{"id":1949,"date":"2011-10-15T17:15:14","date_gmt":"2011-10-15T17:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com.108-166-28-151.mdgnetworks.com\/wordpress\/?p=1949"},"modified":"2013-03-13T17:16:37","modified_gmt":"2013-03-13T17:16:37","slug":"vhds-new-novel-an-excerpt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/vhds-new-novel-an-excerpt\/","title":{"rendered":"VHD’s New Novel, an Excerpt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Private Papers<\/em><\/p>\n

The End of Sparta<\/em>\u00a0was released this week. Here is an excerpt: The Boiotians vote to invade Sparta. But before the assembly breaks up the old philosopher Alkidamas speaks to the crowd:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The applause quieted down, as if the crowd itself had been stunned by their own spontaneous roaring. But what now? Did they know where the ripples of their wild assent would lap? Would harsh Reason goad them back to quiet? Then M\u00ealon for the first time noticed that the sophist Alkidamas, of all people, not the other Boiotarchs or once again Pelopidas, or the Athenians, was approaching the b\u00eama, both arms upraised with his big open palms to calm the crowd \u2014 as if this were his plan, as if it had been his army all along.<\/p>\n

The Athenians were murmuring and starting to become nervous; they were surrounded by now frenzied Boiotians. Then Alkidamas spoke: \u201cI take this thunder as a voice vote that we are to march under General Epaminondas in the morning before the frost melts. Pelopidas as his habit will be in charge of the marching order. Look out in the plain below; the muster is nearly complete and only awaits our nod. Let the Boiotarchs sort out the details. The seven generals who had doubts have already ceded their command over to our two leaders. I have nothing to add to the promises of Epaminondas \u2014 other than this.\u201d Now Alkidamas himself also grew quiet, not quite sure what he would say next.<\/p>\n

But speak he did. For the great sophist of the Hellenes was possessed, he would say later, by an inexplicable fire, one from the mouth of Pythagoras himself. So the words came out not entirely his own. \u201cNo man is born by nature a slave \u2014 this curse that so often makes the strong and wise unfree and the weak and dull their master.\u201d<\/p>\n

The crowd was bewildered at these lofty thoughts so out of place in a sermon to march to war, but stayed quiet for more. \u201cBeware of those who say the Messenian helots know nothing of letters as if they were man-footed beasts of dim wits and animal grunts. They are unfree because they live next to the Spartans. So we the Boiotians, and Kallistratos and his fancy Athenians, might well have been as well, had our borders butted such a race of granite as those who wear the red capes. The Messenians will be free thanks to the strong right arms of the Boiotians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now Alkidamas waved his arms and yelled to the crowd in far louder fashion than had Epaminondas. \u201cYes, they will have their free city of Messen\u00ea.\u201d With that, Alkidamas stepped down and abandoned the politics of Boiotia for good, for this man of action also had business himself in the Peloponnesos. As the assembly of the Boiotians broke up, the white-haired sophist lumbered over to M\u00ealon, who put his hands on the shoulders of the old man and raised his voice over the din, \u201cI hope to be alive to hear all that again, your defense of the Messenians, this no man a slave. I think you have the beginning of a real speech some day from these embers that flared up in your chest as if the One God of ours was working your bellows.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then he pointed where the general had stalked out of the assembly. \u201cThis winter Epaminondas will go beyond his tenure that expires at the new year. Then I wager that we will all be renegades. It will be our choice to be right and dead with Epaminondas or wrong, alive\u2014 and growing old\u2014 with Backwash. We all go out under the command of Epaminondas who soon will find himself an outlaw general. There will be a death sentence when \u2014 or if \u2014 we return, earned for the freedom of distant slaves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alkidamas then barked to M\u00ealon over the noise, \u201cWhen the law is in service to servitude, and its violation means freedom, then the choice for a good man is not hard. If the helots are freed and we tramp back alive, then our faces will be chiseled in marble on the high temples at Delphi. But if we trip, well, then you know the fate of Epaminondas and all of us who follow. There won\u2019t be a gorge \u2014 not even the\u00a0Apothetai<\/em>\u00a0of the Spartans \u2014 big enough to hide all our corpses.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a92011 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Private Papers The End of Sparta\u00a0was released this week. Here is an excerpt: The Boiotians vote to invade Sparta. But before the assembly breaks up the old philosopher Alkidamas speaks to the crowd:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[297],"tags":[176,306,533],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-vr","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1651,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-end-of-sparta-an-excerpt-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1949,"position":0},"title":"The End of Sparta: An Excerpt","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Private Papers After the battle of Leuktra, and the defeat of Sparta, the Thebans parley with the Spartan general Lichas, who remains as defiant as ever: \u201cI\u00a0said hear your Lichas. You won a battle. A big one. But not this war. A bigger war \u2014\u00a0megas kindunos. That you will have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Literature"","block_context":{"text":"Literature","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/literature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1647,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-ancient-world-as-it-was\/","url_meta":{"origin":1949,"position":1},"title":"The Ancient World As It Was","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 8, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Cody Carlson The Deseret News Review of\u00a0The End of Sparta\u00a0by Victor Davis Hanson, Bloomsbury Press, 2011 Having written extensively on the history of ancient Greece, it is no surprise that classics professor Victor Davis Hanson would set his first novel in that era. His new book,\u00a0The End of Sparta\u00a0is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1437,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-end-of-sparta-an-excerpt\/","url_meta":{"origin":1949,"position":2},"title":"The End of Sparta: An Excerpt","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson As the Thebans help the freed helots build their new city of Messen\u00ea, the Argive general Epit\u00eales decides his men are no longer needed and will head home to Argos, leaving the Thebans and Messenians to their work: Epit\u00eales did not back down. \u201cI and my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "History"","block_context":{"text":"History","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/history\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4211,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/old-is-new-warfare\/","url_meta":{"origin":1949,"position":3},"title":"Old is “New” Warfare","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 5, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Iraq conflict shares uncanny likenesses with the Peloponnesian War by Victor Davis Hanson National Post Listen to what the talking heads are saying, and it's easy to believe that we have entered an entirely new era of armed conflict. Since Sept. 11, 2001, military commentators have emphasized the bizarre nature\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "November 2005"","block_context":{"text":"November 2005","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2005\/november-2005\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5571,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/delium-the-battle-only-one-man-wanted-part-i\/","url_meta":{"origin":1949,"position":4},"title":"Delium: The Battle Only One Man Wanted–Part I","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 6, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Military History Quarterly [Delium will appear this week in a five part series: 1)The Battle, 2) The Aftermath, 3) Armor and Ranks, 4) Innovation and the Battlefield, 5) Coalition Warfare] Part I: The Battle By 424 B.C., the Peloponnesian War was at a stalemate. Perhaps a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "December 2005"","block_context":{"text":"December 2005","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2005\/december-2005\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5581,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/delium-the-battle-only-one-man-wanted-part-v\/","url_meta":{"origin":1949,"position":5},"title":"Delium: The Battle Only One Man Wanted–Part V","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 12, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Military History Quarterly [Delium will appear this week in a five part series: 1)The Battle, 2) The Aftermath, 3) Armor and Ranks, 4) Innovation and the Battlefield, 5) Coalition Warfare] Part V:\u00a0 Coalition Warfare In coalition warfare in which several allied city-states fought alongside one another,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "December 2005"","block_context":{"text":"December 2005","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2005\/december-2005\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1949"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1949"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1950,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1949\/revisions\/1950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}