Why democracy cannot lose in Ukraine

NOTWe are in 480 BC. The Persian Achaemenid Empire, the largest the world has known, launched an attack against Greece two years ago, more precisely against Athens. The Persians, led by King Xerxes, are determined to wash away the affront of the defeat at Marathon, which occurred ten years earlier. The troops are immense, innumerable. Some put forward the (fanciful) figure of… 2 million men. The fragile Athenian democracy, established recently, is threatened. General Themistocles convinced the Athenians to abandon their city and take refuge in Piraeus. The sacrifice is terrible. The Persians ravage the Acropolis and the temples, but the Athenians can concentrate on the coming naval battle from the port of Piraeus.

Themistocles relies on the citizens…