extra content! https://www.patreon.com/themetatron My second channel about languages https://www.youtube.com/@metatronacademy My third channel about gaming https://www.youtube.com/@TheProtectorate-yq7vi My Twitter/X https://x.com/pureMetatron Illustration for the base of the thumbnail: DALL-E In contemporary historical literature, a particularly active school of thought in Anglo-Saxon countries in recent years has brought to light critical issues related to various aspects of the assertion of Roman hegemony, specifically concerning methods of conflict management, conquest, and attitudes toward defeated and subjugated peoples. The risk of applying contemporary standards to an ancient context can lead to seemingly straightforward reasoning that starts from inconsistent assumptions, using moral and ethical categories formed and rooted in our society in response to a specific historical path, which in ancient sociocultural contexts was still far from emerging. Self-criticism and self-analysis regarding the events of the British Empire and colonial Europe in general have certainly played a crucial role in this form of historical approach, and while the perspective of raising moral questions regarding the imperialist dynamics of the ancient world can generate interesting analytical insights, the risk of a transfer phenomenon should sound as a caveat that we cannot lightly ignore. One of the most striking cases is the attribution of the label "genoc1de" to the actions of various figures in the Roman world. WHAT "GENOC1DE" MEANS First of all, to address this topic, it is necessary to clarify the exact meaning of the term "Genoc1de," and to explore its history: "Genoc1de" is a modern term, created by historian Raphael Lemkin in reaction to N4zi crimes in German-occupied Europe, more specifically the crimes of the Holocaust. The term was then retrospectively applied to the case of the Armenians at the beginning of the twentieth century, and to that of Native Americans, and in the Spanish conquest of the New World. More recently, "Genoc1de" has been applied to define cases in Uganda, the former Yugoslavia, Myanmar, and China. The crime of genoc1de is defined by the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genoc1de (adopted in 1948 and entered into force in 1951): "Genoc1de means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) killing members of the group; (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group." CAESAR, THE GERMANS AND THE CELTS The intention to destroy is therefore crucial, while it matters less whether the intention was fully or partially realized. Starting from this definition, let's see if this can be applied to cases that occurred in Ancient Times during the expansion of Rome's hegemony. Caesar's campaign in Gaul, and in particular some specific episodes involving certain Celtic and Germanic populations, is one of the cases most often cited when attributing genocidal practices to the Romans. One of the most frequently cited episodes is that of the Usipetes and the Tencteri, two Germanic populations who had migrated to Gaul after being driven from their lands by the more powerful Germanic nation of the Suebi. Identifying them as a dangerous element for his hegemonic aspirations in Gaul and a harbinger of instability, Caesar approaches them with his legions, and first tries to convince them to return to Germany, offering them to settle near the Ubii, a population with which he had established alliance relationships and over which he could exert pressure. However, he receives evasive answers, and after fruitless negotiations which, according to the commander, were only meant to allow the Germans to organize for an offensive, the Roman cavalry is attacked and routed by that of the barbarians. Caesar's response is immediate and deadly: the following day, the legionaries swoop down on the enemy, evidently unprepared, and the commander reports that: "Their fear was evident from their shouting and chaotic running. #ancienthistory #romanempire #juliuscaesar