who said "divide and conquer"

[akaceefax]

who coined the phrase "divide and conquer" or "divide and rule"

[Hippy]

The origin is lost in antiquity. "Divide et impera" was a well used Latin phrase used during the Roman Era, but doubtless the scheme has been in use on personal, family, village and tribal levels since the dawn of humanity

Put at its simplest, it is the strategy of gaining and maintaining power over people by breaking up allegiances so that individuals are subject to the one implementing the strategy. It is implemented by causing squabbles so that people's energies are spent in a small and essentially futile spat and miss that main subjugation going on.

Effective use of this technique allows those with little real power to control those who, if acting collectively, would have a lot of power.

[TommyC]

I believe it's normally attributed to Alexander the Great...