Which rhetorical appeal is used here?

I would go with option A. pathos.

Explanation:

Logos is an appeal to the audience's logic. That means logical arguments are presented in an order so as to take the audience down a path: due to X and Y, we should conclude Z. That is not what this specific excerpt is about.

Pathos, on the other hand, is an appeal to the audience's emotions. It targets shared feelings and cultural values with the goal of having the listener relate to what is being said. The excerpt mentions an army of mercenaries and then immediately uses words such as death, desolation, tyranny, cruelty, and perfidy. Those words, due to their meanings, have the power to scare an audience. They cause a very clear emotion: fear. It is fear that is being appealed to. Thus, the rhetorical appeal is none other than pathos.

answer: third

explanation: