15.
So inconsiderable were the Hellenic navies in recent as well as in more ancient times.
And1 yet those who applied their energies to the sea obtained a great accession of
strength by the increase of their revenues and the extension of their dominion.
For they attacked and subjugated the islands, especially when the pressure of
population was felt by them.
[2]
Whereas by land, no conflict of any kind which brought increase of power ever occurred;
what wars they had were mere border feuds.
Foreign and distant expeditions of conquest the Hellenes never undertook;
for they were
not as yet ranged under the command of the great states,
nor did they form voluntary leagues or make expeditions on an equal footing.
Their wars were only the wars of the several neighboring tribes with one another.
[3]
The conflict in which the rest of Hellas was most divided, allying itself with one side
or the other, was the ancient war between the Chalcidians and Eretrians2.
1 The chief power of Hellas maritime. Wars by land inconsiderable.
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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