Why this word is great
PROPHASES — [Noun] The actual reasons for going to war, which may differ from the pretexts offered to the public. From Ancient Greek πρόφασις (próphasis, "pretense, pretext, excuse"), popularized by Thucydides in the context of the Peloponnesian War. Unlike "proschemata" (the flimsy banners of justification waved before crowds) or "casus belli" (the spark lit to ignite the tinder), prophases are the cold, unadorned machinery of power—the grain shortages masked as honor, the trade routes disguised as liberation, the fear of democracy veiled as a crusade for stability. It is the general’s private correspondence, the ledger of debts settled by blood, the quiet understanding that war, like love, is never about what it claims to be. The truth is always elsewhere, and always uglier.