Lecture notes from 35c3

This past December at 35c3 in Leipzig, I gave a 90 minute long self-organized session called “Why Does War Happen? An Examination of the Thucydides Trap.”

We had some technical hangups– it turned out the room had no projector or projector screen, so everyone had to download the slides locally. Thankfully most of the lecture was oral with some notes. I also tried to have people read excepts from Herodotus and Thucydides, but this didn’t go as well as I’d hoped. In general, most people loved the session, and the biggest complaint I got was that it was too information-dense; this amused me because I cut out probably 2/3 of what I originally wanted to use.

In any case, as follows is a general outline copied from my lecture notes, as well as the slides I presented with. I will likely give another session at a future CCC event, since there is so much more I want to cover.

General lecture notes (directly transcribed from my copy):

The slides from my talk

• Introduction
• Foundation for historical writing
• Alfred North Whitehead quote on Plato
• Narrate: Herodotus Book 1 Chapter 1
• “First Historian”
• Herodotus vs Thucydides
• Challenges of translation and interpretation
• Issues with Herodotus
• Digressions (Dolphon story, Herodotus Book 1 Chapters 23, 24)
• 500 BC, Naxos and Aristagores (Miletus)
• Athens helps burn Sardis
• Darius upset
  • Mt. Athos (492 BC)
  • Soil/earth and water, Medizing
• 490 BC Battle of Marathon
  • Miltiades, general of Athens
  • Spartans having religious festival
  • Dead: 6400 Persians, 192 Athenians (Aeschylus’ brother)
  • Pheidippides 26 miles
• Xerxes assumes command in 486 BC
• Army AND navy both
• Pontoon bridge across Hellespont
  • Read Pontoon passage (Herodotus Book 7, Chapters 33-35)
• Canal across Mt. Athos
• Themistocles
• Wooden Wall Oracle (Herotodus Book 7, Chapters 140-141)
  • Interpretations: Thermopylae, Athens wall, ships at Salamis
  • 300 Battle – 380 BC
• Salamis (passage, Herodotus Book 8, Chapter 61)
• Treaty between Athens and Sparta
• Themistocles and Pausanias fall from Grace
• 446 BC – 30 years peace
• 435-432 BC
• Corcyra crisis
• 435- Epidamnus civil war
  • Aristocrats vs the democrats
• Dems appeal to Corcyra
• Corcyra says no
• Epidamnus goes to Corinth
• Corinth says yes, to get port to Sicily/Syracuse
• inflames existing tensions between Corinth and Corcyra
• Corcyrans help aristocrats of Epidamnus
  • blockade against Corinthian fleet 343 BC
• Corinthians lose to Corcyans
  • Epidamnus surrenders
• Corinthians mobilize fleet against Corcyra
• Corinthian action, not Peloponnesian
• Corcyra approaches Sparta for help
• Corinthians defend against Corcyra
• Corcyra approaches Athens for help (433 BC)
• Play video
• Battle of Sybota