History of the Peloponnesian War

And the cause hereof was not so much want of men as of wealth. For, for want of victual they carried the lesser army, and no greater than they hoped might both follow the war and also maintain itself. When upon their arrival they had gotten the upper hand in fight (which is manifest, for else they could not have fortified their camp), it appears that from that time forward they employed not there their whole power, but that for want of victual they betook themselves, part of them to the tillage of Chersonesus and part to fetch in booties; whereby divided, the Trojans the more easily made that ten years resistance, as being ever a match for so many as remained at the siege.

Whereas, if they had gone furnished with store of provision and with all their forces, eased of booty-haling and tillage, since they were masters of the field, they had also easily taken the city. But they strove not with their whole power but only with such a portion of their army as at the several occasions chanced to be present; when as, if they had pressed the siege, they had won the place both in less time and with less labour. But through want of money not only they were weak matters, all that preceded this enterprise, but also this, which is of greater name than any before it, appeareth to be in fact beneath the fame and report which, by means of the poets, now goeth of it.

For also after the Trojan war the Grecians continued still their shifting and transplantations; insomuch as never resting, they improved not their power.

For the late return of the Greeks from Ilium caused not a little innovation; and in most of the cities there arose seditions, and those which were driven out built cities for themselves in other places.

For those that are now called Boeotians in the sixtieth year after the taking of Troy expelled Arne by the Thessalians, seated themselves in that country which, now Boeotia, was then called Cadmeis. (But there was in the same country a certain portion of that nation before, of whom also were they that went to the warfare of Troy.) And in the eightieth year the Dorians together with the Heracleidae seized on Peloponnesus.