It often doesn't and a lot of historians are very aware of this. The wars of ASOIAF are brutal affairs which make no sense. The idea of total war didn't become a thing until much later on. This is just one example. Bret Devereaux talks about this on his blog [1] and other historians have stuff to say also.
P.S. The comments on this thread are a tire fire. I feel like I'm reading random Twitter drive-by comments oh boy.
The ACOUP blog post only deals with the Middle Ages, and only on the European Middle Ages. (And a brief reference to the pre-Middle Age eras notes that the Romans were very much proponents of total war.)
The idea of total war didn't become a thing until much later on.
Troy, Assyria, Babylon, Macedonia, Carthage, and Mesopotamia would like to have a word with you on that point. Or they would, if they hadn't been completely wiped out. The Mongol Hordes were known for total warfare. It was their whole spiel: join us, or be completely destroyed.
The very concept of not targeting civilian populations during warfare is so recent that there are people still alive today who were around when the idea was first proposed.
ASOIAF however portrays a very clearly medieval society -- vassalage (badly used in the story, but obviously meant to be quite feudal), the general tech level with castles (not palaces!) and the language used are all meant to evoke a late medieval feeling. What Rome did with Carthage is pretty immaterial in this context, because no medieval European ruler would have either the inclination or the ability to enact such destruction.
I'd also point out that destroying an entire city is not total war. Brutality in war and targeting civilians isn't enough to be total war in itself, especially if it's limited to exceptional circumstances -- in general, Rome was extremely happy to conquer new populations to increase their ability to extract wealth.
Sigh okay you got me, I was referring to the European Middle Ages, the implicit background for this thread, for LoTR, and for ASOIAF. I thought the context would be obvious but you win this pedantry.
> "Troy, Assyria, Babylon, Macedonia, Carthage, and Mesopotamia would like to have a word with you on that point. Or they would, if they hadn't been completely wiped out."
P.S. The comments on this thread are a tire fire. I feel like I'm reading random Twitter drive-by comments oh boy.
[1]: https://acoup.blog/2019/05/28/new-acquisitions-not-how-it-wa...