History’s First Terrorists
During the 1st century AD, a Judean political faction known as the Zealots agitated to free the Holy Lands from the Roman yoke, leading to the Jewish Revolt of 66-73 AD. The Zealots were radical, but a splinter group known as the Sicarii thought they were not radical enough, and went to extremes that made them history’s earliest identifiable terrorists.
The Sicarii, meaning “dagger men” in Latin, were named after their knives, known as sicae. They would blend into crowds at public gatherings, then suddenly charge their victim, stab him, and blend back into the crowd during the resulting confusion and panic. They primarily targeted the pro-Roman Jewish aristocracy for killing, burned their estates, and eventually turned to kidnapping and hostage taking for ransom. Their victims included a High Priest of the Jewish Temple, after whose killing they went on an assassination spree that terrorized Judea’s upper strata of Jews and Romans.
Their victims were often targeted in order to provoke the Romans, who seldom needed much provocation before resorting to massacres and collective punishment. That kept the embers of discontent smoldering, and lit new flames of resentment while providing a steady and steadily growing stream of new recruits from the families and friends of the Romans’ victims.
The Sicarii followed a standard terrorist strategy, engaging in sabotage to worsen the public’s living conditions and keep it disgruntled. Faced with an occupier ready to resort to indiscriminate violence, they committed atrocities to invite massive Roman retaliation, thus forcing the hands of many fence sitters. They could do nothing and still end up massacred or enslaved by angry Romans in no mood to distinguish “good” natives from bad, or join the resistance in the hopes of gaining freedom, or at least the dignity of dying while fighting.