AgentPalpatine wrote:
Usually that sort of thing is only done when:
1. The winning party does'nt fear any retaliation (ie, they just won a crushing victory), and
2. The winning party is willing to get win of the losing party once and for all (no use of the defeated for allies, chattel, cannon fodder, etc.).
This sounds like someone won, and decided to finish their enemies once and for all. The romans practically wrote the book on it.
Darn tootin' the Romans did. Just think how they had destroyed Carthage, and plowed salt into the ground. Or how they had destroyed Jerusalem and deported most of the Judean population. It has been argued that the Germans had fought so fiercely against the Romans because they knew what was in store for them if they lost.
-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer