Outstanding overview of the war. I really must read his book. At 22:00 and elsewhere he says "calvary" when he means "cavalry" ... nobody's perfect. :-)
@@MikeBixby "but who cares" well INCIDENTALLY he's been proven to be a total nut job, so ... yeah this stuff is starting to add up. unfortunately if someone is talking about things, sometimes people get overly in awe because they haven't spent the time (can't) to do what they are doing, that's all. This man has the IQ of a tree stump.
This was a great speech and much better than the documentaries I found on YT, that had an unhealthy agenda of trying to rationalise Athens and Spartan in terms of contemporary social narratives (such as feminism, emancipation, homosexuality, etc).
for you to think those things are CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL NARRATIVES shows you're an unhinged lunatic. People other than you and the powers that be have always existed. Crybaby! This man is not academic at all. Dummies find other dummies to listen to, apparently. I've got news for you, women are people. I know you don't believe that, but it's true. There is NO history at all without all of the people. There is a REAL academic work you should read. It's called the Creation of Patriarchy by Gerda Lerner, it's top scholarship going back to the code of Hammurabi. Flawless work, flawless, and someone like you would think it's "feminist" when that's a weaselly way to describe something that's just about human beings it just shows you think women are not human and we have a subset of facts and knowledge just for us. Yes, it's feminist, but that's because men do not consider women people, nor do they study all of history.
Excellent lecture but he did't mention anything about the "demagogues" (such as the events with Cleon in Pylos), the weakest point of democracy in Athens, as a very important aspect in Thucydides' narrative.
Thats one good lecture. Russia is now invading Ukraine and the parallels are still clear in the modern world. Whats true with the ancient Greeks, is still true with what's happening today it seems.
18:07 A bit of context VDH left out. Those Spartan helots (slaves) were promised their freedom if they proved themselves to be the most aggressive fighters. The two thousand helot slaves who showed to be a cut above the rest were executed because the Spartans believed the most aggressive and formidable were most likely to create an uprising against them. "..safety lies in the liquidation of all who are distinguished above the rest." -Book 4 of The History of the Peloponnesian War
The conclusion and lesson of this event by Dr. Vinson is that deterrence is most powerful method to avoid long-term hellish conflicts that bring out the worst in human nature. Also that societies that decay in to more affluence living and their elites become more complacent in not developing their warfare skills will eventually collapse to a new competitor in a sudden crisis.
It's an old nut, perhaps, but "if you would have peace, you must prepare for war." Nothing invites aggression like the appearance of weakness. The irony is that it has become a common belief that arming oneself is some kind of provocation rather than a deterrent.
!.04.0 Philip of Macedon was an uncomplicated person, more practical than anything else and willing to learn from others. He wasn't encumbered with the ideals of the Spartans for instance.
Macedonia, the shores of Asia Minor and Sicily were all Greek lands then. So, i am not sure what the speaker meant when he said "the war was also fought outside Greece".
Victor Hanson is a wonderful scholar and like many historians is keen to apply his findings to other, more recent events. This is natural but is a questionable methodology. I understand that he wants to make his studies of relevance to contemporary conflicts but it assumes that there are general principles at work, a common standard or blueprint that determines the way wars proceed. My view is that conflicts arise in certain places at certain times due to perhaps a competition for resources, desire for aggrandisement, fear of attack, keenness to pre-empt. But I believe that situations arise from a collision of circumstance, a certain chain of events, random and perhaps irrational human intervention, etc that obey no natural or social laws. Rather they occur, like Brownian Motion, erratic and chaotic. Our desire for tidiness (combined with the academics' need to play their valuable role in society) result in connecting all the dots and applying an artificial template that can explain any event and perhaps predict future events. This is man getting ahead of himself and trying to be a god (in ancient Greek terms). It's not for man to assume the power of the gods. He should keep to his lowly station. Man is knee-deep in chaos, is partially-informed and lacking in wisdom, but has pride and 'vaulting ambition', not to mention hubris. He wants to believe that it's all tidy, explicable, rational, predictable, that events unfold according to a schema they have identified. My advice would be: don't try flying too near the sun.
A war like no other, to me, seems like an exaggeration. Destroying cities and killing every living thing therein occurred in biblical times; perhaps 1500 to 2000 years before the Peloponnesian War. Human nature hasn’t changed since humanity evolved. In warfare, reasons, technology, methods, tactics, strategies and outcomes change; but the essence of war have been constant, and probably will never change. Sherman gave the spot-on definition of war-it’s hell, and has been since the first war was fought. “A war like no other”, not really; at least not from my perspective.
