History of the Peloponnesian War

And he himself gave the greatest proof of this; for when conquered by sea, thinking that his power was no longer what it had been, retreated as quickly as he could with the greater part of his army.

"Such now having been the result, and it having been clearly shown that it was on the fleet of the Greeks that their cause depended, we contributed the three most useful things towards it; viz. the greatest number of ships, the most able man as a genera, and the most unshrinking zeal. Towards the four hundred ships we contributed not less than two parts; [*](What parts we must suppose the speaker to have referred to in this passage, whether quarters or thirds, is much disputed. Didot and Göller maintain the former, as being in strict agreement with the statement of Herodotus, who makes the whole fleet to have consisted of three hundred and seventy-eight ships, and the Athenian portion of one hundred and eighty. Arnold, after Bredow and Poppo, supports the other interpretation, and observes, that this is not the statement of Thucydides, but of the Athenian orator, who is made very characteristically to indulge in gross exaggerations. See his whole note on the passage. Bishop Thirlwall, however, thinks that such an exaggeration would have been in very bad taste on such an occasion; and that Thucydides meant to state the true numbers; in which, he observes, if we read τριακοσίας for τετρακοσίας he would have followed aeschylus instead of Herodotus, whom indeed it is possible he had not read Vol 2. Append. 4.) and Themistocles as commander, who was chiefly instrumental of their fighting in the Strait, which most clearly saved their cause; and you yourselves for this reason honoured him most, for a stranger, of all that have ever gone to you.