History of the Peloponnesian War

And to me the weakness of ancient times is not a little demonstrated by this too. Before the Trojan war, Greece appears to have done nothing in common;

and, as it seems to me, the whole of it had not as yet even this name; nay, before the time of Hellen, the son of Deucalion, it does not appear that this appellation existed at all; but that in their different tribes, and the Pelasgian to the greatest extent, they furnished from themselves the name [of their people.] [*]( i. e. there were different tribes, of which the Pelasgian was the predominant one, called by their different names, instead of being all comprehended under one, as they were afterwards. Or it may refer to the gradual formation of such general names even at that early period, by one tribe extending its own appellation to others.) But when Hellen and his sons had grown strong in Phthiotis, and men invited them for their aid into the other cities; from associating with them, separate communities were now more commonly called Hellenes: [*]( For a striking instance of such a change in the language of a barbarian people at a much later period, I may refer to the inhabitants of the Amphilochian Argos, of whom Thucydides says, II. 68, ἑλληνίσθησαν τὴν νῦν γλῶσσαν τότε πρῶτον ἀπὸ τῶν αμπρακιωτῶν ξυνοικησάντων: οἱ δὲ ἄλλοι ʼαμφίλοχοι βάρ́βαροί εἰσιν.) and yet not for a long time after could that name prevail amongst them all.

And Homer proves this most fully; for, though born long after the Trojan war, he has no where called them all by that name, nor indeed any others but those that came with Achilles out of Phthiotis; who were the very original Hellenes; but in his poems he mentions Danaans, Argives, and Achaeans. Nor again does he speak of barbarians; because neither were the Hellenes, in my opinion, as yet distinguished by one common term in opposition to that.

The several Hellenic communities, then, who in the different cities understood each other's language, and were [*]( See Arnold's note on this difficult passage.) afterwards all so called, did nothing in a body before the Trojan war, through want of strength and mutual intercourse. Nay, even for this expedition they united [only] because they now made more use of the sea.

For Minos was the most ancient of all with whom we are acquainted by report, that acquired a navy: and he made himself master of the greater part of what is now the Grecian sea; and both ruled over the islands called Cyclades, and was the first that colonized most of them, having expelled the Carians, and established his own sons in them as governors; and, as was natural, he swept piracy from the sea as much as he could, for the better coming in to him of his revenues.

For the Grecians in old time, and of the barbarians both those on the continent who lived near the sea, and all who inhabited islands, after they began to cross over more commonly to one another in ships, turned to piracy, under the conduct of their most powerful men, with a view both to their own gain, and to maintenance for the needy; and falling upon towns that were unfortified, and inhabited like villages, [*]( i. e. in an open and straggling manner. Compare his description of Sparta, to which the term as still applicable, chap. 10.) they rifled them, and made most of their livelihood by this means; as this employment did not yet involve any disgrace, but rather brought with it even somewhat of glory.