@@Constantine-the-Great2000 Whose arguing with you? I’m Greek myself and have been saying this all along We are all Greeks,our laws our literature our arts are all Greek -John Percy Shelly English poet
This is a common mistake you see; People often try and apply modern populations from the same geographic area onto historic peoples of the same area. This is how you get people saying absurd stuff, such as "St George was Turkish" despite him being ethnically Greek and Turkey and the Turkish people not even existing for another millenia. The Macedonians were considered Greek back then, regardless of what they consider themselves today.
@@TheGearPeddler Macedonia is a region located in the Hellenic Republic North Macedonia is a slavic country north of Greece This is the de facto reality
the Macedonians spoke a Greek dialect and were accepted in the Olympic games, but they had the ancient customs and not the modern ones of the Greek polis. czcams.com/video/nzpS4slKlP4/video.html
Thank you mr hanson for your always unwavering loyalty to President Trump . And thank you for being the last voice of reason in California ( you in Academia amd james woods in Hollywood wich like you ( like most of conservatives ) has the highest IQ in his field ) . PS : one of the best analogies that you use for president trump wich i loved was Sophocles' Ajax .
This is the most engaging and riveting talk I have listened to in ages. Brilliant historian.
There is so much to learn in this world, and V.D.H. has so much to contribute to learning.
This is exactly what I needed on this crappy, rainy Sunday.
Impressive lecture, a lot to learn especially for our days.
Outstanding overview of the war. I really must read his book. At 22:00 and elsewhere he says "calvary" when he means "cavalry" ... nobody's perfect. :-)
lol come on
The book is good.
true and he says " nucualer" like W. but who cares
this man is unhinged
so don't trust his curation fully
but yeah everyone flubs
@@MikeBixby "but who cares" well INCIDENTALLY he's been proven to be a total nut job, so ... yeah this stuff is starting to add up.
unfortunately if someone is talking about things, sometimes people get overly in awe because they haven't spent the time (can't) to do what they are doing, that's all. This man has the IQ of a tree stump.
This was a great speech and much better than the documentaries I found on YT, that had an unhealthy agenda of trying to rationalise Athens and Spartan in terms of contemporary social narratives (such as feminism, emancipation, homosexuality, etc).
AND here it is.... BOO HOO another snowflake melting because they have to learn things.
This man is also a complete lunatic but it all makes sense.
for you to think those things are CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL NARRATIVES shows you're an unhinged lunatic. People other than you and the powers that be have always existed. Crybaby! This man is not academic at all. Dummies find other dummies to listen to, apparently. I've got news for you, women are people. I know you don't believe that, but it's true. There is NO history at all without all of the people. There is a REAL academic work you should read. It's called the Creation of Patriarchy by Gerda Lerner, it's top scholarship going back to the code of Hammurabi. Flawless work, flawless, and someone like you would think it's "feminist" when that's a weaselly way to describe something that's just about human beings it just shows you think women are not human and we have a subset of facts and knowledge just for us. Yes, it's feminist, but that's because men do not consider women people, nor do they study all of history.
EPIC!
Magnificent
Excellent lecture but he did't mention anything about the "demagogues" (such as the events with Cleon in Pylos), the weakest point of democracy in Athens, as a very important aspect in Thucydides' narrative.
Thats one good lecture. Russia is now invading Ukraine and the parallels are still clear in the modern world. Whats true with the ancient Greeks, is still true with what's happening today it seems.
Yes at 40:48
Thank you for another wonderful upload.
18:07 A bit of context VDH left out. Those Spartan helots (slaves) were promised their freedom if they proved themselves to be the most aggressive fighters.
The two thousand helot slaves who showed to be a cut above the rest were executed because the Spartans believed the most aggressive and formidable were most likely to create an uprising against them.
"..safety lies in the liquidation of all who are distinguished above the rest." -Book 4 of The History of the Peloponnesian War
3:14 notice the long pause he has to take to get that damn name right... and he does. Well done sir.
The conclusion and lesson of this event by Dr. Vinson is that deterrence is most powerful method to avoid long-term hellish conflicts that bring out the worst in human nature. Also that societies that decay in to more affluence living and their elites become more complacent in not developing their warfare skills will eventually collapse to a new competitor in a sudden crisis.
