Thucydides Roundtable, Book IV: Devastation
She looked over his shoulder
For vines and olive trees,
Marble well-governed cities
And ships upon untamed seas,
But there on the shining metal
His hands had put instead
An artificial wilderness
And a sky like lead.
A plain without a feature, bare and brown,
No blade of grass, no sign of neighborhood,
Nothing to eat and nowhere to sit down . . .
Unless it can be limited to a short-term administration of shock and awe, a policy of devastation risks leaving “an artificial wilderness” in place of the civilization that sanctioned it.
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T. Greer:
November 21st, 2016 at 5:18 pm
“Laying waste the countryside was about inflicting pain”
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Yes. But my I suggest another possible motivation? Laying waste was also about inflicting shame.
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Shame was the name of the Hellenic game; glory its master. Who could accept the shame of seeing their lands trod underfoot? Which power could keep its allies when so openly shamed?
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Pericles strength was his ability to convince the Athenians that they were not shamed by refusing the Spartans battle, and that they could deal out equally shameful blows to the Spartans through coastal raids. The Athenians refused to be shamed, and as long as their empire lasted, the devastation of Attica could not cause enough pain to compel surrender.
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So the war was fought for decades on end.