History of the Peloponnesian War

Their more settled life was due to their desire for gain; actuated by this, the weaker citizens were willing to submit to dependence on the stronger, and the more powerful men, with their enlarged resources, were able to make the lesser cities their subjects.

And later on, when they had at length more completely reached this condition of affairs, they made the expedition against Troy.

And it was, as I think, because Agamemnon surpassed in power the princes of his time that he was able to assemble his fleet, and not so much because Helen's suitors, whom he led, were bound by oath to Tyndareus.[*](According to the post-Homeric legend, all who paid their court to Helen engaged to defend the man of her choice against all wrong. cf. Isoc. 10.40; Paus. 3.20. 9; 3.10.9.)