In the ancient and medieval periods, soldiers who were recruited in the army were not paid. In Athens, it was the duty of every citizen to serve in the army without payment. The Romans also followed this tradition, but after retiring from the army, the soldiers would be granted a piece of land to take care of their livelihood.

In the subcontinent, although the sultans and the Mughal emperors had a system of fixed salaries for their soldiers, but in practice, it would not be paid for years. Under these circumstances, in case of victory, the soldiers were tempted to get their share of war booty.

They believed that they were justified in pillaging the enemy camp as well as in plundering captured cities. Generally, the treasury and valuables were reserved for the rulers and their generals. Since women were considered commodities, they were also distributed like other war booty while the most beautiful ones were reserved for the king and his nobles.

Euripides (406 BC) in his tragedy, The Trojan women describes how after Greeks won the Battle of Troy, they distributed the women of the vanquished as slaves among those who had killed their husbands, fathers and brothers in the battlefield. Post-war slavery was not limited to women of course, and Caesar (d.44 BC) after defeating the Gauls took 60,000 people as slaves to plough land, work in mines or as domestic servants.

Beyond slave labour and loot, the display of war booty also served a political purpose. The Roman emperors and generals particularly enjoyed displaying war booty to the people of Rome who would stand on either side of the triumphal avenue, applauding and admiring the victory of their army.

In this way, the Roman emperors propagated their power in order to win popular support. As a part of the propaganda, artists carved the scenes of battles in which emperors were shown looking down at the slain soldiers of the enemy as they captured war booty. These pillars were erected in the Forum where the citizens of Rome admired them and praised their rulers.

In the subcontinent, Mohammed Bin Qasim (695 –715) defeated Raja Dahar and got hold of his treasury. After the conquest of Multan, he also acquired wealth from the sun temples. This war booty was sent to Al-Hajjaj with a letter saying that whatever was spent on the conquest of Sindh was financially compensated by this booty. Mahmud of Ghazni (994-1030) also swept away wealth from the subcontinent to Ghazna. When Babar occupied Delhi after defeating Ibrahim Lodhi in the Battle of Panipat (1560), he distributed the war booty among his soldiers. His generosity was such that he sent one Shah-Rukhi (a small coin), to every citizen of Kabul.

When Nadir Shah invaded India in 1738, he took away all the accumulated treasures of the Mughal emperors. Ahmad Shah Abdali (1742-1772) followed suit and collected war booty after defeating the rulers in the subcontinent. Jang Bahader of Nepal, who supported the British in the 1857 war after defeating Awadh rebels took away 150 carts of war booty to Nepal.

In 1795, Napoleon invaded Italy and brought the antiquities of ancient Rome to Paris. After invading Egypt in 1798, he collected ancient Egyptian artifacts which are now displayed in the Louvre Museum. What he could not bring to France was captured by the British who occupied Egypt after the departure of Napoleon. This collection, including the rosetta stone, is also displayed in the British museum.

More recently, when the Americans occupied Iraq and Afghanistan, their soldiers stole antiquities from the museums of Baghdad and Kabul and sold them in black market. Throughout history, war booty played an important role by inspiring powerful military powers to invade other countries and collect plunder as a reward of their victory. It was wealth that was not acquired through hard labour and work but by slaughter and bloodshed. Once the treasury of the victor was full, they would use it to construct palaces, temples, forts and tombs and spend on the luxurious lifestyles of the ruling classes. Sometimes, the common people were given a part of it in order to gain popularity.

The vanquished countries suffered financial losses which took a long time to recover from, and sometime the losses would be irreversible. It was ironical how even the victors who brought war booty back could not sustain their power for a long time. Great empires declined and in the end they left behind dilapidated buildings and monuments as a reminder that nothing lasts forever.