Sphinx

Further evidence of the ‘Thucydidean Moment’ of 2017 – and, yes, I’m aware that J.G.A. Pocock’s ‘Machiavellian Moment’ lasted rather longer than a fortnight – comes in this morning’s Financial Times Alphaville blog, with a post from Matthew C. Klein responding to last week’s Politico article and drawing on his own experiences of reading Thucydides in a class led by Donald Kagan. I rather liked this piece, for its cautions against simplistic readings – and not just because it included links to a couple of my recent posts.

However, it does offer as matters of fact a couple of arguable interpretations. The idea that Thucydides had “a massive axe to grind” as a result of his exile is certainly a possibility, and the idea of him as perfectly objective should never be taken on trust – but it’s an idea that is most often put forward by readers wanting to discredit or explain away his account of a specific event, whereas the majority of modern readers have been struck by the absence of obvious axe-grinding. The comparison with Kissinger seems way off; Thucydides was involved only briefly in the war, rather than being the key mover behind successive events, and his attempt at exculpation for Amphipolis is remarkably limited, referring to himself in the third person and barely hinting that it wasn’t really his fault. One would welcome such self-effacement from Kissinger and his partisans – even we read it as a subtle attempt by Thucydides to construct a trustworthy persona so that we’ll rehabilitate him ourselves rather than him having to do the work.

Secondly, Klein offers the idea of a clear distinction between “news” and “editorial” in Thucydides’ account. The vast majority of scholars over the last, what, thirty years or more would regard such a claim with suspicion; rather, Thucydides’ apparently straightforward narrative of events is seen to be ‘cunning’, advancing his interpretation of the war artfully as much if not more than his rare authorial pronouncements. Indeed, this was pretty well the view of Wilhelm Roscher back in 1842; it’s primarily the ancient historians, interested in reconstructing events rather than understanding Thucydides’ historiography, who seek to establish a barrier between good factual reporting and bad subjective interpretation.

Finally, Klein’s interpretation of Thucydides’ work as a whole is very Kaganesque: the failure of the Sicilian Expedition was Nicias’ fault, it could have been won rather than always being a doomed enterprise that demonstrated Athens’ hubris.

He was the first revisionist historian, determined to acquit Pericles and his fellow elites for starting and losing the war. To do this, he blamed impersonal historical forces and the ignorant rabble.

Rehabilitating imperialist Athens… Cautions against believing one has unlocked the secrets of international relations by reading a couple of the popular bits of Thucydides’ work are spot on, but that shouldn’t lead to the equal-but-opposite error of accepting without question an equally political reading based on the authority of Donald Kagan’s scholarship. But bonus points for proposing a film version of Thucydides (or tv series, as I keep arguing), even if the casting of Alcibiades might raise eyebrows.

And just as I finished writing that, Stephen Clark sends me another link; again pushing Kagan as the definitive answer to everything Thucydides-related, but this time with a much more explicitly bellicose message – perhaps unsurprising, because it’s an interview with the younger Kagan brother, co-author with his father of While America Sleeps, and his wife. They argue that “there is no Thucydides Trap” as war is not inevitable – which is something Allison would agree with – and that “it is quite wrong to conclude from Thucydides that war can be avoided by accommodating a rising power.”

Sparta sought to manage and accommodate Athens for many years before the war, but the more it did so, the more confident the Athenians became. It was that process, rather than any stiff-necked refusal of the Spartans to make room for a rising power, that actually led to the war.

If you want peace, prepare for war? I have a sinking feeling…

Update 28/6/17: offering a quite different perspective, the great Bob Connor has posted his thoughts on the question of the inevitability of war with China, based on his own vast knowledge and understanding of Thucydides rather than invoking the name of Kagan…