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9.
I am inclined to think that Agamemnon succeeded in collecting the expedition, not
because1 the suitors of Helen had bound themselves by oath to Tyndareus, but because he
was the most powerful king of his time.2
[2]
Those Peloponnesians who possess the most accurate traditions say that3 originally Pelops gained his power by
the great wealth which he brought with him from Asia into a poor country,
whereby he was enabled, although a stranger, to give his name to the Peloponnesus; and
that still greater fortune attended his descendants after the death of Eurystheus, king
of Mycenae, who was slain in Attica by the Heraclidae. For Atreus the son of Pelops was
the maternal uncle of Eurystheus, who, when he went on the expedition, naturally
committed to his charge the kingdom of Mycenae. Now Atreus had been banished by his
father on account of the murder of Chrysippus. But Eurystheus never returned; and the
Mycenaeans, dreading the Heraclidae, were ready to welcome Atreus, who was considered a
powerful man and had ingratiated himself with the multitude. So he succeeded to the
throne of Mycenae and the other dominions of Eurystheus. Thus the house of Pelops
prevailed over that of Perseus.
[3]
And it was, as I believe, because Agamemnon inherited this power and also because he
was the greatest naval potentate of his time that he was able to assemble the
expedition; and the other princes followed him, not from good-will, but from fear.
[4]
Of the chiefs who came to Troy, he, if the witness of Homer be accepted, brought the
greatest number of ships himself, besides supplying the Arcadians with them.
In the Handing down of the Sceptre he is described as
“The king of many islands, and of all Argos.”
Il. 2.108
But, living on the mainland, he could not have ruled over any except the adjacent
islands (which would not be 'many') unless he had possessed a considerable navy.
From this expedition we must form our conjectures about the character of still earlier
times.
1 Rise of the Pelopidae: the wealth and power which Agamemnon inherited from Atreus and Eurystheus enabled him to assemble the chiefs who fought at Troy.
2 Or, 'Those who possess the most accurate traditions respecting the history of Peloponnesus say that' etc.
3 Or, 'Those who possess the most accurate traditions respecting the history of Peloponnesus say that' etc.
Thucydides translated into English; with introduction, marginal analysis, notes, and indices. Volume 1. Thucydides. Benjamin Jowett. translator. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1881.
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