In 416 BC in its war against Sparta, Athens instructed the fleet to break the small island of Melos’ alliance with its enemy. The Athenian historian Thucydides constructed the ensuing debate between the two, here very briefly summarised.
Melos: Whatever we say or do, it looks as if we will face either war or slavery.
Athens: If that is your attitude, we may as well stop now.
Melos: But there is such a thing as fair play and just dealing. You too might need that one day.
Athens: We’ll take that risk. But our aim is to preserve you and your city.
Melos: Can we not be neutral?
Athens: That would be a sign of our weakness.
Melos: Will this not make you more enemies than friends?
Athens: We are more concerned about those we have not yet subdued.
Melos: What cowards we will be to submit to slavery.
Athens: If you fight, we’ll wipe you out.
Melos: In war, there is always hope.
Athens: It is foolish to risk all on hope.
Melos: We put our trust in the gods and Sparta.
Athens: It is a law of nature that gods and men rule wherever they can. But Sparta will never cross the seas to defend you.
Melos: But they might send others.
Athens: Don’t bet on it. We are offering you a tribute-based alliance. You have only one country, and its future depends on your single decision.
Melos: How about a treaty acceptable to both of us?
Athens: Do not delude yourselves.
Melos was then attacked, all its menfolk slaughtered and women and children sent into slavery.
Surrounded by his fawning sycophants, the malignant narcissist in the White House, as a US psychotherapist has described him, would thoroughly approve of Athens’s decision. He too has decided that he wants a world controlled by himself. What would appeal to him particularly about the debate is that the Athenians began it with the following remark: ‘The strong extract what they can, and the weak concede what they must’, prefacing it with the chilling observation: ‘Justice comes into play only when there is equal power on both sides to enforce it.’
Very Trumpian: one would love to hear him trying to pronounce ‘Thucydides’
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