History of the Peloponnesian War | Page 5

that many supernumeraries sailed, if we except the kings
and high officers; especially as they had to cross the open sea with
munitions of war, in ships, moreover, that had no decks, but were

equipped in the old piratical fashion. So that if we strike the average of
the largest and smallest ships, the number of those who sailed will
appear inconsiderable, representing, as they did, the whole force of
Hellas. And this was due not so much to scarcity of men as of money.
Difficulty of subsistence made the invaders reduce the numbers of the
army to a point at which it might live on the country during the
prosecution of the war. Even after the victory they obtained on their
arrival--and a victory there must have been, or the fortifications of the
naval camp could never have been built--there is no indication of their
whole force having been employed; on the contrary, they seem to have
turned to cultivation of the Chersonese and to piracy from want of
supplies. This was what really enabled the Trojans to keep the field for
ten years against them; the dispersion of the enemy making them
always a match for the detachment left behind. If they had brought
plenty of supplies with them, and had persevered in the war without
scattering for piracy and agriculture, they would have easily defeated
the Trojans in the field, since they could hold their own against them
with the division on service. In short, if they had stuck to the siege, the
capture of Troy would have cost them less time and less trouble. But as
want of money proved the weakness of earlier expeditions, so from the
same cause even the one in question, more famous than its predecessors,
may be pronounced on the evidence of what it effected to have been
inferior to its renown and to the current opinion about it formed under
the tuition of the poets.
Even after the Trojan War, Hellas was still engaged in removing and
settling, and thus could not attain to the quiet which must precede
growth. The late return of the Hellenes from Ilium caused many
revolutions, and factions ensued almost everywhere; and it was the
citizens thus driven into exile who founded the cities. Sixty years after
the capture of Ilium, the modern Boeotians were driven out of Arne by
the Thessalians, and settled in the present Boeotia, the former Cadmeis;
though there was a division of them there before, some of whom joined
the expedition to Ilium. Twenty years later, the Dorians and the
Heraclids became masters of Peloponnese; so that much had to be done
and many years had to elapse before Hellas could attain to a durable
tranquillity undisturbed by removals, and could begin to send out

colonies, as Athens did to Ionia and most of the islands, and the
Peloponnesians to most of Italy and Sicily and some places in the rest
of Hellas. All these places were founded subsequently to the war with
Troy.
But as the power of Hellas grew, and the acquisition of wealth became
more an object, the revenues of the states increasing, tyrannies were by
their means established almost everywhere--the old form of
government being hereditary monarchy with definite prerogatives--and
Hellas began to fit out fleets and apply herself more closely to the sea.
It is said that the Corinthians were the first to approach the modern
style of naval architecture, and that Corinth was the first place in Hellas
where galleys were built; and we have Ameinocles, a Corinthian
shipwright, making four ships for the Samians. Dating from the end of
this war, it is nearly three hundred years ago that Ameinocles went to
Samos. Again, the earliest sea-fight in history was between the
Corinthians and Corcyraeans; this was about two hundred and sixty
years ago, dating from the same time. Planted on an isthmus, Corinth
had from time out of mind been a commercial emporium; as formerly
almost all communication between the Hellenes within and without
Peloponnese was carried on overland, and the Corinthian territory was
the highway through which it travelled. She had consequently great
money resources, as is shown by the epithet "wealthy" bestowed by the
old poets on the place, and this enabled her, when traffic by sea became
more common, to procure her navy and put down piracy; and as she
could offer a mart for both branches of the trade, she acquired for
herself all the power which a large revenue affords. Subsequently the
Ionians attained to great naval strength in the reign of Cyrus, the first
king of the Persians, and of his son Cambyses, and while they were at
war with the former commanded for a while the Ionian sea. Polycrates
also, the tyrant of Samos, had a powerful