Van Wees, JGB; (2016) Broadening the scope: thinking about peace in the pre-modern world. In: Raaflaub, KA, (ed.) Peace in the ancient world. Concepts and theories. (pp. 158-180). Wiley: Malden, MA, USA.

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Abstract

In this chapter, the author suggests that in Greece in the fourth century BCE something quite close to modern visions of peace was formulated. Concepts of peace have taken many different forms in history and an explanation of how and why these concepts developed must take into account the contexts in which they were formulated. It seems likely, as Raaflaub argues, that the experience of exceptionally destructive warfare is often a stimulus for reflection on peace; it is certainly no coincidence that Xenophon and Isocrates published their proposals for lasting peace in the immediate aftermath of a war in which Athens had suffered great losses. Raaflaub is surely right, too, to suggest that ideas about peace will acquire significant theoretical elaboration only in a culture that encourages and enables the formulation of general and abstract principles by intellectuals or sages of some sort.

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