From Cannibals to Prison Camps: The Dark History of POWs—and Why It Still Matters

Slaughtered, enslaved, and even eaten—how war prisoners have always been the first victims of civilization.
And the world still hasn’t changed much.

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■ When POWs Were Currency: A Global Tradition of Brutality

From ancient Greece and Rome to the Aztecs and beyond, prisoners of war (POWs) have long served as tools of domination, labor—and even food. What we now call war crimes were, for millennia, the very foundation of empire.

Today’s international laws outlaw torture, slavery, and inhumane treatment of POWs. But for most of human history, enslaving and exploiting captives was not only tolerated, but expected.

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■ Plato and Aristotle Owned Slaves—Literally

The golden age of Athens was built on forced labor. In Sparta, the enslaved Helots outnumbered free citizens two to one. Even philosophical giants like Plato and Aristotle owned slaves.

In 416 BCE, Athens laid siege to Melos, a small neutral island state. When Melos refused to submit, Athens executed all adult males and sold the women and children into slavery. When accused of tyranny, Athens coolly replied:

“In the world of gods, the strong rule the weak. That’s not our invention—it’s natural law.”
(Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War)

Sound familiar? It’s the same logic dictators still use today.

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■ Rome vs. Carthage: War Crimes on Both Sides

In 216 BCE, Hannibal of Carthage crushed Roman forces at Cannae, capturing 8,000 prisoners. When Rome refused to pay ransom, he sold them as slaves to Greek markets. Seven decades later, Rome returned the favor:
In 146 BCE, Rome burned Carthage to the ground, enslaved 50,000 civilians (including children), and salted the earth to prevent future crops—a calculated act of environmental warfare.

Today, that would be classified as a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.

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■ What Did Primitive Tribes Do With Captives?

Before states existed, even tribal leaders faced a dilemma:
Feeding, guarding, or releasing a POW all posed risks.
Anthropologist Marvin Harris explained:

“Pre-state societies lacked the capacity to absorb captives. Killing them was often the only option.”
(Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches, 1974)

And sometimes—yes—they were eaten.

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■ Cannibalism as State Policy: The Aztec Example

In the Aztec Empire, human sacrifice wasn’t just religious—it was nutritional. Lacking large game animals, the Aztecs used war captives as a protein source.
Hearts were torn out on pyramid altars, and the bodies were distributed to nobles as meat.

“From the priest’s knife to the noble’s plate—the Aztec war machine was also a butcher shop.”
(Marvin Harris, Good to Eat, 1985)

Grotesque? Absolutely. But the Spanish conquistadors who destroyed the Aztecs arguably committed worse atrocities—mass slavery, extermination, and cultural erasure.

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■ Modern Warfare, Old Logic: Are We Really Better?

We tell ourselves we’ve evolved. But today’s wars still enslave, humiliate, and exploit entire populations:

• In Israeli prisons, around 4,700 Palestinian political prisoners remain detained—many of them forced to manufacture military gear.

• In war zones across Africa and the Middle East, child soldiers, sex slaves, and prison labor are widespread.

• During the Iraq War, the U.S. military outsourced interrogations to private contractors who used techniques resembling torture.

We may not call them slaves, but the dynamics haven’t changed.

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■ Final Thought: Can the Civilized Still Cast Stones?

Anthropologist Harris warned:

“In a world teetering on the edge of global war, we have no moral high ground from which to mock the Aztecs. Whether corpses rot in no-man’s-land or are devoured at a ritual feast, the dead remain dead.”
(Good to Eat, 1985)

Modern war may be more sanitized, but it is no less brutal.
Whether through economic subjugation, political incarceration, or displacement of entire ethnic groups, the ancient logic of conquest persists.