What did Thucydides think of war?

Thucydides’ pessimistic answer seems to be “No”: War was inevitable, we are told, when emergent power Athens contested Sparta’s supremacy 2,500 years ago. Allison offers only a slightly more optimistic take (“War is more likely than not”) in analyzing China’s growing challenge to America’s dominating position globally.

What was Thucydides theory?

Thucydides Trap, also referred to as Thucydides’ Trap, is a term popularized by American political scientist Graham T. Allison to describe an apparent tendency towards war when an emerging power threatens to displace an existing great power as a regional or international hegemon.

How do you think about war Thucydides summary?

How to Think about War features speeches that have earned the History its celebrated status—all of those delivered before the Athenian Assembly, as well as Pericles’s funeral oration and the notoriously ruthless “Melian Dialogue.” Organized by key debates, these complex speeches reveal the recklessness, cruelty, and …

What is the point of view of Thucydides?

Thucydides, taking up the issue of anarchy within the international system, very much agrees with the realist point of view, saying that in a system where there is no overarching authority, the only way to maintain order is through some form of Balance of Power, which – in the case of Thucydides – takes the form of the …

What did Thucydides do after the war?

Shortly after the war began, the Athenians elected Thucydides as one of the city’s 10 generals. Assigned to command a fleet off the coast of Thrace, he failed to prevent the Spartans from capturing an Athenian colony. As was the custom, Athens punished Thucydides by exiling him from Athens for 20 years.

What did Thucydides do in the Peloponnesian War?

Thucydides Significant Accomplishments Wrote History of the Peloponnesian War which documents the war between Athens and Sparta in the 5th century BCE as he personally lived through it. Was elected a strategos – military general – and given command of seven ships to defend Amphipolis.

Why did Thucydides write the Peloponnesian War?

In the first sentence of his History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides wrote that he began writing about the war because he believed “it would be a great war, and more worthy of relation than any other that had preceded it.” He went on to identify what he believed to be the “real cause” of the war.

What did Thucydides say was the real cause of the Peloponnesian War?

What was the real cause of the Peloponnesian War according to Thucydides? (1.23) What can we learn from his analysis today? The real cause for war was the growth of Athens’s power and the fear it caused in Sparta. We can learn that fear is still a major component in war today.

What did Thucydides think of the Peloponnesian War?

Thucydides believed that the Peloponnesian War represented an event of unmatched importance. As such, he began to write the History at the onset of the war in 431 BC.

What did Thucydides say about the Peloponnesian War?

In his opening lines, Thucydides says he wrote about the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta, “beginning at the moment that it broke out, and believing that it would be a great war and more worthy of relation than any that had preceded it.” At the time, Athens was a great sea power with a democratic political …