"Where some states have an army, the Prussian Army has a state", as a wit later put it. But yeah, reading Thucydides (also an out-of-sorts Athenian) leaves you

"Where some states have an army, the Prussian Army has a state", as a wit later put it. But yeah, reading Thucydides (also an out-of-sorts Athenian) leaves you with a lingering doubt about the inherent goodness of political regimes - "The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must."