The same man, stimulated by private pique against the MEGARENSIANS,[2] another nation of Greece, or to avoid a prosecution with which he was threatened as an accomplice of a supposed theft of the statuary Phidias,[3] or to get rid of the accusations prepared to be brought against him for dissipating the funds of the state in the purchase of popularity,[4] or from a combination of all these causes, was the primitive author of that famous and fatal war, distinguished in the Grecian annals by the name of the
PELOPONNESIAN war; which, after various vicissitudes, intermissions, and renewals, terminated in the ruin of the Athenian commonwealth.
His "History of the
Peloponnesian War" recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC.
Among the topics are a Thucydidean perspective on whether liberal democracy is an impossible synthesis, piety and Athenian imperialism in Thucydides'
Peloponnesian War, Nikias' virtue, whether separation of powers is in the History: Thucydides on the measured virtue of the five thousand, and why US democracy needs Thucydides now more than ever.
History buffs shouldn't take this too seriously (remember, it's still a work of fiction despite its factual setting), but instead allow one's imagination to wonder just what it must've been like during the
Peloponnesian War, and the way of life of those caught in the middle, in order to survive.
Summary: People in the Middle East aren't known for letting things go; every perceived insult, affront or breach of trust is treated with the same gravity as the
Peloponnesian War, and reconciliation never comes with recompense.
Set in the year 431BC, the game plays out during a fictional history of the
Peloponnesian War.
The first chapter, "Defining Strategy as Psychology," provides context for strategy's overall psychological evolution from human and cultural perspectives dating from classical Greek Thucydidan insights on the
Peloponnesian War to a more distinct strategy in Europe's eighteenth century with key examples associated with Carl von Clausewitz and the Napoleonic Wars...
In his writings, the historian of Ancient Greece has explained the cause of the
Peloponnesian War as: "It was the rise of Sparta and the fear that this inspired in Athens, the strongest city state prior to the war, that made conflict inevitable." This was an ancient Greek War fought from 431 to 404 BC between the Delian League led by Athens and the
Peloponnesian War led by Sparta.
Edited by James Lacey of the Marine Corps War College, this collection's sixteen essays explore prolonged strategic rivalries, beginning with Athens, Sparta, and the
Peloponnesian War, and ending with the Cold War rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States.
Case studies span ancient to modern history, including the
Peloponnesian War, Napoleon's Wars, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, and modern military operations.
The
Peloponnesian War, which taught him about the regularities in