在如今被称为希腊的这个国家，古时候显然没有定居的人口
Thucydides, an Athenian, wrote the history of the war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, beginning at the moment that it broke out, and believing that it would be a great war and more worthy of relation than any that had preceded it. This belief was not without its grounds. The preparations of both the combatants were in every department in the last state of perfection; and he could see the rest of the Hellenic race taking sides in the quarrel; those who delayed doing so at once having it in contemplation. Indeed, this was the greatest movement yet known in history, not only of the, but of a large part of the barba Hellenes rian world—I had almost said of mankind. For though the events of remote antiquity, and even those that more immediately preceded the war, could not from lapse of time be clearly ascertained, yet the evidences which an inquiry carried as far back as was practicable leads me to trust, all point to the conclusion that there was nothing on a great scale, either in war or in other matters.
伯罗奔尼撒人与雅典人之间的战争爆发伊始，我——雅典人修昔底德即开始为这场战争修史。我认为，这将是一场伟大的战争，比以往任何一场战争都更值得载入史册。这种想法并非毫无根据，当时，双方战斗人员在各个方面的准备已近完善。另外我还看到，其余希腊人竞相在纷争中表明立场，即便暂时迟疑者，也在考虑到底站在哪一方。事实上这是一场史无前例的伟大运动，不仅对希腊人而言，对野蛮世界的大部而言也是如此——我几乎想说全人类。因为尽管远古之事，甚至那些距此战较近之事，因时间的逝去已无法厘清，但可以追及的情况仍使我相信，所有证据都指向一个结论：无论是战争还是其他，论规模，无一曾如此宏大。
For instance, it is evident that the country now called Hellas had in ancient times no settled population; on the contrary, migrations were of frequent occurrence, the several tribes readily abandoning their homes under the pressure of superior numbers. Without commerce, without freedom of communication either by land or sea, cultivating no more of their territory than the exigencies of life required, destitute of capital, never planting their land (for they could not tell when an invader might not come and take it all away, and when he did come they had no walls to stop him), thinking that the necessities of daily sustenance could be supplied at one place as well as another, they cared little for shifting their habitation, and consequently neither built large cities nor attained to any other form of greatness. The richest soils were always most subject to this change of masters; such as the district now called Thessaly, Boeotia, most of the Peloponnese, Arcadia excepted, and the most fertile parts of the rest of Hellas. The goodness of the land favoured the aggrandizement of particular individuals, and thus created faction which proved a fertile source of ruin. It also invited invasion. Accordingly, Attica, from the poverty of its soil enjoying from a very remote period freedom from faction, never changed its inhabitants. And here is no inconsiderable exemplification of my assertion that the migrations were the cause of there being no correspondent growth in other parts. The most powerful victims of war or faction from the rest of Hellas took refuge with the Athenians as a safe retreat; and at an early period, becoming naturalized, swelled the already large population of the city to such a height that Attica became at last too small to hold them, and they had to send out colonies to Ionia.
例如，在如今被称为希腊的这个国家，古时候显然没有定居的人口。相反，迁移之事却经常发生，迫于外族人多势众的压力，各部族总是轻易放弃自己的家园。他们没有通商手段，没有陆上或海上交通自由，开辟的地盘仅够生存之需，缺少资本，从来不在自己的土地上耕作（因为不知道何时会有敌来犯，将一切席卷而去，入侵者真的来了，他们又无城墙御敌）。他们认为，维持生存的必需品既然可以在一个地方获得，在其他地方同样可以获得，所以不大在乎更换居住地。因此，他们既不曾建立大的城市，也不曾成就任何其他形式的恢弘之举。那些最为富饶的土地总是最易更换主人，如现在被称为色萨利、维奥蒂亚的地区，伯罗奔尼撒半岛大部（阿卡迪亚除外）以及希腊其他最富饶的地方。由于土地的肥沃有利于某些成员进行扩张，于是便产生了纷争，而纷争则成了孕育毁灭的沃土，同时也易招致外部入侵。恰因如此，阿提卡由于土壤贫瘠长期免受派别纷争之累，从来没有变换过居住者。这一点有力地证实了我的判断：其他地区之所以未相应地发展起来，原因就在于迁徙。希腊其他地方遭受战乱或派别纷争之祸的人中，最强悍的那部分向雅典人寻求避难。从他们归入雅典籍之初，这座本来人口就很多的城市便开始膨胀，阿提卡最终拥挤到无法容纳他们的地步，只好向爱奥尼亚派遣殖民团。
There is also another circumstance that contributes not a little to my conviction of the weakness of ancient times. Before the Trojan war there is no indication of any common action in Hellas, nor indeed of the universal prevalence of the name; on the contrary, before the time of Hellen, son of Deucalion, no such appellation existed, but the country went by the names of the different tribes, in particular of the Pelasgian. It was not till Hellen and his sons grew strong in Phthiotis, and were invited as allies into the other cities, that one by one they gradually acquired from the connection the name of Hellenes; though a long time elapsed before that name could fasten itself upon all. The best proof of this is furnished by Homer. Born long after the Trojan War, he nowhere calls all of them by that name, nor indeed any of them except the followers of Achilles from Phthiotis, who were the original Hellenes; in his poems they are called Danaans, Argives, and Phthiotis. He does not even use the term barbarian, probably because the Hellenes had not yet been marked off from the rest of the world by one distinctive appellation. It appears therefore that the several Hellenic communities, comprising not only those who first acquired the name, city by city, as they came to understand each other, but also those who assumed it afterwards as the name of the whole people, were before the Trojan war prevented by their want of strength and the absence of mutual intercourse from displaying any collective action.
