The 1st-century historian wrote a detailed description of a war fought between the Roman empire and North African insurgents led by a former Roman soldier named Tacfarinas. The Romans enjoyed superior resources, training, and equipment, but Tacfarinas’ forces achieved great success against them with guerrilla tactics. Nevertheless, Rome eventually won. The lessons for the U.S. war on terror, and Israel’s wars with Hamas and Hizballah, are evident. Jakub Grygiel writes:
Tacfarinas . . . in Tacitus’ evocative phrase . . . began to scatter the war, sowing terror and disruption here and there, retreating and advancing, moving to the front and then to the rear of Roman forces. . . . A relatively small rebellion became a ubiquitous war, engulfing a whole region and creating a series of challenges to the defending army. . . .
Perhaps more importantly from the political perspective, . . . Tacfarinas realized that he did not need to kill Roman soldiers to defeat them. . . . He could simply chip away at Rome’s authority and its reputation for power by mocking its forces militarily, showing that its mighty legions could not win against an enemy that they could not fix in place. . . .
The Romans had to become more like Tacfarinas’ confederation of tribes [in order to win], and so began to fight him with tactics not dissimilar from his. . . . The broad goal was to make the [insurgents] as afraid of a raid as the Romans were, while at the same time limiting their mobility by fortifying potential targets and key roads.
Read more at American Interest
More about: Ancient Rome, History & Ideas, Israeli Security, Military history, War on Terror