It's an old nut, perhaps, but "if you would have peace, you must prepare for war." Nothing invites aggression like the appearance of weakness. The irony is that it has become a common belief that arming oneself is some kind of provocation rather than a deterrent.
thanks!
!.04.0 Philip of Macedon was an uncomplicated person, more practical than anything else and willing to learn from others. He wasn't encumbered with the ideals of the Spartans for instance.
That pretty well explained Hamas!
Macedonia, the shores of Asia Minor and Sicily were all Greek lands then. So, i am not sure what the speaker meant when he said "the war was also fought outside Greece".
@@markpage9886 ...Hey, open a history book and reduce the weed a bit.
Let's get david blithe, john Cochran and v.d hanson in room with mic's?
Great book and great talk. One small note: it is cavalry, NOT Calvary.
Victor Hanson is a wonderful scholar and like many historians is keen to apply his findings to other, more recent events. This is natural but is a questionable methodology. I understand that he wants to make his studies of relevance to contemporary conflicts but it assumes that there are general principles at work, a common standard or blueprint that determines the way wars proceed.
My view is that conflicts arise in certain places at certain times due to perhaps a competition for resources, desire for aggrandisement, fear of attack, keenness to pre-empt. But I believe that situations arise from a collision of circumstance, a certain chain of events, random and perhaps irrational human intervention, etc that obey no natural or social laws. Rather they occur, like Brownian Motion, erratic and chaotic. Our desire for tidiness (combined with the academics' need to play their valuable role in society) result in connecting all the dots and applying an artificial template that can explain any event and perhaps predict future events. This is man getting ahead of himself and trying to be a god (in ancient Greek terms). It's not for man to assume the power of the gods. He should keep to his lowly station. Man is knee-deep in chaos, is partially-informed and lacking in wisdom, but has pride and 'vaulting ambition', not to mention hubris. He wants to believe that it's all tidy, explicable, rational, predictable, that events unfold according to a schema they have identified.
My advice would be: don't try flying too near the sun.
Is that really Larry Arnn in the intro?! He looks and sounds totally different. No way. Must be an error.
I do not agree that Philip II or Aleander were thugs. They were just men of their times just better at it.
A war like no other, to me, seems like an exaggeration. Destroying cities and killing every living thing therein occurred in biblical times; perhaps 1500 to 2000 years before the Peloponnesian War. Human nature hasn’t changed since humanity evolved. In warfare, reasons, technology, methods, tactics, strategies and outcomes change; but the essence of war have been constant, and probably will never change. Sherman gave the spot-on definition of war-it’s hell, and has been since the first war was fought. “A war like no other”, not really; at least not from my perspective.
VDH = 🙂
So surprised he kept using the word CALVARY instead of CAVALRY.
He still does. He makes all sorts of other pronunciation mistakes as well in his other vids. Quite surprising for an academic of his calibre.
Who won the war? Why the Peloponnesians!
Harris Jose Lopez George Lopez Anthony
Very abrupt ending. “I hope you...” ? What? 🤣
alexander was greek.just saying
@@TheGearPeddler Didn’t they send athletes to the compete at the Olympics. only Greeks could attend
@@Constantine-the-Great2000 Whose arguing with you? I’m Greek myself and have been saying this all along We are all Greeks,our laws our literature our arts are all Greek -John Percy Shelly English poet
This is a common mistake you see; People often try and apply modern populations from the same geographic area onto historic peoples of the same area. This is how you get people saying absurd stuff, such as "St George was Turkish" despite him being ethnically Greek and Turkey and the Turkish people not even existing for another millenia.
The Macedonians were considered Greek back then, regardless of what they consider themselves today.
@@TheGearPeddler Macedonia is a region located in the Hellenic Republic
North Macedonia is a slavic country north of Greece
This is the de facto reality
the Macedonians spoke a Greek dialect and were accepted in the Olympic games, but they had the ancient customs and not the modern ones of the Greek polis.
czcams.com/video/nzpS4slKlP4/video.html
Thank you mr hanson for your always unwavering loyalty to President Trump .
And thank you for being the last voice of reason in California ( you in Academia amd james woods in Hollywood wich like you ( like most of conservatives ) has the highest IQ in his field ) .
PS : one of the best analogies that you use for president trump wich i loved was Sophocles' Ajax .
I eould love his take on losing wars in Vietnamese and Afghanistan
This man seems closet racist in war litreture.
What....?
Lol someone let me know if he cries again about having seen a Mexican family drive down the street in front of his house or whatever
smoke another one dunce cap
when did that happen?