The history of mass killings is as old as organized human society itself, stretching from the earliest city-states to the modern era. In the ancient world, such acts were often a calculated part of warfare rather than an aberration. Assyrian rulers, for instance, proudly recorded on stone slabs how they wiped out rebellious cities, killing men, women and children to set an example for anyone who might resist. Alexander the Great, while remembered as a brilliant tactician, did not shy away from slaughter. The destruction of Thebes in 335 BCE was as much a political warning as it was a military action. The Romans were equally ruthless when it suited them, from the near eradication of the Dacians to the siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE, where entire communities were destroyed. Outside of Europe and the Near East, mass killings took different forms. The Mongols under Genghis Khan in the 13th century used them as a psychological weapon, obliterating entire cities like Nishapur and Baghdad, sometimes killing hundreds of thousands in a single campaign to ensure that others would surrender without a fight. In the Americas before European contact, the Aztecs practiced large-scale ritual killings, especially of captured warriors, seeing it as both a religious duty and a way to reinforce their political dominance. In all these cases, the killings were not random or senseless. They were deliberate tools of power, designed to remove threats, control populations and shape the political map. The technology has changed over the centuries but the reasoning behind such acts, rooted in fear, ambition and control, has stayed much the same.