Killing the Past in Thucydides' Plataean Debate (original) (raw)
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This article argues that Thucydides represents the story of the Eurypontid Spartan kings, Archidamus and Agis, as a coherent, meaningful narrative spanning his text. Early on, Archidamus worries that his generation might leave war to their children as a kind of inheritance. His son Agis then does inherit the war, more literally than any other figure. The consequences of this malign bequest become clear as Agis comes to violate the traditional value system represented by his father. Formal naming of both men throughout their stories encourages the reader to view their appearances not as a series of isolated events but as a single narrative depicting the corruption of their family.
Colum. J. Transnat'l L., 2004
This Essay, in honor of Oscar Schachter, discusses Thucydides’ account of the Peloponnesian War, not only glimpsing into the events surrounding the conflict but also considering how the sparring greek city-states understood and manifested laws of war. This article describes numerous customs, practices, and procedures including respect for truces, ambassadors, heralds, trophies, and various forms of neutrality the ancients adhered to during times of conflict. The greek city-states and their warriors recognized and enforced obligations concerning a city-state’s right to war (jus ad bellum) and conduct in war (jus in bello). While the ancients’ laws of war were always recorded in treaty, many of the laws were mutually recognized and formed out of custom, with respect to one’s adversary. Thucydides did not record his account for the purpose of describing ancient law, but his account provides evidence that a form of international law existed in the ancient world. It may be worth examining sources of ancient history in a comparative study of international law, as the differences between the modern world and the ancient might not be as large as once thought.
The Laws of War in the Pre-Dawn Light: Institutions and Obligations in Thucydides’ Peloponnesian War
2005
This Essay, in honor of Oscar Schachter, discusses Thucydides’ account of the Peloponnesian War, not only glimpsing into the events surrounding the conflict but also considering how the sparring Greek city-states understood and manifested laws of war. This article describes numerous customs, practices, and procedures including respect for truces, ambassadors, heralds, trophies, and various forms of neutrality the ancients adhered to during times of conflict. The Greek city-states and their warriors recognized and enforced obligations concerning a city-state’s right to war (jus ad bellum) and conduct in war (jus in bello). While the ancients’ laws of war were always recorded in treaty, many of the laws were mutually recognized and formed out of custom, with respect to one’s adversary. Thucydides did not record his account for the purpose of describing ancient law, but his account provides evidence that a form of international law existed in the ancient world. It may be worth examinin...
The Historical Present: Thucydides and the politics of historical analogy
Aeon.co, 2024
Written for Aeon.co, this essay explores the place of politically charged historical analogies in Thucydides' Peloponnesian War. Long the object of many such analogies, it argues that Thucydides viewed careless parallels with the past as an inherent, understandable, and yet still perilous part of political life.
The Logic of the Hegemon: Constitutive Power and Narrative Interpretation in Thucydides
This paper will argue that a specific and coherent argument about power and empire can be drawn out of Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War. Through the use of dramatic juxtaposition in the narrative and through common themes in several speeches, the History illustrates that bearing and exercising power produces a kind of character and logic that limits itself. The character of the powerful will tend to limit itself by virtue of ignoring the existential insecurity caused by fortune in human affairs as well as the ‘reverse law of the stronger,’ meaning that imperial subjects will have a natural tendency to rebel against that imperial power. Methodological issues about whether coherent arguments can be drawn from the History and about the intentions of Thucydides himself in shaping his narrative will be discussed, as will several possible counter-arguments. These latter possible refutations include the issue of agency against the structuralist implications of this power thesis in Thucydides and the counter-case that Sparta provides - an empire that explicitly does not arrogantly ignore fortune and act aggressively as a result. The final implications are that, if a coherent thesis about power can be drawn out of the History, and regardless of the intentions of Thucydides in possibly placing that argument in his text, can a thesis about the constitutive and self-limiting effects of power be applied beyond the world of the Peloponnesian war and, if so, what does this mean for the powerful in the contemporary world?