另外还有一点，对我判断远古时期希腊的弱小这一点也助益匪浅。特洛伊战争之前，无任何迹象表明整个希腊曾采取一致行动，甚至也无迹象表明“希腊”这一名称被普遍采用。相反，在丢卡利翁之子赫楞的时代到来之前，这个名称根本不存在，称呼这个国家时用的都是不同部族的名称，尤其是用派拉西亚人之名。直到赫楞和他的儿子们在弗西奥蒂斯势力逐渐壮大，并且作为盟友被邀请至其他城邦，他们才因这种联系一个接一个地逐渐获得“希腊人”这一称呼，尽管其后又经过很长时间，这一名称才成为所有希腊人的固定称呼。这一点在荷马的作品里得到了最好的验证。荷马虽然是特洛伊战争结束很久以后才出生的，但他的作品中无一处用这一名称来统称希腊人，事实上不用它来称呼其中任何人，除了来自弗西奥蒂斯的阿喀琉斯的追随者，因为他们原本就是希腊人。在他的诗里，希腊人被称为“达纳安人”、“阿尔戈斯人”和“亚该亚人”。他甚至未使用过“蛮族人”这一说法，原因或许是希腊人尚未以一种特有的称呼与世界上其他人区别开来。因此似乎就成了这样：希腊人的各个群体，不仅包括最初那些随着相互间了解的加深一个城市一个城市地先后获得这一称呼的群体，而且还包括那些后来采用这一名称作为全体人的称呼的群体，由于实力不足和相互之间缺乏沟通，在特洛伊战争之前未能采取任何集体行动。
Indeed, they could not unite for this expedition till they had gained increased familiarity with the sea. And the first person known to us by tradition as having established a navy is Minos. He made himself master of what is now called the Hellenic sea, and ruled over the Cyclades, into most of which he sent the first colonies, expelling the Carians and appointing his own sons governors; and thus did his best to put down piracy in those waters, a necessary step to secure the revenues for his own use.
事实上，如果不是后来加深了对海洋的认识，他们不可能联合起来发动特洛伊远征。传统上我们都认为，米诺斯是建立海军的第一人。他成为如今被称为“希腊海”的海上霸主和基克拉泽斯群岛的统治者，并向大部分岛屿输送了第一批殖民者，赶走了卡里亚人，还任命自己的儿子们担任这些岛屿的总督。他就这样倾其全力镇压了那些水域的海盗活动，这是他为了确保收益为己所用必须采取的步骤。
For in early times, the Hellenes and the barbarians of the coast and islands, as communication by sea became more common, were tempted to turn pirates, under the conduct of their most powerful men; the motives being to serve their own cupidity and to support the needy. They would fall upon a town unprotected by walls, and consisting of a mere collection of villages, and would plunder it; indeed, this came to be the main source of their livelihood, no disgrace being yet attached to such an achievement, but even some glory. An illustration of this is furnished by the honour with which some of the inhabitants of the continent still regard a successful marauder, and by the question, we find the old poets everywhere representing the people as asking of voyagers—“Are they pirates?“—as if those who are asked the question would have no idea of disclaiming the imputation, or their interrogators of reproaching them for it. The same rapine prevailed also by land.
其原因在于，在早期，随着海上交通日趋普遍，古希腊人和住在沿海区域及诸岛上的蛮族人便在利诱之下做起了海盗。他们的首领都是他们之中最强悍的人，抢劫的目的既是为了满足自身的物欲，也是为了扶困济贫。这些海盗常常突袭那些没有城墙防护且仅散聚着零星几个村庄的城镇，尔后将其劫掠一空。他们甚至逐渐将抢劫当成了主要的谋生之道，不但不以这种行为为耻，反而有些引以为荣。这一点还可以找到如下例证：一是大陆上某些居民现在仍以抢劫成功为荣，二是古诗人在他们的作品中时常描述人们这样问及从海上来的人，“他们是海盗吗？”，被问及者仿佛并无拒纳这一污名之意，询问者好像也无意为此而指责他们。这类劫掠在陆地上也常常发生。
And even at the present day, many of Hellas still follow the old fashion, the Ozolian Locrians for instance, the Aetolians, the Acarnanians, and that region of the continent; and the custom of carrying arms is still kept up among these continentals, from the old piratical habits. The whole of Hellas used once to carry arms, their habitations being unprotected and their communication with each other unsafe; indeed, to wear arms was as much a part of everyday life with them as with the barbarians. And the fact that the people in these parts of Hellas are still living in the old way points to a time when the same mode of life was once equally common to all. The Athenians were the first to lay aside their weapons, and to adopt an easier and more luxurious mode of life; indeed, it is only lately that their rich old men left off the luxury of wearing undergarments of linen, and fastening a knot of their hair with a tie of golden grasshoppers, a fashion which spread to their Ionian kindred and long prevailed among the old men there. On the contrary, a modest style of dressing, more in conformity with modern ideas, was first adopted by the Lacedaemonians, the rich doing their best to assimilate their way of life to that of the common people. They also set the example of contending naked, publicly stripping and anointing themselves with oil in their gymnastic exercises. Formerly, even in the Olympic contests, the athletes who contended wore belts across their middles; and it is but a few years since that the practice ceased. To this day among some of the barbarians, especially in Asia, when prizes for boxing and wrestling are offered, belts are worn by the 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.
