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Daily Speculations The Web Site of Victor Niederhoffer & Laurel Kenner Dedicated to the scientific method, free markets, deflating ballyhoo, creating value, and laughter; a forum for us to use our meager abilities to make the world of specinvestments a better place. |
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06/11/2004
Wars of the Ancient Greeks by
Victor Davis Hanson
The Peloponnesian War by
Donald Kagan
Book Review by James Goldcamp
I recently encountered two books on ancient warfare. Wars of the Ancient Greeks by Victor Davis Hanson, provides short overviews of the major wars from 1400 through the time of Alexander the Great. I found the most enjoyable chapter to be "The Great Wars," including both the Persian invasion and the Peloponnesian Wars. One can immediately sense the admiration Hanson feels for the ancient Greeks: "The victory at Marathon quickly became emblematic proof of the entire dynamism of western warfare -- and testimony to the peculiar propaganda, advertisements and hype that only a free and highly individualistic society might produce." He also makes the interesting point that these wars brought to the world the concept of "total war" where the goal was to destroy the adversary's entire basis of society (for the Spartans, the spread of Athenian democracy and empire based on sea power had to be stopped). While the book is a very high-level survey of the period (the entire book can be read in one sitting), the accompanying diagrams of all the major battles (especially Marathon) makes the book a pleasure.
A more detailed account is given in The Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan. The book provides a modern account of the events chronicled by Thucidydes (often relying heavily on the earlier work), with the benefit, however, of thousands of years of hindsight.
Reading these books one marvels at the complex strategies and alliances that were formed, and how the errors that plagued men of ancient times are repeated. The chapters on the devastating Sicilian campaign by Athens may contain the most useful lessons for the trader. Nicias (and the Athenian populace) get in over their head (with a force much larger than originally conceived) , then fail to act decisively and with conviction (being highly skeptical of the whole campaign in the first place), and when their expectations are proven wrong (easily co-opted Sicilian city states) they fail to update their strategy (plus excessive reliance on Nicias' persona and history of success). From these events it was downhill for Athens. Both books are recommended.
Comment by
Victor Niederhoffer:
Mr. Goldcamp's allusion to getting in over
one's head strikes me as an excellent basis for formulating hypotheses relative
to making money. A sample: When are you ready to fold a position due to trend
followers exacerbating a move against you?
