combatants. And there are many other points in which a likeness might be
shown between the life of the Hellenic world of old and the barbarian of
to-day.

With respect to their towns, later on, at an era of increased facilities
of navigation and a greater supply of capital, we find the shores
becoming the site of walled towns, and the isthmuses being occupied for
the purposes of commerce and defence against a neighbour. But the old
towns, on account of the great prevalence of piracy, were built away
from the sea, whether on the islands or the continent, and still remain
in their old sites. For the pirates used to plunder one another, and
indeed all coast populations, whether seafaring or not.

The islanders, too, were great pirates. These islanders were Carians and
Phoenicians, by whom most of the islands were colonized, as was proved
by the following fact. During the purification of Delos by Athens in
this war all the graves in the island were taken up, and it was found
that above half their inmates were Carians: they were identified by the
fashion of the arms buried with them, and by the method of interment,
which was the same as the Carians still follow. But as soon as Minos
had formed his navy, communication by sea became easier, as he colonized
most of the islands, and thus expelled the malefactors. The coast
population now began to apply themselves more closely to the acquisition
of wealth, and their life became more settled; some even began to build
themselves walls on the strength of their newly acquired riches. For the
love of gain would reconcile the weaker to the dominion of the stronger,
and the possession of capital enabled the more powerful to reduce the
smaller towns to subjection. And it was at a somewhat later stage of
this development that they went on the expedition against Troy.

What enabled Agamemnon to raise the armament was more, in my opinion,
his superiority in strength, than the oaths of Tyndareus, which
bound the suitors to follow him. Indeed, the account given by those
Peloponnesians who have been the recipients of the most credible
tradition is this. First of all Pelops, arriving among a needy
population from Asia with vast wealth, acquired such power that,
stranger though he was, the country was called after him; and this power
fortune saw fit materially to increase in the hands of his descendants.
Eurystheus had been killed in Attica by the Heraclids. Atreus was his
mother's brother; a