甚至时至今日，很多希腊人仍在奉行这一古风，如奥佐利亚的洛克里斯人、埃托利亚人、阿卡纳尼亚人以及大陆上居住在那一地区的人。由于古时海盗遗留下来的习惯，这些大陆人依旧保持着随身携带武器的习俗。全体希腊人过去都有携带武器的习惯，这是因为他们的居所不设防护，彼此往来也很不安全。事实上，携带武器是他们日常生活的一部分，在这一点上，他们与那些蛮族人毫无二致。现如今，希腊这些地区的居民依然保持着旧日的生活方式，这一事实表明，过去的某段时期，这种生活方式是所有希腊人共有的。最先卸下武器而采取比较安逸奢侈的生活方式者是雅典人。事实上，雅典富裕阶层的老人不久前才不穿亚麻贴身内衣，也不再将头发用一个金蚱蜢扣盘成鬏。那种奢侈风尚亦曾传到过他们在爱奥尼亚的同族人那里，并在当地老人中流行了相当长一段时间。然而，更符合现代理念的朴素穿着方式，最早则是在古斯巴达人中兴起的，那里的富人也尽可能按普通人的方式生活。古斯巴达人还率先开创了裸体竞技运动。进行体育锻炼时，他们公开脱去衣服往身上涂抹油膏。从前，即便是在奥林匹亚竞赛会上，参赛的运动员也要在腰部系一条带子。这种习惯几年前才刚刚消失。时至今日，一些蛮族人，尤其是亚细亚地区的蛮族人，在争夺拳击或摔跤运动的奖项时，选手们还是要束上腰带。古希腊人的生活方式与现今蛮族人的生活方式，在其他方面可能还有许多相似之处。
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.
至于希腊人的城镇，后来，到了航海设施增多和资本比较充裕的时期，我们可以发现，沿海地区已经出现了筑有城墙的城镇；出于通商或防范邻邦侵犯的需要，地峡也已被占据。但是，由于海盗活动猖獗，那些古城镇都建在离海有一定距离的岛屿或大陆上，如今这些城镇依然屹立在原址。因为海盗们除了常常相互抢劫，实际上，整个沿海地区的居民都深涉其中，不论他们是否以航海为业。
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.
海上劫掠在岛上居民中也十分盛行。这些岛民就是将大多数岛屿开拓成殖民地的卡里亚人和腓尼基人，这一点有以下事实为证：这次战争期间，雅典人曾对提洛岛进行净秽，其间挖开了岛上所有的坟墓。结果发现，从殉葬武器的样式和埋葬的方式来看，墓中人大半是卡里亚人，卡里亚人现在仍采用这种武器样式和埋葬方式。不过，米诺斯建立海军伊始，就将大多数岛屿开拓成了殖民地，并逐走了那里的海盗，使得海上交通较之前更加便捷。沿海居民这时开始更为关注财富的获取，他们的生活也变得更加安定了，其中一些人甚至开始凭借新获得的财富为居所修筑防护墙。利欲之心总是驱使弱者臣服于强者，因此，势力强大的城镇便倚仗对资本的占有，开始吞并较小的城镇。后来，当他们开始远征特洛伊时，希腊已经沿着这条路线发展了相当长一段时间了。
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; and 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
阿伽门农之所以能够召集起那支大军，我认为是由于他实力超群，而不是因为那些求婚者受廷达瑞奥斯誓约所缚才追随他。事实上，伯罗奔尼撒人中流传下来的传说可靠性最强。他们的说法是这样的：首先，珀罗普斯带着巨额财富从亚细亚来到一片贫穷人口居住的地方，势力逐渐壮大，以致他来自异乡，却能使整个地区以他的名字命名。他的这笔势力财富，在他的后人手里得到了发扬光大。欧律斯透斯在阿提卡被赫拉克勒斯的后裔所杀。欧律斯透斯在远征开始前将迈锡尼及其政府托付给了他的亲戚，即因克里西波斯之死而被他父亲放逐的阿特柔斯。此人是欧律斯透斯母亲的兄长。岁月流逝，欧律斯透斯却没有回来，阿特柔斯顺从了迈锡尼人的愿望（实际上迈锡尼人深陷对赫拉克勒斯后裔一族的恐惧，加之他的势力也不可小觑，而且他也没有忘记争取民众的支持），继承了王位。这样，他便统治了迈锡尼和欧律斯透斯所曾统治的其他地方。因此，珀罗普斯的后裔渐渐变得比珀修斯的后裔强大得多。阿伽门农继承了所有这一切。另外，他还拥有那个时代最强大的海军。因此，在我看来，在这支联合远征军的组建中，恐惧与爱戴起着同等重要的作用。倘若我们相信荷马所言足以为凭，阿伽门农的海军实力由此可见一斑：他自己的舰队是其中最为庞大的一支，就连阿卡迪亚的舰队也由他装备，至少荷马是这样说的。此外，荷马在对阿伽门农继承权杖的描述中曾称他为：
Of many an isle, and of all Argos king.
“许多岛屿和整个阿尔戈斯的国王”。
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.
