History of the Peloponnesian War

And so when painfully and after a long course of time Hellas became permanently tranquil and its population was no longer subject to expulsion from their homes, it began to send out colonies. The Athenians colonized lonia and most of the islands; the Peloponnesians, the greater part of Italy and Sicily and some portions of the rest of Hellas. And all these colonies were planted after the Trojan war.

As Hellas grew more powerful and continued to acquire still more wealth than before, along with the increase of their revenue tyrannies began to be established in most of the cities, whereas before that there had been hereditary kingships based on fixed prerogatives. The Hellenes began to fit out navies, too, and to apply themselves more to the sea.

And the Corinthians are said to have been the first of all to adopt what was very nearly the modern plan as regards ships and shipping,[*](The reference seems to be to the construction of harbours and (locks as well as to the structure of the ships, e.g. providing them with decks (ch. 10. 4).) and Corinth was the first place in all Hellas, we are told, where triremes were built.

And it appears that Ameinocles, a Corinthian shipwright, built four ships for the Samians, also; and it was about three hundred years before the end of the Peloponnesian war that Ameinocles came to the Samians.[*](704 B.C.)

The earliest sea-fight, too, of which we know, was fought by the Corinthians against the Corcyraeans;[*](664 B.C.)and this was two hundred and sixty years before the same date.