we are Rogue

Sometimes this does mean that they were foraging. Hunting deer and picking berries and whatnot.

Sure the pay might be bad and the food inconsistent but there will be plenty of socially acceptable opportunities to steal things.

Historians call this booty or plunder. And yes that’s what it is. But it’s also stealing. They stole stuff. Often by force, sometimes through just the implication of force. Because if a whole army full of armored up trained soldiers goes through your wheat field what are you gonna do about it? Like seriously. What are you gonna do about it?

But when the historian Adrian Goldsworthy, as many other historians, describes Caesar’s army as “foraging” it appears that they’re actually coercing villages into letting them steal their crops.

As evidenced by the fact that if a village didn’t let them “forage” in their territory Caesar stopped enforcing his policy of not letting his army raid and pillage and just let them have at it. Raping, burning, and pillaging their way through the nearby countryside.

It still happens sometimes but these days it’s usually not done with the permission of the military leadership unless you’re talking about the soldiers of warlords or terrorist organizations. It is a war crime and not officially allowed anywhere.

Napoleon was probably one of the last generals to heavily rely on plunder for feeding his troops. He did so much in fact that one majorly successful strategy that his enemies used against him was to evacuate their civilian populations and burn their own fields and food storage to starve him out.

After the Napoleonic wars in the early 1800s and the massive amount of human cost involved in them, attitudes towards the practice started to sour. It was first officially classified as a war crime after The Hague conventions of 1899 and 1907.

So basically the idea of pillaging being an unacceptable thing to do is fairly recent and it still occasionally happens under the table.

The reason it took so long is probably also the reason that it’s taking so long for death penalties and torture to fully phase out. Pre-industrial societies don’t often have the practical resources to feed thousands of soldiers thousands of miles away or to imprison people or keep track of them after they’ve committed a crime.

These days we have planes, trains, and automobiles, not to mention efficient enough farming techniques that most of our populations don’t need to work in agriculture and/or forage and hunt to survive. We can get food and people to the other side of the world in less than two days and dedicate space and resources to imprisoning people or keeping track of them while they’re on house arrest.

Before industrialization all of this was stupidly difficult. Why waste food on criminals and soldiers and waste able bodied people getting the food to them? If the food survives long enough anyways.

So the simplest solution is stealing and death. Kill the criminals to get them out of the way, let the soldiers steal food so you don’t have to waste resources and manpower feeding them.

For reference and vibes, I liberally (but not arbitrarily!) translated this passage from the 15th c. Towneley Mystery Plays, where the demon Titivillus welcomes sinners to hell. [I was only able to do that after @tuulikki helpfully gave me an accurate translation, otherwise I'd still be staring at the original Middle English in utter bafflement.]

All harlots and whores, and bawds that procure and pimp them and lure, welcome to my See!

Ye ne'er-do-wells, liars beggars and thieves, vagrants and brawlers that all men reproach, despoilers, extortioners, welcome, my loves!

Perjurers, usurers, and oath-breakers who get paid lies to tell, gamblers and forgers, backbiters and slanderers, all welcome to Hell!

And then I got distracted, because although I couldn't make it rhyme perfectly, I was AMAZED at how much the whole vibe, and even some vocabulary, reminded me of "God's gonna cut you down".

Go tell that long-tongue liar, go and tell that midnight rider, tell the rambler, the gambler, the back-biter, tell 'em that god's gonna cut 'em down

“Hey, none of that. You're a valued member of the team, no matter what your power level.”

“I just don't understand how you can tear open that portal to the fire dimension so easily.”

“… fire dimension?”

“Yeah. Where the fire lives. Before you summon it. For fireballs.”

Leslie Fish - Lucifer

Let me teach you to wonder and worry Permit me to tell you how to wage war A creature's reach should exceed its grasp Or what's a heaven for?

I'll show you the way to take thought for tomorrow To struggle for dreams and to hunger for more A creature's sight should outrun its might Or what are the heavens for?

Taste of the fruit of the tree that is knowledge Of good and of evil and all the world's lore A creature's thought must exceed what it's taught Or who is heaven for?

this sign i encountered while visiting Lublin (Poland)