The Origins of Western Warfare: Militarism and Morality in the Ancient World by Doyne Dawson & James D Dawson

Author:Doyne Dawson & James D Dawson [Dawson, Doyne & Dawson, James D]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, General, Wars & Conflicts
ISBN: 9780813333922
Google: IlxXswEACAAJ
Publisher: Avalon Publishing
Published: 1998-01-09T20:47:07+00:00

Realistic history provides an enhanced awareness of recurrent situations and possibilities, always informed by appreciation of the uncertainties of war. It focuses on the decisionmaking process: “The special function of history, particularly in relation to speeches, is first of all to discover the words actually used, whatever they were, and next to establish the reason why a particular action or argument failed or succeeded” (12.25b). Polybius is much more aware than Thucydides of the difficulties created by fictive speechwriting in a history that purports to be realistic. And causal analysis, Polybius claims, is essential: “Neither writers nor readers of history should confine their attention to the narrative of events, but must also take account of what preceded, accompanied, and followed them” (3.31 [trans. Scott-Kilvert]).

Polybius’s most original contribution is his view that causes are most adequately explored in a “universal” (koina) history. He thought that this kind of history became possible after the Second Punic War, because only then did the whole Mediterranean world become unified under Rome.

Now my history possesses a certain distinctive quality which is related to the extraordinary spirit of the times in which we live, and it is this. Just as Fortune [Tyche] has steered almost all the affairs of the world in one direction and forced them to converge upon one and the same goal, so it is the task of the historian to present to his readers under one synoptical view the process by which she [Fortune] has accomplished this general design … while various historians deal with isolated wars and certain of the subjects connected with them, nobody, so far as I am aware, has made any effort to examine the general and comprehensive scheme of events. (1.4 [trans. Scott-Kilvert])

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