You think you're smart - that's stupid

Carthage vs Rome as USA vs USSR respectively.

You may scoff - obviously the Romans won. But there are a number of strange similarities, some of which I probably ought not to be airing. But hey, it's my blog.

Carthage / USA
Oligarchic, Capitalist, trade-based, leading in (naval) technology, range of unreliable satellites and allies, fights wars through coalitions and allied troops, factionally divided

Rome / USSR
Centralised, state-controlled economy, agriculturally-based, massive investment in (naval) technology to catch up, simple mass production along template lines (corvus and quinquereme), reliance on inexhaustible manpower, dogged resilience in defeat, unified politically

It's probably pushing the envelope somewhat but interestingly juxtaposes with Kagan's characterisation of Rome as GB and Athens as the US (if I remember the email right). I suspect there are many such parallels, and also many spurious arguments in this area.

The really interesting thing for me is the response of societies and structures to the pressures of war. Do you tighten up under threat and restrict the franchise, denying access to power and reducing support, resources and manpower, or does the threat of war make you look for new sources of power and strength? I suppose an excellent example of this would be the use of women in factories by the British in WW1 and 2 - unlike the Germans who refused to do so.

An more ancient parallel would be the failure of the Spartan system to generate the manpower it needed to defend the empire it had won with the defeat of the last Athenian fleet at Aegospotami. The Spartans had given some limited access to some helots during the war to create extra forces, but had failed to make the leap to change their restricted and restrictive system which may have made Sparta a world class power. Cartledge thinks in the Spartans that the size of the actual Spartiate military population was down to a few thousand by the fourth century - owing to the harsh qualification factors for citizenship, deaths, low birth rates and the consolidation of large estates. This shrinking franchise spelt the end for Sparta.

Both Boeotian Thebes and Attic Athens saw dramatic upturns in their fortunes when democracy first took hold - the Athenian land empire ended by the early Peloponnesian conflicts; and the brilliant Theban renaissance under the military reforms of Epaminondas which led to the eventual defeat of the Spartans at Leuctra.