18. Sabotage to Worsen Civilians’ Lives, and Keep Them Disgruntled
The Sicarii adopted a strategy common among terrorists today, by committing acts of sabotage to worsen the populace’s living conditions and keep them disgruntled. Faced with an occupier ready to resort to indiscriminate violence, they committed atrocities that all but guaranteed massive Roman retaliation. That forced the hands of many fence-sitters by presenting them with unenviable choices.
They could do nothing, and probably get massacred or enslaved by angry Romans in no mood to distinguish “good” locals from bad, or join the resistance in the hopes of gaining freedom, or at least the dignity of dying while fighting. That strategy was in evidence during the run-up to the Jewish Revolt, which began in 66 AD when the Roman governor responded to tax protests by arresting prominent Jews and looting Jerusalem’s Temple.