nd to the hands of his relation, who had left his
father on account of the death of Chrysippus, Eurystheus, when he set
out on his expedition, had committed Mycenae and the government. As time
went on and Eurystheus did not return, Atreus complied with the
wishes of the Mycenaeans, who were influenced by fear of the
Heraclids--besides, his power seemed considerable, and he had not
neglected to court the favour of the populace--and assumed the sceptre
of Mycenae and the rest of the dominions of Eurystheus. And so the
power of the descendants of Pelops came to be greater than that of the
descendants of Perseus. To all this Agamemnon succeeded. He had also a
navy far stronger than his contemporaries, so that, in my opinion,
fear was quite as strong an element as love in the formation of the
confederate expedition. The strength of his navy is shown by the fact
that his own was the largest contingent, and that of the Arcadians was
furnished by him; this at least is what Homer says, if his testimony is
deemed sufficient. Besides, in his account of the transmission of the
sceptre, he calls him

Of many an isle, and of all Argos king.

Now Agamemnon's was a continental power; and he could not have been
master of any except the adjacent islands (and these would not be many),
but through the possession of a fleet.

And from this expedition we may infer the character of earlier
enterprises. Now Mycenae may have been a small place, and many of the
towns of that age may appear comparatively insignificant, but no exact
observer would therefore feel justified in rejecting the estimate given
by the poets and by tradition of the magnitude of the armament. For I
suppose if Lacedaemon were to become desolate, and the temples and the
foundations of the public buildings were left, that as time went on
there would be a strong disposition with posterity to refuse to accept
her fame as a true exponent of her power. And yet they occupy two-fifths
of Peloponnese and lead the whole, not to speak of their numerous allies
without. Still, as the city is neither built in a compact form nor
adorned with magnificent temples and public edifices, but composed of
villages after the old fashion of Hellas, there would be an impression
of inadequacy. Whereas, if Athens were to suffer the same misfortune,
I suppose that any inference from the appearance presented to the eye
would make her power to have been twice as great as it is. We have
therefore no