8.
The islanders were even more addicted to piracy than the inhabitants of the mainland.
They1 were mostly Carian or Phoenician settlers.
This is proved by the fact that
when the Athenians purified Delos2 during the Peloponnesian War and the tombs of the dead were opened, more than
half of them were found to be Carians. They were known by the fashion of their arms
which were buried with them, and by their mode of burial, the same which is still
practised among them.
[2]
After Minos had established his navy, communication by sea became more general.
For, he having expelled the marauders3 when he colonised the greater part of the islands,
[3]
the dwellers on the sea-coast began to grow richer and to live in a more settled
manner; and some of them, finding their wealth increase beyond their expectations,
surrounded their towns with walls.
The love of gain made the weaker willing to serve the stronger,4 and the command of wealth enabled the more powerful to
subjugate the lesser cities5.
[4]
This was the state of society which was beginning to prevail at the time of the Trojan
War.
1 The pirates in the islands of Carian or Phoenican origin.
2 Cp. 3.104 init.
4 Or, 'and incited the more powerful, who now had wealth at their command, to subjugate the lesser cities.'
5 Or, 'and incited the more powerful, who now had wealth at their command, to subjugate the lesser cities.'
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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