One of the biggest popular misconceptions about the ancient worldview is that until late antiquity, or even until the Middle Ages, people didn't value mercy at all and were exceptionally cruel. Of course, cruelty was more common in antiquity than it is today, but mercy still received its share of respect, sometimes even a great deal. The most striking example of this is the fate of Gaius Julius Caesar, who made clemency his hallmark (clementia Caesaris). Unfortunately, in some cases, he showed mercy to people who didn't deserve it—I mean the conspirators—but for the most part, his efforts to treat his enemies leniently bore fruit, especially during the Civil War. When Caesar declared that anyone who remained neutral would be considered a friend—while his opponent, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, declared the exact opposite—and after Caesar released many enemy commanders after defeating them, many cities, and even entire regions, such as Italy, surrendered with little or no fight, after which enemy legionaries often defected to Caesar in large numbers. Although Caesar's diplomacy also proved useful in the Gallic War.
Slightly less well-known is the example of clemency shown by his rival in the Civil War, Pompey. Having cleared the Mediterranean of numerous pirates in his youth, he resettled those who surrendered without a fight and those captured throughout the provinces of Rome. During the Civil War, Pompey was not inclined to show mercy, and the Roman people largely did not support him.
However, there is a significant difference in the underlying reasons that motivated and continue to motivate people of ancient and modern times to show and value mercy. In our time, the general belief is that mercy should be shown because everyone has shortcomings, and by showing leniency to others, one can expect it to be shown to oneself. In antiquity, mercy, on the contrary, came from the consciousness of one's superiority - "I can afford not to kill my enemy, and give him the opportunity to continue to live and work for the good of the Roman Republic (and himself, therefore), since I am stronger and can maintain order and prosperity on the conquered land without cutting everyone down to the roots." This is precisely why Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis, one of the most prominent representatives of the Roman oligarchy, took his own life after a well-deserved defeat in the civil war in alliance with Pompey. (Cato believed that the poor were entitled to no rights; the majority—the poor—thought otherwise.) Accepting the mercy that would likely have been granted him would have meant being weaker. (For others, it would have meant the same thing; the desire to live simply overcame it.)
A similar approach to mercy is sometimes mentioned even today by manipulators who, unwilling to accept the deserved punishment for some misdeed, declare that "mercy and forgiveness are for the strong." However, the real power of the strong is, first and foremost, to decide who is worthy of mercy and who is not.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrNoZzoctlw
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