@Nunally Actually it wasn't really *that* common for it to happen. I mean, they DID happen, of course, but for the most part it wasn't that common. When you took over the land, you wanted the people who worked the land to still be there, working the land, paying you taxes, after all; you didn't just want some patch of land on its own. Even in the times of Ancient Rome, the Sacking of Carthage is such a momentous occasion *because* it was so notable as something not commonly done. That said, the Romans also had the 'ius gentium' or international law that stated that those that capitulated not on the field of battle but through diplomatic means (referring here to villages, towns, and cities, rather than to armies met on the field, obviously) would be spared, while those who resisted militarily and lost could be raped as part of the spoils of war (in short, people willing to come under Roman rule were treated well, those who didn't, weren't).