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[timelets]

The point is that, just as it is impossible for someone who lacks military experience to write well about warfare, it is impossible for someone who has never acted in the political sphere or faced a political crisis to write good political history. Nothing written by authors who rely on mere book-learning has the clarity that comes from personal experience, and so nothing is gained by reading their work. For without its educational element, history is altogether uninspiring and useless. Moreover, when such authors decide, despite their lack of relevant experience, to give detailed accounts of cities and terrains, obviously the same thing happens: they omit a great deal that is worth mentioning, and linger over things that do not deserve it.

--- Polybius, The Histories.

Note also his use of the term "education" that implies practical experience in a specific field of study.