Been at Thucydides Peloponnesian War for a few months - just a few pages at night before bed (most nights, anyway). In some ways, the long, slow train wreck of the war is made even more harrowing by going through it as I am at a retarded pace.
Last night I was struck by the bald honesty of Cleon's advocacy of the wholesale slaughter of the inhabitants of Mitylene. In plain terms he lays out the chilling logic of empire-
"I have often before now been convinced that a democracy is incapable of empire, and never more so than by your present change of mind in the matter of Mitylene....You entirely forget that your empire is a despotism and your subjects disaffected conspirators, whose obedience is insured not by your suicidal concessions, but by the superiority given you by your own strength and not their loyalty....I therefore now as before persist against your reversing your first decision, or giving way to the three failings most fatal to empire-pity, sentiment and indulgence....If they were right in rebelling, you must be wrong in ruling. However, if, right or wrong, you determine to rule, you must carry out your principle and punish the Mitylenians as your interest requires, or else you must give up your empire and cultivate honesty without danger."
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