History of The Peloponnesian War - Book I   

The First Book.

CHAPTER I.

The State of Greece from the earliest Times to the
Commencement of the Peloponnesian War

THUCYDIDES, an Athenian, wrote the history of the war between the
Peloponnesians and the Athenians, beginning at the moment that it
broke out, and believing that it would be a great war and more
worthy of relation than any that had preceded it. This belief was
not without its grounds. The preparations of both the combatants
were in every department in the last state of perfection; and he could
see the rest of the Hellenic race taking sides in the quarrel; those
who delayed doing so at once having it in contemplation. Indeed this
was the greatest movement yet known in history, not only of the
Hellenes, but of a large part of the barbarian world- I had almost
said of mankind. For though the events of remote antiquity, and even
those that more immediately preceded the war, could not from lapse
of time be clearly ascertained, yet the evidences which an inquiry
carried as far back as was practicable leads me to trust, all point to
the conclusion that there was nothing on a great scale, either in
war or in other matters.
For instance, it is evident that the country now called Hellas had
in ancient times no settled population; on the contrary, migrations
were of frequent occurrence, the several tribes readily abandoning
their homes under the pressure of superior numbers. Without
commerce, without freedom of communication either by land or sea,
cultivating no more of their territory than the exigencies of life
required, destitute of capital, never planting their land (for they
could not tell when an invader might not come and take it all away,
and when he did come they had no walls to stop him), thinking that the
necessities of daily sustenance could be supplied at one place as well
as another, they cared little for shifting their habitation, and
consequently neither built large cities nor attained to any other form
of greatness. The richest soils were always most subject to this
change of masters; such as the district now called Thessaly,
Boeotia, most of the Peloponnese, Arcadia excepted, and the most
fertile parts of the rest of Hellas. The goodness of the land favoured
the aggrandizement of particular individuals, and thus created faction
which proved a fertile source of ruin. It also invited invasion.
Accordingly Attica, from the poverty of its soil enjoying from a
very remote period freedom from faction, never changed its
inhabitants. And here is no inconsiderable exemplification of my
assertion that the migrations were the cause of there being no
correspondent growth in other parts. The most powerful victims of
war or faction from the rest of Hellas took refuge with the
Athenians as a safe retreat; and at an early period, becoming
naturalized, swelled the already large population of the city to
such a height that Attica became at last too small to hold them, and
they had to send out colonies to Ionia.
There is also another circumstance that contributes not a little
to my conviction of the weakness of ancient times. Before the Trojan
war there is no indication of any common action in Hellas, nor
indeed of the universal prevalence of the name; on the contrary,
before the time of Hellen, son of Deucalion, no such appellation
existed, but the country went by the names of the different tribes, in
particular of the Pelasgian. It was not till Hellen and his sons
grew strong in Phthiotis, and were invited as allies into the other
cities, that one by one they gradually acquired from the connection
the name of Hellenes; though a long time elapsed before that name
could fasten itself upon all. The best proof of this is furnished by
Homer. Born long after the Trojan War, he nowhere calls all of them by
that name, nor indeed any of them except the followers of Achilles