Genocides, one can surmise, may be as old as civilization itself. The many ancient cases of disappeared peoples and cultures may not always point to genocide, but the possibility that many of these peoples were the victims of genocide seems very likely. The reason for this is that awareness of genocide was widespread in antiquity and the frequent reports of its occurrence indicate that genocide was commonplace.

In Homer's Iliad, the Greek forces invading Troy have no qualms about planning the total destruction of its people. In Book IV, Agamemnon rouses Menelaus:

My dear Menelaus, why are you so chary of taking men's lives? Did the Trojans treat you as handsomely as that when they stayed in your house? No; we are not going to leave a single one of them alive, down to the babies in their mothers' wombs—not even they must live. The whole people must be wiped out of existence, and none be let to think of...