History of the Peloponnesian War

In their misery they remembered this verse amongst other things, as was natural they should; the old men saying that it had been uttered long ago;

2. A Dorian war shall come, and plague faith it.

Now there was a dispute amongst them, [and some asserted,] that it was not

a plague

[loimos] that had been mentioned in the verse by the men of former times, but

a famine,

[limos]: the opinion, however, at the present time naturally prevailed that

a plague

had been mentioned: for men adapted their recollections to what they were suffering. But, I suppose, in case of another Dorian war ever befalling them after this, and a famine happening to exist, in all probability they will recite the verse accordingly.