"I am not an expert on military history, but my impression is that
major bad behavior (pillage and rape, primarily) by soldiers
started with the rise of standing armies."
I suppose this could depend on how you define "soldier" - there's a
valid distinction to be made between, say, warriors in a pre-state
tribal society and specialized soldiers in historical times.
But. Everything I have read leads to the conclusion that warfare is
a near-universal in human societies, and that pillage, rape, and
mass murder were probably hallmarks of warfare long before any
distinction was made between "fit adult males" and "the army".
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