
The Illustrated Guide to Terrorism
Chapter 2: A History of Terrorism
Page 3: Terrorism Died
The very IDEA of terrorism seems to have died with the Sicarii.
The Roman Empire rose, flourished, and hundreds of years after the Sicarii were forgotten, Rome fell.
The medieval age followed, a thousand years of enormous social upheaval.
Then came centuries of global revolution… the Renaissance and the Reformation… turmoils of exploration and conquest and empires and oppression…
And not once in all that time did anyone give terrorism a try.
Perhaps it just didn’t occur to anybody. Perhaps the idea of killing innocents to influence political decisions was too immoral, or too insane. Or perhaps nobody felt empowered enough to think they COULD force government’s hand. Whatever the reason, for most of the last two thousand years, terrorism simply wasn’t a THING.
But then…