A Strategy of Violence?: Using Game Theory to Analyse Political Power in the Ancient Near East

Violence can be argued to be a powerful tool in securing and maintaining political power. In this interdisciplinary paper, a game-theoretical model is used in order to evaluate the role that the threat of violence has in the establishment and maintenance of control of a population, even when it is detrimental to collective well-being. The model is motivated by Assyriological data on violence. We use the model with a regional approach to describe the possible opportunities for maintenance of power that repression of the opposition and possible bribery of the military may enable. We also discuss the challenges to this analysis presented by the heterogeneous and incomplete historical data.