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As someone who consumes a lot of ancient history, it can also make you like “Ah yes, another city rises, another is displaced by climate disaster, and another falls due to land mismanagement. ‘Tis the way of things.”
Nonsense, I look on Ozymandias, king of kings' works daily and despair!
I was literally thinking about this poem moments ago.
It's one of the greats.
It's true. I wonder how many ancient Babylonians, Greeks, Chinese, Egyptians, Persians, Romans thought:
"Surely, this empire will last forever! Look upon our works, ye mighty, and despair!" (EDIT: LOL It appears we're all of one mind remembering this poem. We must be doing something right. XD)
Especially in modern times it's insanely difficult to imagine the geopolitics shifting drastically, but it's happened before, it's happening now. The difference being that the rest of the globe is now much more invested in your shenanigans with your neighbors, but it's still happening.
What does one do amidst a regime change?
I'm glad I've never had to seriously consider it until now. ...but it unnerves me that I probably need to start.
You forgot an important difference between ancient history and now. Now, when the empire falls it has the power to take the biosphere with it.
Herodatus wrote narratives more than he wrote histories.
The definitive 'beginning of history' is "The History of the Peloponesian War" by Thucydides, highly recommend, well written and accessible even now and spells out the politics very clearly and explicitly.
how does one consume ancient history? do you eat the source documents?
That’s unrealistic— some of them are etched into stone
You need some papurus dust to sprinkle on those, like a lick-a-stick.
Civilizations of a heirarchal centralized type definitely feel like temporary abberations, after reading Graeber and Wengrow