What I enjoy about this history book, written 2300 years ago, is that it didn’t merely tell you what happened. It goes deep into why it happened. It’s a cautionary tale.

He tells you what one guy said about going to war. Then he tells you what the other guy said about not going to war. Then he tells you why most of the crowd was persuaded by one or the other. And, typically, off they go to war.

They don’t just go off to war once. The engaged in over 30 major battles, sieges, or naval battles in 27 years. And each time, Thucydides recalls what each side was thinking, and why.

He goes into the details of various peace treaties, and there several attempts. Then he explains why each treaty was eventually broken. Again, off they go to war. I write this as our cease fire with Iran in July 2026 has just ended, again, this is the third or fourth time a cease fire has ended?

“It may well be … these words of mine are judged useful by those who want to understand clearly the events which happened in the past and which—human nature being what it is—will, at some time or other and in much the same ways, be repeated in the future.”

Thucydides

Thucydides may have had a bit of PTSD. He seems to be warning us, “Don’t make these mistakes like we made them.” The whole thing started because Athens was getting so powerful that Sparta got scared. We’re still doing that today, look at the war with Iran in 2026, did we not start that because we thought they were getting too powerful (with the bomb)? Are we in American always hearing “China is getting too powerful”? Thucydides foresaw: