History of the Peloponnesian War

Thucydides

Thucydides. The history of the Peloponnesian War, Volume 1-2. Dale, Henry, translator. London: Heinemann and Henry G. Bohn, 1851-1852.

For he appears to have both come himself with most ships, and to have furnished them for the Arcadians besides; as Homer has also shown, if he is sufficient authority for any one, [*]( Literally, sufficient to prove it to any one. ) and also, in [his account of] the transmission of the sceptre, he has mentioned that he

O'er numerous islands and all Argos ruled.

Now, as he lived on the mainland, he would not have been master of islands, except those that were adjacent, (and those would not be numerous,) if he had not also had some naval force. And we must conjecture by this expedition, what was the character of those before it.

And as to Mycenae having been a small place, or if any town in those times appear now to be inconsiderable, this would be no certain proof to rest upon, for disbelieving that the armament was as large as the poets have said, and as report prevails.