阿伽门农的势力是在陆上，倘若他不曾拥有舰队，他便不会统治除海岸附近的岛屿（为数不多）之外的任何岛屿。
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 right to be sceptical, nor to content ourselves with an inspection of a town to the exclusion of a consideration of its power; but we may safely conclude that the armament in question surpassed all before it, as it fell short of modern efforts; if we can here also accept the testimony of Homer's poems, in which, without allowing for the exaggeration which a poet would feel himself licensed to employ, we can see that it was far from equalling ours. He has represented it as consisting of twelve hundred vessels; the Boeotian complement of each ship being a hundred and twenty men, that of the ships of Philoctetes fifty. By this, I conceive, he meant to convey the maximum and the minimum complement: at any rate, he does not specify the amount of any others in his catalogue of the ships. That they were all rowers as well as warriors we see from his account of the ships of Philoctetes, in which all the men at the oar are bowmen. Now it is improbable that many supernumeraries sailed, if we except the kings and high officers; especially as they had to cross the open sea with munitions of war, in ships, moreover, that had no decks, but were equipped in the old piratical fashion. So that if we strike the average of the largest and smallest ships, the number of those who sailed will appear inconsiderable, representing, as they did, the whole force of Hellas. And this was due not so much to scarcity of men as of money. Difficulty of subsistence made the invaders reduce the numbers of the army to a point at which it might live on the country during the prosecution of the war. Even after the victory they obtained on their arrival—and a victory there must have been, or the fortifications of the naval camp could never have been built—there is no indication of their whole force having been employed; on the contrary, they seem to have turned to cultivation of the Chersonese and to piracy from want of supplies. This was what really enabled the Trojans to keep the field for ten years against them; the dispersion of the enemy making them always a match for the detachment left behind. If they had brought plenty of supplies with them, and had persevered in the war without scattering for piracy and agriculture, they would have easily defeated the Trojans in the field, since they could hold their own against them with the division on service. In short, if they had stuck to the siege, the capture of Troy would have cost them less time and less trouble. But as want of money proved the weakness of earlier expeditions, so from the same cause even the one in question, more famous than its predecessors, may be pronounced on the evidence of what it effected to have been inferior to its renown and to the current opinion about it formed under the tuition of the poets.
从这次远征，我们或许可以推断出此前几次远征的情况。如今的迈锡尼过去可能只是个小地方，当时那个年代的诸多城镇，在今天看来似乎都不值一提。但是，谁也无法心安理得地否定诗人们和传说中对这支军队规模大小的估计。我想，假如斯巴达将来变得一片荒凉，只留下神庙和公共建筑的地基，随着时间的推移，后人会很难相信它的势力确如它的声名那么显赫。但是，斯巴达人却占有伯罗奔尼撒五分之二的土地，而且在整个半岛居于统领地位，且不说在岛外还有许多盟邦。然而，由于这座城的布局不够紧凑，又没有雄伟的庙宇和公共建筑为之增色，而只是一些老式希腊村庄的聚合体，其外表难免给人一种不足之感。反之，如果雅典落到同样地步，我猜想，仅观其表，谁都会以为它的势力比实际上大一倍。因此，我们既无权持怀疑态度，也不能单凭一座城市的外表而不看它的实力就作出判断。不过，我们可以得出结论说，这支军队的规模虽然无法与现代战争努力相提并论，却大于此前任何一次。在这一点上，如果我们同样可以接受荷马史诗中的说法，即便不将诗人惯常使用的夸张手法考虑在内，我们还是可以看出，其描述远不能和我们这次战争所动用的兵力同日而语。按照荷马的描述，阿伽门农的大军有船舶1,200艘，维奥蒂亚人的船上每船配备120人，菲罗克忒忒斯的船上每船配备50人。我想，他这样写是想给出船上人员的最大和最小配备数：不管怎样，他都没有详细说明他所记载的其他船只所配备的兵员数。从他对菲罗克忒忒斯那些船的描述还可以看出，船上人员不仅是战士，同时还充当桨手，划桨的人全都是弓箭手。如此看来，除了国王和高级官吏外，船上不可能有多少额外人员，考虑到他们还得用船载着军需品穿过大海，情况更是这样。另外，他们的船上也没有装甲板，而是按照旧日海盗船的样式装备的。因此，我们如果取最大和最小的船的数量的平均值，船上人员的数目似乎不是很大，因为他们实际上代表的是全希腊的军事力量。这种情况的出现，与其说是人员短缺，毋宁说是资金不足。由于给养保障困难，他们不得不减少军队的人数，以便在战争进行期间能在对方国度里生存下去。即便在登陆获得胜利之后（这场胜利势在必得，否则便无法构筑海军营地的工事），也没有迹象表明他们曾将全部军队投入作战。恰恰相反，由于给养不足，他们似乎转而开始在切尔松尼斯岛上耕作和劫掠。特洛伊人能够坚守十年与之对抗，真正原因正在于此。敌军的分散，使得他们和那些留在战场上的军队一直处于势均力敌的状况。假如阿伽门农的军队带有充足的给养，一直坚持作战，没有分散兵力去进行劫掠与农耕，他们在战场上打败特洛伊人则会易如反掌，因为他们仅靠投入作战的那部分兵力便已能与其匹敌。简言之，假如全力投入围攻，他们攻陷特洛伊城就无需花那么多时间，也不用费那么大周折了。此前历次远征，其实都存在资金匮乏这一不足。从这次远征实际完成的业绩来看，虽然它比以往那些都声名卓著，但同样基于这一原因，或许我们可以断言，盛名之下其实难副，也未必完全符合时下人们在诗人的影响下对它所形成的看法。
Even after the Trojan War, Hellas was still engaged in removing and settling, and thus could not attain to the quiet which must precede growth. The late return of the Hellenes from Iliumcaused many revolutions, and factions ensued almost everywhere; and it was the citizens thus driven into exile who founded the cities. Sixty years after the capture of Ilium, the modern Boeotians were driven out of Arne by the Thessalians, and settled in the present Boeotia, the former Cadmeis; though there was a division of them there before, some of whom joined the expedition to Ilium. Twenty years later, the Dorians and the Heraclids became masters of Peloponnese; so that much had to be done and many years had to elapse before Hellas could attain to a durable tranquillity undisturbed by removals, and could begin to send out colonies, as Athens did to Ionia and most of the islands, and the Peloponnesians to most of Italy and Sicily and some places in the rest of Hellas. All these places were founded subsequently to the war with Troy.
