When Annihilating A People Is Perhaps Called For

It's a piece of history that interests me anyway. We French military historians dwell on it sometimes. In Provence there lies a small fortified town perched on top of a hill which has rocky sides and is situated amongst other rocky hills. It is on a direct level with a neighbouring hill top. An unusual and unloquacious community had settled there, I might even call it a rare and precious one, but know that I am biased. They tolerated little aggression amongst themselves. They knew that the bullying women, words and actions, and the aggression of men, had no right over their equable day, and no right to waste their time. It's clear also that they knew something of the criminal mind - naturally nothing like our own modern understanding of it - but they rigidly separated explanation from excuse. God knows what happened to many delinquents, we can only guess; certainly their written records simply cease.

One morning many columns of dust were spotted slowly approaching through the hills; then when the columns were obscured, only sounds could be heard. In the afternoon the first black specks of a mighty army hove into view on the hill opposite; an army far larger in number than the town's population, an army of 10,000 we estimate. Like the town, the hill opposite had a flat top and there amassed a terrible army dressed and equipped for siege. The records show remarkably little interest in just who these people were; they were aggressive and therefore their conversation necessarily boring and of no interest.

The nobleman of this fortified town permitted himself the discomfort of riding to the walls and peering across. Allowing his eyes to rest on these barbarians (as his people would know them to be) and after thought - much resented by the way - he ordered life in the town to continue unconcerned and for two scouts to concern themselves with the matter.

The chieftain opposite, clearly visible with hands on hips, watched for several hours the tradesmen and herdsmen and children who continued to pass through the open gates. Then he sat down on the earth and his laughter could be heard over the town walls. A few barbarians were sent down into the gorge below and there they waited staring upwards - a woman was nearly caught down there and only escaped through the shouts of some others higher up. After this episode the nobleman sent a volunteer horseman of extraordinary courage to slither down and ride slowly and quite openly before the barbarian group, and then after careful signaling of his intention, to throw a message by sling gently into their midst.

The message was simple: should the barbarians perpetrate one single act of aggression (following the receipt of this clear message) they would be instantly wiped-out to a man. Otherwise they were quite free to pass through this land and travel onwards.

A roar of laughter arose from the barbarian camp, and the first boulder was fired from their tall slings; the missile, a ranging shot, landed on the roof of a cottage at the back of the town, and half destroyed the building.

What happened next was an act of technology. These unloquacious townsfolk had a mastery of explosives and mining that was centuries ahead of the uncivilized world. A technology ignorance and imbalance that rarely occurs in human history. The top of the neighboring hill simply 'went up'. The effect was predictable. Perhaps 10,000 wiped away. An hour later, when the dust settled, some twenty live barbarians could be seen sitting still, or stepping slowly, all probably deaf. Later it was made clear to them that, if they were to be allowed to leave the place, they must burn the mess on the hill, corpses and equipment, the town wanted nothing to do with the problem. It took them nearly two months to complete the work; nobody paid them much attention, certainly nobody tried to communicate with them, then they camped for three days somewhat bemused, and finally they disappeared one night.

There the histories end. To some it may seem a story of cruel and 'unnecessary' reaction. To this historian at least, it does not. But this is only because of the nature of these townspeople.