Wherefore, men of Lacedaemon, decree the war, as becomes the dignity of Sparta; and let not the Athenians grow greater yet…. Sthenelaidas, Spartan Ephor
More than 25 centuries ago a book began with these famous words: “Thucydides, an Athenian, wrote the war of the Peloponnesians and the Athenians….” Here is a history of arrogance, empire and violence. In the fifth century B.C. Athens had become the most powerful city in the Greek world, energized by a new form of liberty. Every great power makes enemies, and Athens made plenty. Her wealth was envied. Her policy of freedom and shared power for male citizens was feared by conservative leaders in Corinth, Thebes and Sparta.
A famous 17th century English political thinker, Thomas Hobbes, translated Thucydides’ history and offered the following words of praise. “It hath been noted,” wrote Hobbes, “that Homer in poesy, Aristotle in philosophy, Demosthenes in eloquence, and others of the ancients in other knowledge, do still maintain their primacy: none of them exceeded, some not approached, by any in these later ages. And in the number of these is justly ranked our Thucydides; a workman no less perfect in his work, than any of the former; and in whom the faculty of writing history is at the highest.” Hobbes argued that Thucydides’ history contained valuable lessons. During the 17th century England was stirred by talk of democracy and republicanism, learned from the study of Greek and Roman history. Hobbes was afraid where this talk might lead. Of course, it led to a devastating civil war that claimed more than 100,000 lives.
What made Thucydides relevant for Hobbes in the 17th century, what makes him relevant today, is the likelihood that the destabilized Greek world of Athens is a model of future destabilization. Like the Athenians of the fifth century B.C., we stand on the brink of the greatest commotion that ever happened. “To hear this history rehearsed,” Thucydides explained, “shall be perhaps not delightful.” Nonetheless, this history gains its immortality because it instructs future peoples what they might expect from runaway liberty.
There are moments in history when the world descends into madness. Everything is changed forever, and much is lost. In describing his time, Thucydides wrote: “For neither had there ever been so many cities expunged and made desolate … nor so much banishing and slaughter, some by the war and some by sedition….” When society itself is disrupted, even nature appears to rebel. Earthquakes occurred, together with an unusual number of eclipses; and there were horrible outbreaks of plague. “All these evils entered together with this war,” Thucydides stated.
Can wars of this kind happen again? Yes. Such wars will happen, again and again, until history itself comes to an end. At the outset of great troubles we seldom suspect the horrible path we have entered upon. We rarely see the danger, and the abyss opening at our feet.
In Athens there was a remarkable politician named Pericles. His famous “funeral oration,” honoring fallen Athenian heroes, sounds almost American in its logic: “We have a form of government … which, because in the administration it hath respect not to a few but to the multitude, is called a democracy. Wherein … there be an equality amongst all men in point of law for their private controversies…. And we live not only free in the administration of the state but also one with another void of jealousy touching each other’s daily course of life, not offended at any man for following his own humor…. So that conversing one with another … without offense, we stand chiefly in fear to transgress against the public and are obedient always to those that govern and to the laws, and principally to such laws as are written for protection against injury….”
According to Pericles the Athenians were the greatest people in the world. They were first in war, first in freedom, first to discover new ideas. The Athenians had discovered a new way to govern themselves. It was a better way of life, they believed. The people of other cities, of other nations, might enjoy this better way of life. For many Greek cities, however, the Athenians appeared arrogant. Their empire posed a threat.
Athens and America are not the same. But lessons applying to one may apply to the other. Once men break with tradition, venturing upon a colossal political experiment, they lose the ability to navigate. They lose their sense of proportion, their sense of right and wrong. It is always dangerous to mistake where you are, to lack the means for recognizing error, to believe that immediate success – or successes earned to date – indicate some newfound path to collective happiness.
The truth might be that an experiment, successful to date, is nonetheless headed for ultimate disaster. Perhaps there is something inherently unstable in the materials, in the people, in the situation of unprecedented success and power. Perhaps the victor is spoiled by his victories; perhaps a nation that innovates cannot grasp the consequences of so many innovations piled one upon the other.
The United States has enjoyed ascendancy for about the same length of time that Athens enjoyed its ascendency. The United States, like Athens, believes that its way of life holds the key to prosperity and liberty for other nations. And the United States, like Athens, is hated for its power. It is debatable whether the Americans have acted as unjustly and brutally as the Athenians. But one thing is certain, given the march of time: The people of the United States have lost their moral center and are in danger of falling into a kind of chaos. This chaos appears in our economic behavior – in our indebtedness and failure to observe the traditional rules of economy. We have also ignored the warnings of our forefathers about foreign entanglements. And we have lost our common sense in matters of family and personal behavior.
There is one difference between Athens and America that we must not forget. The enemies of Athens were merciful and reasonable. They did not seek to overturn the existing social order. Rather than being revolutionaries, they were reactionaries who believed in the wisdom of the past. Therefore, when Athens was defeated at the end of the Peloponnesian War, Sparta did not exterminate the Athenians or destroy the city itself. In the case of America, however, the enemy is revolutionary and nihilistic. The revolutionary socialists and Islamists are eager to kill, persecute and destroy.
And they will have weapons of mass destruction to do the job.
