Peloponnesian War

This ancient war son, has had a hold on human history and still has lessons for us. Not just because Thucydides wrote about this war, we've got a copy of the book so do read it when you get a chance, but because it had implications on democracy, ethics etc. 

We praise democracy but democratic Athens became a hegemonistic state. Athens protected against the Persian imperial power but it itself became imperial and setup an empire. If you get a chance son, read Kennedy's rise and fall of the great powers. 

Sparta, a fascist state which relied on slavery and was heavily militaristic won this war. So the bad guys own and the good guys lost? Turns the usual story of good versus evil on its head no? 

But you don't hear about this son. People don't like to hear about facts that don't fit into a narrative. Like the joke I read today. God's good but he allows evil so that you can recognise goodness. Well if that's the case, logically god can be evil who allows good to happen so that you can recognise evil. 

Fascinating. 

Love

Baba

Peloponnesian War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peloponnesian_War

 

The Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) was an ancient Greek war fought byAthens and itsempire against thePeloponnesian League led bySparta. Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases. In the first phase, the Archidamian War, Sparta launched repeated invasions ofAttica, while Athens took advantage of its naval supremacy to raid the coast of thePeloponneseattempting to suppress signs of unrest in its empire. This period of the war was concluded in 421 BC, with the signing of the Peace of Nicias. That treaty, however, was soon undermined by renewed fighting in the Peloponnese. In 415 BC, Athens dispatched amassive expeditionary force to attack Syracuse in Sicily; the attack failed disastrously, with the destruction of the entire force, in 413 BC. This ushered in the final phase of the war, generally referred to either as the Decelean War, or the Ionian War. In this phase, Sparta, now receiving support from Persia, supported rebellions in Athens' subject states in the Aegean Sea and Ionia, undermining Athens' empire, and, eventually, depriving the city of naval supremacy. The destruction of Athens' fleet at Aegospotami effectively ended the war, and Athens surrendered in the following year.