History of the Peloponnesian War

Of such a [deficient] character then were the navies of the Greeks, both the ancient ones and those which were built afterwards. And yet those who paid attention to them obtained the greatest power, both by income of money and dominion over others: for they sailed against the islands, and subdued them; especially those who had not sufficient extent of country.

But as for war by land, from which any power [*]( From the position of the καὶ here, it seems intended only to make the following word more emphatic; as it is often used, before verbs especially; in instance of which occurs in the very next sentence, ὅσοι καὶ ἐγένοντο.) was acquired, there was none. Such as did arise, were all against their several neighbours; and the Greeks did not go out in any foreign expeditions far from their country for the subjugation of others. For they had not ranged themselves with the chief states as subjects; nor, on the other hand, did they of their own accord, on fair and equal terms, make common expeditions; but it was rather neighbouring states that separately waged war upon each other.

But it was for the war carried on at an early period between the Chalcidians and Eretrians, that the rest of Greece also was most generally divided in alliance with one side or the other.

Now to others there arose in other ways obstacles to their increase; and in the case of the Ionians, when their power had advanced to a high pitch, Cyrus and the Persian kingdom, having subdued Croesus and all within the Halys to the sea, marched against them, and reduced to bondage their cities on the mainland, as Darius afterwards did even the islands, conquering them by means of the fleet of the Phoenicians.

As for the tyrants, such as there were in the Grecian cities, since they provided only for what concerned themselves, with a view to the safety of their own persons, and the aggrandizement of their own family, they governed their cities with caution, as far as they possibly could; and nothing memorable was achieved by them; [indeed nothing,] except it might be against their own several border states. [I speak of those in old Greece,] for those in Sicily advanced to a very great degree of power. Thus on all sides Greece for a long time was kept in check; so that it both performed nothing illustrious in common, and was less daring as regards individual states.

But after the tyrants of the Athenians and those in the rest of Greece, (which even at an earlier period [*]( i. e. than the Athenians.) was for a long time subject to tyrants,) the most and last, excepting those in Sicily, had been deposed by the Lacedaemonians; (for Lacedaemon, after the settlement of the Dorians who now inhabit it, though torn by factions for the longest time of any country that we are acquainted with, yet from the earliest period enjoyed good laws, and was always free from tyrants; for it is about four hundred years, or a little more, to the end of this war, that the Lacedaemonians have been in possession of the same form of government; and being for this reason powerful, they settled matters in the other states also;) after, [*]( A common force of δέ after a long parenthesis.) I say, the deposition of the tyrants in the rest of Greece, not many years subsequently the battle of Marathon was fought between the Medes and Athenians.