[Thucydides] is one of the very few primary resources we have. If he hadn’t done this, we probably wouldn’t know very much about this period at all We continue our Great Strategists series with an episode on the man whose works serve as a foundation of strategic thought about war. Thucydides (c. 460-400 BC) was […]
Tag Archives: Peloponnesian War
THE MANY TRAPS OF THUCYDIDES & THE VIRTUE OF COMPLEXITY
Imposing an artificial simplicity on Thucydides’s work makes it harder to understand the full range of warnings that his history gives. Great works of human pathos rarely distill to simplicity. Thucydides’ account of the Peloponnesian War* (431 to 404 B.C.E.) defies simple summarizing in one cautionary lesson or trap. The account’s great virtue is the […]