Definition of "ravage"

But the most important service which Probus rendered to the republic was the deliverance of Gaul, and the recovery of seventy flourishing cities oppressed by the barbarians of Germany, who, since the death of Aurelian, had ravaged that great province with impunity.

1776, Edward Gibbon, chapter XII, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], pages 334–335

Now Azaēlos, the king of Syria, made war on the Israelites and their king Jehu, and ravaged the eastern parts of the country across the Jordan […] spreading fire everywhere and plundering everything and inflicting violence on all who fell into his hands.

1937, Josephus, Ralph Marcus, transl., chapter VIII, in Josephus: With an English Translation (Loeb Classical Library), volume VI (Jewish Antiquities), London: William Heinemann Ltd.; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, published 1958, book IX, paragraph 1, page 87

Would one think 'twere possible for love / To make such ravage in a noble soul!

1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, Act I, scene iii, page 2

The villages on either side of the Meyn, which were plentifully stored with corn and cattle, felt the ravages of an invading army.

1781, Edward Gibbon, chapter XIX, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume II, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], page 172

[…] and another Swedish naturalist remarks, that so great are the powers of propagation of a single species, even of the smallest insects, that each can commit, when required, more ravages than the elephant.

1835, Charles Lyell, chapter VIII, in Principles of Geology […] , 4th edition, volume III, London: John Murray, Book III, page 114