Even the first years of battles (if you read up to Book Three,as far as the fourth year of the war) contain a litany of war crimes. Soldiers are massacred or stoned in pits,cannibalism is rumoured,crops are burned and besieged cities starved,captives are murdered or sold as slaves,and classical,democratic,glittering Athens debates whether to put the entire population of a state to death (Mytilene,after a revolt there). Whimsical period detail may sometimes seem to domesticate Attica. Some troops advance wearing shoes only on their left feet,to avoid slipping on mud. Sailors planning a surprise attack carry only their oars,cushions and rowlock thongs. One shoe on,or cushion in hand,those warriors were bent on wholesale destruction. The ancient Greeks may be short of modern kit,but they could take on special forces in a fair fight.
For those concerned that we might not appreciate"the chances and changes of war",Thucydides offers realpolitik worthy of Sun Tzu or Henry Kissinger. He does so in an enviably unvarnished,unfussed manner,relying on"the plainest evidence"to reach"conclusions which are generally reasonable".Private Eye's inauguration issue imagined Donald Trump pledging to"tell the post-truth,the alternative truth and nothing like the truth". For his part,Thucydides simply tells the truth.
Thucydides'maxims on statecraft remain disconcertingly current. The strong do what they want,while the weak suffer what they must."It is generally the best policy to make the fewest errors of judgment.""There is often no more logic in the course of events than there is in the plans of men."Words of counsel are delivered with brutal frankness,as well as a bracing insistence that people both face facts and face up to catastrophe. As the Athenian general,Pericles,reminds his people about their imperial ambitions,"your empire is now like a tyranny:it may have been wrong to take it;it is certainly dangerous to let it go".
Pericles'most cutting rebuke to his countrymen was simply that"you are losing your grip on the common safety". The"common safety"may serve as a marker for the common good,or for that happy time Thucydides recalls,"when the state was wisely led and firmly guarded". Betrayal of allies,courting of enemies (even the arch-villain,the king of Persia),defeats and plagues,none of that seems to undermine – to borrow an American phrase – the notion of Athens as a shining city on a hill.
For those wearied by war,Thucydides offers Pericles'funeral oration,a speech more principled and more majestic than any inaugural address in Washington. There,to remind us of governing principles,we are admonished by being told that"happiness depends on being free,and freedom depends on being courageous". We learn once more that"our love of what is beautiful does not lead to extravagance;our love of things of the mind does not make us soft"(Pericles had not seen Trump Tower). Those leery of sacrifice might ponder that"all the world is the graveyard of famous men".
If we worry about pre-emptive strikes,disproportionate responses,overblown martial rhetoric and ruthlessly vicious fighting,this is the book to read. Thucydides leaves no room for facile romance,sentimentality or fake heroism.
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The New York Times asks an author each week which book they would recommend to their president. They would do well to pick Thucydides,substituting his blood-stained,bare-knuckle wisdom for more contemporary works,let alone earnestly stuffed briefing books,talk-show prattle or sententious op-eds. If Clinton voters were seeking particular advice,I would defer to the Spartan king Archidamus:"people grow angry when they suffer things that they are quite unused to suffer".
Mark Thomas is a Canberra-based writer.