Gerry Adams’ predictably psychopathic view that the murder of two soldiers by the IRA was merely a tactical error points up only too clearly how little interest Sinn Fein has either in democracy or in the wishes of the people of Ulster. Ancients would not be surprised. For them a ‘peace process’ implied the cessation of the ‘war process’, and a ‘war process’ could be ended only by a treaty which committed both parties to an agreement to which the likes of Adams and his kind could never accede.

Ancient treaties involved various technical details: the status of the two parties (equal, or did one hold the whip hand?); the length of time during which the treaty was to be in force; the hand-over of prisoners (and sometimes of e.g. goods and land); an exchange of hostages and the length of their detention (it was important to ensure that they were of high social status because, if not, both sides would have fewer qualms about breaking the treaty); the erection of pillars, usually in sanctuaries, available for all to see, inscribed with the terms of the treaty; and the precise form of oath, taken in the name of the gods who would feel insulted were it broken, to ratify the deal (a typical formula was ‘I shall abide by the terms of this treaty honestly and sincerely’).

But at the heart of any treaty, both Greek and Roman, was the one absolute condition that ensured it worked. It is made most unambiguously in the Greek term for ‘treaty’ – summachia literally ‘fighting together’. The rock on which any treaty was built was the agreement to wage war against anyone who attacked any of the treaty’s signatories. ‘Having the same friends and enemies’ was one way of putting it. For example, one of the clauses in the terms agreed in 421 BC between Sparta and Athens during the disastrous Peloponnesian War read: ‘in case of enemy invasion of or hostile action against Sparta, Athens will come to their aid…’ etc. etc. and vice-versa.

None of this, of course, guaranteed that treaties would last their full term. But the principle of summachia indicated a willingness to sink differences and make common cause against common enemies. It would be instructive to hear the response of Adams and McGuinness to anyone who suggested that that they must be willing to take up arms and defend Ulster against attack from the Republic. It would, one feels, make quite clear what they really stood for.

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