甚至在特洛伊战争之后，希腊人仍忙于动迁和移居，因而未能赢得发展前须有的一段平静。希腊军队迟迟不从伊利昂（特洛伊的曾用名）归来，使得动荡频发，各地几乎都派系林立，那些因此而被放逐的人便建立了新的城市。伊利昂陷落六十年后，近代维奥蒂亚人被色萨利人逐出阿恩，定居在了现在的维奥蒂亚，也就是从前的卡兹米斯，尽管那里以前就有他们的一个分支，其中一些人还参加了对伊利昂的远征。二十年后，多里亚人和自称为大力神赫拉克勒斯后裔的人成了伯罗奔尼撒半岛的主人。又过了很多年，经过大量努力，希腊才得以不受迁动之扰，过上持久安定的日子，并开始向外派遣殖民团。雅典人去的是爱奥尼亚和大多数岛屿，伯罗奔尼撒人去的是意大利和西西里的大部以及希腊其他一些地方。所有这些殖民地都是在特洛伊战争之后建立起来的。
But as the power of Hellas grew, and the acquisition of wealth became more an object, the revenues of the states increasing, tyrannies were by their means established almost everywhere—the old form of government being hereditary monarchy with definite prerogatives—and Hellas began to fit out fleets and apply herself more closely to the sea. It is said that the Corinthians were the first to approach the modern style of naval architecture, and that Corinth was the first place in Hellas where galleys were built; and we have Ameinocles, a Corinthian shipwright, making four ships for the Samians. Dating from the end of this war, it is nearly three hundred years ago that Ameinocles went to Samos. Again, the earliest sea-fight in history was between the Corinthians and Corcyraeans; this was about two hundred and sixty years ago, dating from the same time. Planted on an isthmus, Corinth had from time out of mind been a commercial emporium; as formerly almost all communication between the Hellenes within and without Peloponnese was carried on overland, and the Corinthian territory was the highway through which it travelled. She had consequently great money resources, as is shown by the epithet “wealthy” bestowed by the old poets on the place, and this enabled her, when traffic by sea became more common, to procure her navy and put down piracy; and as she could offer a mart for both branches of the trade, she acquired for herself all the power which a large revenue affords. Subsequently the Ionians attained to great naval strength in the reign of Cyrus, the first king of the Persians, and of his son Cambyses, and while they were at war with the former commanded for a while the Ionian Sea. Polycrates also, the tyrant of Samos, had a powerful navy in the reign of Cambyses, with which he reduced many of the islands, and among them Rhenea, which he consecrated to the Delian Apollo. About this time, also the Phocaeans, while they were founding Marseilles, defeated the Carthaginians in a sea-fight. These were the most powerful navies. And even these, although so many generations had elapsed since the Trojan War, seem to have been principally composed of the old fifty-oars and long-boats, and to have counted few galleys among their ranks. Indeed, it was only shortly before the Persian war, and the death of Darius the successor of Cambyses, that the Sicilian tyrants and the Corcyraeans acquired any large number of galleys. For after these, there were no navies of any account in Hellas till the expedition of Xerxes; Aegina, Athens, and others may have possessed a few vessels, but they were principally fifty-oars. It was quite at the end of this period that the war with Aegina and the prospect of the barbarian invasion enabled Themistocles to persuade the Athenians to build the fleet with which they fought at Salamis; and even these vessels had not complete decks.
然而，随着势力的扩大，获取财富逐渐成为希腊追逐的目标。由于各个城邦的收入不断增加，几乎各地都以自己的方式建立了僭主政治——旧有的政体是世袭式君主制，君主具有确定的特权——希腊开始装备舰队，更加注重海上势力扩张。据说，科林斯人是最早采用近代方式建造船只的，希腊最早的三列桨战舰也是在科林斯建造的。我们知道，科林斯有一个叫阿米诺克莱斯的造船人，他曾为萨摩斯岛人造了四条船。从这次战争结束时算起，将近三百年前，阿米诺克莱斯去往萨摩斯岛。此外，历史上最早的海战即发生在科林斯人和克基拉人之间，如果从同一时间算起，大约发生在二百六十年前。科林斯位于地峡之上，自远古以来就是商业中心。由于之前希腊人于伯罗奔尼撒半岛内外彼此间的往来几乎都是通过陆路，科林斯的领土可谓必经之地。因此，科林斯当时财源滚滚，这一点从古诗人提及这个地方时往往冠有“富裕的”一词即可得知。海上交通比较发达后，这一点也使得科林斯能够建立自己的海军去镇压海盗。由于可以同时为海上和陆上通商提供市场，不断积累的贸易财富帮助其势力进一步增强。随后，在波斯人的第一个国王居鲁士和他的儿子康比斯统治时期，爱奥尼亚人拥有了强大的海军力量。在与居鲁士交战期间，他们有一个时期曾经控制了爱奥尼亚海。在康比斯统治时期，萨摩斯岛的僭主波利克拉泰斯同样拥有强大的海上力量，据此征服了许多岛屿，其中包括雷尼亚岛，他把这个岛奉献给了提洛岛上的阿波罗神。这一时期前后，海上势力强大的还有福西亚人。在建立马赛的过程中，他们在一次海战中打败了迦太基人。这些是当时最强大的海军。但是，尽管特洛伊战争已过去不少代，但就连这些海军，其舰队似乎也没有多少三列桨战舰，主要还是由老式长船和五十桨大船组成。实际上，只有到了波斯战争和康比斯的继承者大流士死前不久，西西里的僭主们和克基拉人才拥有数量可观的三列桨战舰。其后到泽尔士远征之前，希腊一直没有值得一提的海军力量。埃伊纳岛、雅典和其他城市可能拥有少量船只，但主要是五十桨大船。这个时期的末期，与埃伊纳的作战和蛮族人入侵的预期使得塞米斯托克利斯说服雅典人建立舰队，用于在萨拉米斯作战，但就连这些船只也没有完整的甲板。
The navies, then, of the Hellenes during the period we have traversed were what I have described. All their insignificance did not prevent their being an element of the greatest power to those who cultivated them, alike in revenue and in dominion. They were the means by which the islands were reached and reduced, those of the smallest area falling the easiest prey. Wars by land there were none, none at least by which power was acquired; we have the usual border contests, but of distant expeditions with conquest for object, we hear nothing among the Hellenes. There was no union of subject cities round a great state, no spontaneous combination of equals for confederate expeditions; what fighting there was consisted merely of local warfare between rival neighbours. The nearest approach to a coalition took place in the old war between Chalcis and Eretria; this was a quarrel in which the rest of the Hellenic name did to some extent take sides.
