The Family as a Target for Revenge in Greek and Roman History

Abstract

The ancient literary evidence reveals a number of occasions when the families of rulers or of individuals of some importance in Greek and Roman history were excoriated and often exterminated, either when these political figures fell from power or lost the favour of their subject populations. In particular, the history of Syracuse between about 405 and 212 BC is notable for the excessive punishment meted out to the families of the tyrants of this city. Elsewhere, in Ptolemaic Egypt, in the Roman Republic and during the Roman Empire other examples can be found roughly between 220 BC and AD 250. This paper, first of all, seeks to explore the reasons for these sometimes arguably irrational revenge attacks on the family of former rulers and, secondly, endeavours not only to explain the causes for such activities but also whether or not any trends in this behaviour might be illustrated. In the end, the targeting of families for revenge appears to be largely a phenomenon found in Sicily and Magna Graecia, occasionally to be found at Rome, but appears to disappear with the advent of Christianity.