Summary
Victor Davis Hanson tells the story of the Peloponnesian war which is the war where Sparta and Athens fought for close to 30 years. This war starts shortly after Sparta and Athens had united to repel a Persian invasion, partially depicted in the movie 300. Ironically, this war was ultimately decided by Persia backing Sparta which broke the Athenians. For many, this war marks the end of the Greek Golden age. Taking place shortly before Alexander the Great’s campaigns, it included many Western superstars like Socrates, who participated in the early part of the war, Hippocrates, the father of medicine, and some of the eminent Greek tragedians like Sophocles and Euripides. Hanson recasts the Peloponnesian War as a Greek Civil War, because much like the American Civil War both sides shared language, culture, and many other inherited traditions, but they differed on governmental strategies. The Spartans are portrayed as being conservative oligarchs, while the Athenians were depicted as radical proponents of democracy. This difference in governing styles is often emphasized by Hanson, who uses it to explain the distinctive reactions of the two nation states to the challenges each in turn faced.
Thoughts
Hanson excels at setting the stage, making the job of seeing this slice of the Mediterranean easy. Sometimes feeling sweaty as you sympathize with a marching Hoplite Spartan soldier, wearing heavy bronze armor under a blazing sun in a windless valley, other times sympathizing with a sweaty Athenian oarsman in the bottom row of three rows, rowing for your life as your head is at “hip” level of the row of rowers above you. I am now realizing that you spend most of the time feeling sweaty and trying not to imagine what you would be smelling. Similar to one of those Triremes stuck in a doldrum, at times I felt like the book dragged under the sheer weight of Greek names and places, followed by the endless back and forth of attacks and retaliations. However, memorable events like the plague that ravaged Athens during a Spartan siege would breathe fresh air into the sails and we would be off again. One of my favorites of these memorable moments was the fascinating description of the siege on Plataea. The Peloponnesian War takes place at an interesting point in time where Greek siege craft technology had not caught up with Greek fortification technology. At this point there were no siege towers or torsion catapults. This detail means that the attackers were only left with ladders and rams as their siege weapons. Because of this in Plataea 400 defenders were able to hold off a sizeable Spartan army, even when they tried several other novel methods of breaching the city like tunneling, fire, and primitive chemical warfare. After these unsuccessful attempts the Spartan army gave up on a direct assault and built a wall around the entire city and then began the slow process of attrition. At one point during the siege two hundred and twelve men made a daring escape. Unfortunately, their success also meant that the number of the city defenders had been halved. In spite of such a stalwart resistance the city eventually fell when the remaining defenders became too exhausted to carry on. Layers of depth are added to this history by the larger-than-life characters like the Spartan general Brasidas and the romantic yet treacherous Alcibiades. Hanson extracts various morals from the historical events with varying degrees of success. While delving into “historical advice” for modern scenarios seems futile, as history rarely repeats itself identically, there appear to be general principles underscored in historical conflict that remain relevant across time. One such principle discussed by Hanson is the inherent self-preserving nature of nations, akin to living entities. When faced with existential threats, nations, much like individuals, may and often do swiftly abandon their principles to save themselves. One need not look too hard in history to find many reminders of this potentiality.