By Karen S. Walch, Ph.D.
Thucydides in 400 BC wrote in the Peloponnesian War that Pausanias, a Spartan, lost his status and power within his own ranks because of his lack of cultural awareness. In Pausanias’ case, he “went native” by falling in love with and flaunting the joys he found in Persian culture and luxury. Pausanias held his own native Greek culture of simplicity and discipline in distain. In classic laws of power, this outward infatuation with the foreign and disregard for one’s own national culture is offensive and subject to punishment.