因此，在我们所谈及的时期，希腊人的海军即如上述。这些海军虽然微不足道，却为其创建者发展成为最强大的势力做出了一份贡献，在获取收入和领土扩张方面都是如此。靠着这些力量，他们抵达和征服了一个个岛屿，面积最小的那些往往最易被他们吞并。陆地上倒是没有战事，至少没有为扩大势力而进行的陆上战争。惯常的边界争端虽有发生，但没听说希腊人中有谁以征服为目标进行远征。没有臣属城邦围绕某个大的城邦组成联盟，也没有平等的城邦自发组织联合征伐。即便打仗，也只是对立邻邦之间的局部战争。最接近联合行动的是哈尔基斯与埃雷特里亚之间那场古战。在那场战斗中，希腊名下的其他城邦在一定程度上都表了态。
Various, too, were the obstacles which the national growth encountered in various localities. The power of the Ionians was advancing with rapid strides, when it came into collision with Persia, under King Cyrus, who, after having dethroned Croesus and overrun everything between the Halys and the sea, stopped not till he had reduced the cities of the coast; the islands being only left to be subdued by Darius and the Phoenician navy.
由于地域不同，各民族在发展过程中所遇到的阻碍也各不相同。爱奥尼亚人的势力迅猛发展时，却与居鲁士国王统治下的波斯发生了冲突。居鲁士废黜了克罗伊斯，将哈利斯河与大海之间的土地尽数收入囊中，直至攻克了沿岸诸城方才罢手。留待大流士和腓尼基海军去征服的，仅剩那些岛屿了。
Again, wherever there were tyrants, their habit of providing simply for themselves, of looking solely to their personal comfort and family aggrandizement, made safety the great aim of their policy, and prevented anything great proceeding from them; though they would each have their affairs with their immediate neighbours. All this is only true of the mother country, for in Sicily they attained to very great power. Thus for a long time everywhere in Hellas do we find causes which make the states alike incapable of combination for great and national ends, or of any vigorous action of their own.
此外，无论哪里实行僭主政治，僭主们都是只为自己打算，仅考虑他们个人的安逸和家族的光耀，所以总是把安全列为主要政策目标，因而成就不了大的业绩，尽管他们与各自的紧邻都发生过一些冲突。不过，这种情况仅发生在希腊本土，西西里的僭主们则势力大增。因此，我们发现，很长一个时期，希腊各地的城邦都未能联合一致开创民族伟业，各个城邦也曾采取过积极行动。
But at last, a time came when the tyrants of Athens and the far older tyrannies of the rest of Hellas were, with the exception of those in Sicily, once and for all put down by Lacedaemon; for this city, though after the settlement of the Dorians, its present inhabitants, it suffered from factions for an unparalleled length of time, still at a very early period obtained good laws, and enjoyed a freedom from tyrants which was unbroken; it has possessed the same form of government for more than four hundred years, reckoning to the end of the late war, and has thus been in a position to arrange the affairs of the other states. Not many years after the deposition of the tyrants, the battle of Marathon was fought between the Medes and the Athenians. Ten years afterwards, the barbarian returned with the armada for the subjugation of Hellas. In the face of this great danger, the command of the confederate Hellenes was assumed by the Lacedaemonians in virtue of their superior power; and the Athenians, having made up their minds to abandon their city, broke up their homes, threw themselves into their ships, and became a naval people. This coalition, after repulsing the barbarian, soon afterwards split into two sections, which included the Hellenes who had revolted from the King, as well as those who had aided him in the war. At the end of the one stood Athens, at the head of the other Lacedaemon, one the first naval, the other the first military power in Hellas. For a short time the league held together, till the Lacedaemonians and Athenians quarrelled and made war upon each other with their allies, a duel into which all the Hellenes sooner or later were drawn, though some might at first remain neutral. So that the whole period from the Median war to this, with some peaceful intervals, was spent by each power in war, either with its rival, or with its own revolted allies, and consequently afforded them constant practice in military matters, and that experience which is learnt in the school of danger.
