"Many were they who sat in the palaestras and lounging-places mapping out in the sand the shape of Sicily and the position of Libya and Carthage."

In one single image, Plutarch lays bare how an imperialist society goes into immediate war fever, once the prospect of expansion is in the air.

Armchair generals, sitting in their lounging-places, "... mapping out in the sand the shape of Sicily and the position of Libya and Carthage."

What an image! We know this exact same phenomenon from many modern episodes, for instance from the immediate pre-war period in 1914. (The final parts of Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain give a precise depiction of the intellectual reflections of the 1914 craze.)

#Plutarch #Alcibiades #WarFever #Imperialism #ArmchairGenerals