History of the Peloponnesian War

For it is clear that he himself brought the greatest number of ships, and that he had others with which to supply the Arcadians,[*](cf. Homer, Il. 2.576 and 612.) as Homer testifies, if he is sufficient witness for anyone. And he says, in the account of the delivery of the sceptre,[*](cf. Homer, Il. 2.101-109.) that Agamemnon "ruled over many islands and all Argos." Now, if he had not had something of a fleet, he could not, as he lived on the mainland, have been lord of any islands except those on the coast, and these would not be "many." And it is from this expedition that we must judge by conjecture what the situation was before that time.

And because Mycenae was only a small place, or if any particular town of that time seems now to be insignificant, it would not be right for me to treat this as an exact piece of evidence and refuse to believe that the expedition against Troy was as great as the poets have asserted and as tradition still maintains.