希腊其他地方实行僭主政治比雅典长得多，但是，除了西西里的僭主之外，雅典和其他地方的僭主最终都被斯巴达彻底废黜了。斯巴达这座城市虽然在其目前的居民多里亚人定居下来之后，遭受了空前长的一段派别纷争期，但它很早就有良好的律法，而且从来不曾实行过僭主政治。从上次战争结束时算起，它的政体四百多年来都不曾有过变化，所以它一直具备干预其他城邦事务的能力。僭主们被废黜后没多少年，波斯人与雅典人之间就开始了马拉松战役。十年后，蛮族人又带着舰队来征服希腊了。大难当头之际，斯巴达人凭借超群的实力担当起了希腊联军的指挥重任。雅典人则决心放弃他们的城市，他们毁掉家园，登上舰船，成了海上民族。将蛮族人击退后不久，这一联盟分裂成了两个集团，其中既有背离波斯国王的人，也有在战争中曾协助他的人。希腊这两大集团，一个以雅典为首，一个唯斯巴达是瞻；一个在海上称雄，一个在陆上为霸。战时同盟短暂地存续了一段时间，直到斯巴达人和雅典人就起了争执，各自率领盟邦相互开战。起初，有些城邦可能还保持中立，但所有希腊人或迟或早都卷入了这场争斗。所以，从波斯战争结束到这场伯罗奔尼撒战争开始，其间虽有几段短暂的和平，但就整体情况而言，这两大势力一直在打仗，不是与对手打，就是与叛离自己的盟邦打。因此，他们在军事方面不断得到锻炼，同时也在实战的课堂上获得了经验。
The policy of Lacedaemon was not to exact tribute from her allies, but merely to secure their subservience to her interests by establishing oligarchies among them; Athens, on the contrary, had by degrees deprived hers of their ships, and imposed instead contributions in money on all except Chios and Lesbos. Both found their resources for this war separately to exceed the sum of their strength when the alliance flourished intact.
对于盟邦，斯巴达采取的办法不是要它们纳贡，而是在它们之中建立寡头政治，以确保它们服从它的利益。雅典则相反，它逐渐不再要求盟邦提供船只，而是要求除了希俄斯和莱斯沃斯以外全都缴纳贡金。双方后来都发现，他们各自用于这场战争的资源，竟然超过了同盟处于全盛时期军力的总和。
Having now given the result of my inquiries into early times, I grant that there will be a difficulty in believing every particular detail. The way that most men deal with traditions, even traditions of their own country, is to receive them all alike as they are delivered, without applying any critical test whatever. The general Athenian public fancy that Hipparchus was tyrant when he fell by the hands of Harmodius and Aristogiton, not knowing that Hippias, the eldest of the sons of Pisistratus, was really supreme, and that Hipparchus and Thessalus were his brothers; and that Harmodius and Aristogiton suspecting, on the very day, nay at the very moment fixed on for the deed, that information had been conveyed to Hippias by their accomplices, concluded that he had been warned, and did not attack him, yet, not liking to be apprehended and risk their lives for nothing, fell upon Hipparchus near the temple of the daughters of Leos, and slew him as he was arranging the Panathenaic procession.
尽管我已给出我对早期历史的探究结论，可我还是认为很难相信每一个具体细节。大多数人对历史传说都是照单全收，而不是用批判的眼光去检验，甚至对本国的历史传说也是如此。雅典的一般公众都以为，喜帕恰斯被哈尔莫季乌斯和阿里斯托伊通所刺时是僭主，孰不知真正大权在握的是皮西斯特拉图斯的儿子们当中最年长的希庇亚斯，喜帕恰斯和塞萨卢斯不过是他的弟弟。他们以为，哈尔莫季乌斯和阿里斯托伊通在举事的当天，就在预定动手的那一刻，曾怀疑自己的同伙已将消息透露给了希庇亚斯，断定他已经得到警告，所以就没动手，但又不甘心赌上了性命却毫无作为便被捕，当天恰逢喜帕恰斯在莱奥斯之女的神庙附近，所以就在他安排泛雅典娜节日游行时杀死了他。
There are many other unfounded ideas current among the rest of the Hellenes, even on matters of contemporary history, which have not been obscured by time. For instance, there is the notion that the Lacedaemonian kings have two votes each, the fact being that they have only one; and that there is a company of Pitane, there being simply no such thing. So little pains do the vulgar take in the investigation of truth, accepting readily the first story that comes to hand. On the whole, however, the conclusions I have drawn from the proofs quoted may, I believe, safely be relied on. Assuredly they will not be disturbed either by the lays of a poet displaying the exaggeration of his craft, or by the compositions of the chroniclers that are attractive at truth's expense; the subjects they treat of being out of the reach of evidence, and time having robbed most of them of historical value by enthroning them in the region of legend. Turning from these, we can rest satisfied with having proceeded upon the clearest data, and having arrived at conclusions as exact as can be expected in matters of such antiquity. To come to this war: despite the known disposition of the actors in a struggle to overrate its importance, and when it is over to return to their admiration of earlier events, yet an examination of the facts will show that it was much greater than the wars which preceded it.
