A Short History and Lessons from : The Peloponnesian War and Thucydides

"I am more afraid of my own blunders than of the enemy's devices." 

"War is a violent teacher."

- Thucydides

Thucydides was an Athenian general who witnessed the 'Peloponnesian War' and took part in it to fight against the mighty Spartans, the same Spartans who under King Leonidas and his 300 men put up a valiant last stand against the Persian king Xerxes-I in year 480 BCE . Fifty years later, 'The Peloponnesian war' was fought around 431-404 BCE, between the two city-states - Sparta and Athens. The Athenians lost the war despite being wealthy and capable enough to win it. In words of Thucydides, the Athenians lost because they were too smart for their own good. The loss was so great and humiliating for the proud Greeks that it led Thucydides to write, "A History of Peloponnesian War", a book intended to educate the future generations on 'what not to do in a war'.

The book is considered to be the first work of political science in western intellectual tradition. It offers tough-minded observations on the political order and change. Thucydides is mindful of the fact that he will be read by the future generations. He says, "I'm writing history for ages." Thucydides is very keen on passing on his learnings from the war to his fellow Athenians. He believes that civilization is a rare plant, and human nature doesn't change. We are bound to make the same mistakes again and again if we remain ignorant of our past. Something similar albeit in a different context will be repeated by Karl Marx 2400 years later when he says, "History repeats itself, first as a tragedy, second as a farce."

According to Thucydides, the war was caused because of the rising fortunes and power of Athens that posed danger to the established power of Spartans. The Spartans were unbeatable on land in man to man combat, on the other hand they were not good sailors nor capable of naval engagements. Athenians were good sailors, so they excelled at naval engagements and were not quite as good as Spartans on land. There was also different political structures that operated in both city-states, while Sparta could be categorized as an oligarchy, Athens was birthplace of democracy. Thucydides is prefiguring what Machiavelli would say centuries later : if you want to have a war, you can always find a reason. This stands true in contemporary times if we look at American adventures in Middle-East or the crisis in Ukraine. They all reiterate the same thing, "It is easy to start a war, if you want to." Spartans decided that Athens was getting too big and too strong, it was getting more dangerous by the day and they were going to have to fight them sooner or later. So Spartans issued ultimatum to Athenians and triggered the war. Bismarck's real politik talks about this being a big fish eat small fish world. We can see glimpses of this in US-China conflict in the Indo-Pacific region. It is a classic example of a long established power(read : USA) facing upcoming dangerous power(read : China) is a fertile ground for conflict.

Thucydides also writes about 'Civil War.' We take political order for granted. He says, "words change their ordinary meanings," as a result, people could no longer communicate, trust broke down, and two factions, the rich and the poor, backed by Sparta and Athens slipped into a war. The citizens in these two city-states were the ones who paid the highest price for this conflict. In words of Plato, "Only the dead have seen the end of war."

Talking about collateral damage, Thucydides tells us the story of one such incident that happened during the course of Peloponnesian war. Thracian mercenaries, regarded as barbarians, were sent by Athenians, but they landed in a wrong place, an unknown town, they probably received wrong information. But, what happens next is truly barbaric and went down in history as 'The Ravaging of Mycalessus.' The Thracian mercenaries quickly realized that they have come to the wrong place as there was no one waiting to fight them. But, they came with intention of killing things. So, they looked around and what they found first was a school house, full of teachers and school boys. They were massacred. That little vignette, meant nothing militarily, it made no sense, achieved nothing and yet what it meant was that a bunch of children and a couple of teachers got impaled and slashed to death. Welcome to war!

In the present times we hear about war crimes and killing of innocents everyday and we remember the warnings of Thucydides when he said, humans don't change. The term 'Thucydides Trap' has gained some traction in geopolitics. It is the inevitability or strong likelihood of war between an established hegemonic power and a rising power that wishes to be treated as an equal and demands respect. US and China are best examples of this trap. Our technological amplification of military destruction makes the 'Thucydides Trap' far more dangerous now than ever.

In conclusion, 'The Peloponnesian War' is a rational account of power politics from Thucydides. In his words, "War is an evil thing; but to submit to the dictation of other states is worse.... Freedom, if we hold fast to it, will ultimately restore our losses, but submission will mean permanent loss of all that we value.... To you who call yourselves men of peace, I say: You are not safe unless you have men of action on your side." He says that ultimately, fate of nations is not determined by religion, not determined by god. It is determined by human beings and their ability to apply force.