Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/124

 8 NUMBERS OF THE EXPEDITION [l of Sparta to be deserted, and nothing left but the temples J.,. ., ■ . and the ground-plan, distant ages would greatness of Mycatae, be very unwilling to believe that the or of any other city, is power of the Lacedaemonians was at 11 !!/ ^ ^ll""* ^ "^ all equal to their fame. And yet they present appearances, i j J proved from a com- own two-fifths of the Peloponnesus, and parison of Athens and are acknowledged leaders of the whole, as well as of numerous allies in the rest of Hellas. But their city is not built continuously, and has no splendid temples or other edifices ; it rather resembles a group of villages like the ancient towns of Hellas, and would therefore make a poor show. Whereas, if the same fate befell the Athenians, the ruins of Athens would strike ' the eye, and we should infer their power to have been twice as great as it really is. We ought not then to be unduly sceptical. The greatness of cities should be estimated by their real power and not by appearances. And we may Homers account of fairly suppose the Trojan expedition the number of the forces, ^q ^^ve been greater than any which preceded it, although according to Homer, if we may once more appeal to his testimony, not equal to those of our own day. He was a poet, and may therefore be expected to exaggerate ; yet, even upon his showing, the expedition was comparatively small. For it numbered, as he tells us, twelve hundred ships, those of the Boeotians » carrying one hundred and twenty men each, those of Philoctetes^ fifty; and by these numbers he may be presumed to indicate the largest and the smallest ships ; else why in the catalogue is nothing said about the size of any others? That the crews were all fighting men as well as rowers he clearly implies when speaking of the ships of Philoctetes; for he tells us that all the oarsmen were likewise archers. And it is not to be supposed that many who were not sailors would accompany the expedition, except the kings and principal officers ; for the troops had to cross the sea,
 * II. ii. 509, 510. ^ II. ii. 719, 720.