在其他希腊人中，当前同样存在着许多其他毫无根据的猜想，甚至在当代一些历史问题上也是如此，尽管人们对这些问题的记忆尚未因时间的流逝而模糊。例如，有人认为，斯巴达的国王每人拥有两票表决权，事实上只有一票。还有人认为，曾有一支名叫“皮塔内”的军队，其实根本子虚乌有。可是，一般人很少想方设法去探究真相，总是听到什么就相信什么。不过，我认为，我根据以上引证得出的结论，基本上是可信的。可以肯定，这些结论既不会因为诗人的叙述被推翻，也不会因为编年史家的著述而降低信度，因为前者往往使用夸张的手法，后者常常为了增加吸引力而牺牲真相。他们讲述的内容一般经不起证据的检验，而且随着时间的推移，其中大部分会因为被奉为传奇而失去历史价值。此外，依据最明确的资料进行过研究，并且在这么久远的问题上得出了尽可能准确的结论，我们大可对这一结果感到满意。关于这场战争，纵然我们知道战争的参加者往往夸大其词，但是当战争已然结束，人们回过头去品赏往日的战事时，只要看一看事实本身，自会看出它较此前那些战争伟大得多。
With reference to the speeches in this history, some were delivered before the war began, others while it was going on; some I heard myself, others I got from various quarters; it was in all cases difficult to carry them word for word in one's memory, so my habit has been to make the speakers say what was in my opinion demanded of them by the various occasions, of course adhering as closely as possible to the general sense of what they really said. And with reference to the narrative of events, far from permitting myself to derive it from the first source that came to hand, I did not even trust my own impressions, but it rests partly on what I saw myself, partly on what others saw for me, the accuracy of the report being always tried by the most severe and detailed tests possible. My conclusions have cost me some labour from the want of coincidence between accounts of the same occurrences by different eye-witnesses, arising sometimes from imperfect memory, sometimes from undue partiality for one side or the other. The absence of romance in my history will, I fear, detract somewhat from its interest; but if it be judged useful by those inquirers who desire an exact knowledge of the past as an aid to the interpretation of the future, which in the course of human things must resemble if it does not reflect it, I shall be content. In fine, I have written my work, not as an essay which is to win the applause of the moment, but as a possession for all time.
至于这部史书中所援用的一些演讲，有些是在战争开始前发表的，有些是在战争进行过程中发表的；有些我曾亲耳聆听，有些则是通过各种来源获知的。无论源于何处，要想把它们逐字逐句记载下来都很困难，所以我的处理方法是，让讲演者说出我认为的不同场合要求他们说的话，当然，大体上还得尽可能贴近他们实际所言。关于战事的叙述，我则绝不允许自己初闻一件事就写下来，我甚至不相信自己的印象，而应该部分基于个人亲眼所见，部分基于据其他亲历者对我的讲述，还要尽可能最为严格地仔细核实内容准确与否。有时因为记忆不全，有时因为不适当地偏袒一方或另一方，不同目击者对相同事件的叙述未必吻合，因此，这些结论的得出实非易事。由于缺乏浪漫色彩，这本史书读起来恐怕不够引人入胜。不过，在人间事物的发展过程中，未来即便不是历史的映像，也会与之相似。倘若希望透过准确了解过去而预知未来的研究者认为本书尚有助益，我心足矣。总之，我修本著，并非希冀它成为赢得时人喝彩的美文，而是望其成为永垂史册的财富。
The Median War, the greatest achievement of past times, yet found a speedy decision in two actions by sea and two by land. The Peloponnesian War was prolonged to an immense length, and, long as it was, it was short without parallel for the misfortunes that it brought upon Hellas. Never had so many cities been taken and laid desolate, here by the barbarians, here by the parties contending (the old inhabitants being sometimes removed to make room for others); never was there so much banishing and blood-shedding, now on the field of battle, now in the strife of faction. Old stories of occurrences handed down by tradition, but scantily confirmed by experience, suddenly ceased to be incredible; there were earthquakes of unparalleled extent and violence; eclipses of the sun occurred with a frequency unrecorded in previous history; there were great droughts in sundry places and consequent famines, and that most calamitous and awfully fatal visitation, the plague. All this came upon them with the late war, which was begun by the Athenians and Peloponnesians by the dissolution of the thirty years' truce made after the conquest of Euboea. To the question why they broke the treaty, I answer by placing first an account of their grounds of complaint and points of difference that no one may ever have to ask the immediate cause which plunged the Hellenes into a war of such magnitude. The real cause I consider to be the one which was formally most kept out of sight. The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Lacedaemon made war inevitable. Still it is well to give the grounds alleged by either side which led to the dissolution of the treaty and the breaking out of the war.
波斯战争虽是以往最伟大的壮举，但经过两次海上战役和两次陆上战役，那场战争的胜负便迅速见了分晓。相比之下伯罗奔尼撒战争持续的时间则很长，不过，长则长矣，它给希腊带来痛苦的速度却空前迅速。从来没有哪一场战争令这么多城市被攻陷，被撂荒，有的是蛮族人所为，有的是战争双方所致（原有居民有时只好迁走，为他人让地方）；也从来没有过这么多人被驱逐，被杀戮，有的是在战场上，有的则是在派系争斗中。过去流传下来的一些古老的传说，以前甚少为经验所证实，而今却突然不再那么难以置信了。地震的烈度和强度前所未有，日食出现的频度史无前例，各地均出现大旱，饥荒随之而至，而最具灾难性和致命性的灾祸则是瘟疫。所有这些全都随着最近这场战争的爆发一起降临到了希腊人头上。攻克埃维亚岛之后订立的三十年休战和约一经撕毁，雅典人与伯罗奔尼撒人之间的这场战争就开始了。要想回答他们为何撕毁和约这一问题，我想，首先得理清双方不满的缘由和分歧，这样，大家就不必询问使希腊陷入这么大一场战争的直接原因了。在我看来，这场战争的真正起因，几乎被表面上的言辞掩而不见。雅典势力的壮大和因之在斯巴达引起的恐惧，其实才是战争不可避免的真正原因。尽管如此，我们不妨还是探讨一下战争双方认为的导致和约破裂以及战争爆发的原因。
