Dr. Roel Konijnendijk, a Derby Fellow of Ancient History at Lincoln College, Oxford, delves into the revolutionary thoughts of Thucydides, who prioritized human agency over divine fate in strategic analysis. He discusses Thucydides' military insights from the Peloponnesian War, exploring moral dilemmas and power dynamics. The conversation raises whether modern strategists mimic his ideas or if they genuinely represent timeless behaviors. Konijnendijk also reflects on Thucydides' relevance in today’s geopolitical landscape and the challenges of applying ancient wisdom to contemporary warfare.
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Thucydides' Exile After Military Failure
Thucydides was elected general once in 424 BC and sent to secure Amphipolis.
He arrived too late, failed, and was exiled for his military failure, ending his command career.
insights INSIGHT
Human Agency in History
Thucydides focused on human decisions and political dynamics over divine fate in his history.
This approach shifts historical analysis toward strategic behavior and political perceptions impacting war.
insights INSIGHT
Thucydides' Rational Historical Analysis
Thucydides advanced history beyond Herodotus by filtering out supernatural causes and focusing on human nature and choices.
He was not fully dismissive of religion but emphasized rational causality in political events.
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Written in the early 16th century, 'The Prince' is a realistic instruction guide for new rulers. Machiavelli argues that an effective leader must be skilled in the art of war, sometimes cruel, and willing to use deception and manipulation to achieve political goals. The book is divided into chapters that discuss various types of principalities, how to acquire and maintain power, and the qualities a prince should possess. Machiavelli uses historical examples, including the career of Cesare Borgia, to illustrate his points. The treatise emphasizes the importance of maintaining the goodwill of the people and the stability of the state, even if it means deviating from traditional virtues. 'The Prince' remains a controversial but influential work in modern political philosophy.
Thucydides set the 'gold standard' for a strategic analysis of war with his history of the Peloponnesian War: Dr Roel Konijnendijk explains how.
Thucydides, who lived almost two-and-a-half millennia ago, revolutionised strategic analysis by asserting the place of human agency rather than attributing events as being shaped by Gods or fate. This is something that Machiavelli repeats centuries later in The Prince. Thucydides claimed to have identified patterns of strategic behaviour that he thought would be enacted 'as long as human nature is the same'. A fascinating question, however, is whether strategists have behaved according to these patterns because they have been inspired to do so by reading Thucydides, or did he truly discover patterns of behaviour that endure throughout time and space? Are modern scholars projecting their own strategic world views into Ancient Greece or has our Ancient Greek heritage determined how we see the world? Finally, did Thucydides think that a world in which 'the strong do what they will and the weak have to put up with it' is the only possible one?
Dr Roel Konijnendijk is the Derby Fellow of Ancient History at Lincoln College, Oxford. After his PhD from University College London, he held several prestigious research fellowships and taught ancient history at UCL, Birkbeck, Warwick, Oxford, and Edinburgh. He is the author of Classical Greek Tactics: A Cultural History (2018) and Between Miltiades and Moltke: Early German Studies in Greek Military History (2022) as well as co-editor of Brill's Companion to Greek Land Warfare Beyond the Phalanx (2021).
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