Cunning Realist writes on trauma cocktails which effectively make a nation accept anything; breaking down individual and social norms such that extremes become accepted as the new norm.
One of the interesting aspects of the Peloponnesian War was that the normal method of determining conflict between Greek city-states, hoplite battle, was replaced with political and ethnic genocide. Asymmetric warfare ruined the wealth, morality and power of Greece such that the Macedonians and then the Romans replaced them as the centre of Mediterranean power. (more)
When we think of Rome we envisage an empire and the civil strife prior to Caesar establishing himself as dictator for life and then Augustus becoming emperor with tribunal powers for life. But Rome grew from a little town to an Italian military power and then a western Mediterranean power before it looked east with any interest.
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