1. Homer, Iliad, 2.494, 2.557 (8th cent. BCE - 7th cent. BCE)
| 2.494. /and a voice unwearying, and though the heart within me were of bronze, did not the Muses of Olympus, daughters of Zeus that beareth the aegis, call to my mind all them that came beneath Ilios. Now will I tell the captains of the ships and the ships in their order.of the Boeotians Peneleos and Leïtus were captains 2.557. /Only Nestor could vie with him, for he was the elder. And with him there followed fifty black ships.And Aias led from Salamis twelve ships, and stationed them where the battalions of the Athenians stood.And they that held Argos and Tiryns, famed for its walls |
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2. Aristophanes, Acharnians, 101-152, 225-233, 509-512, 56-59, 595-599, 60, 600-609, 61, 610-619, 62-100 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
| 100. ἰαρταμὰν ἐξάρξαν ἀπισσόνα σάτρα. | |
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3. Aristophanes, Knights, 1391, 802-809, 1389 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
| 1389. σπονδὰς παραδῶ σοι. δεῦρ' ἴθ' αἱ Σπονδαὶ ταχύ. | |
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4. Aristophanes, Peace, 629-648, 628 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
| 628. ἐν δίκῃ μὲν οὖν, ἐπεί τοι τὴν κορώνεών γέ μου | |
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5. Aristophanes, Wasps, 673-695, 672 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
| 672. σὺ δὲ τῆς ἀρχῆς ἀγαπᾷς τῆς σῆς τοὺς ἀργελόφους περιτρώγων. | |
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6. Euripides, Suppliant Women, 382, 399-584, 381 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)
| 381. (to a herald.) Forasmuch as with this thy art thou hast ever served the stat£ and me by carrying my proclamations far and wide, so now cross Asopus and the waters of Ismenus, and declare this message to the haughty king of the Cadmeans: |
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7. Thucydides, The History of The Peloponnesian War, 1.1, 1.20-1.22, 1.71.4, 1.73.4-1.73.5, 1.121.3, 1.122.1, 1.125.2, 1.142-1.143, 1.144.1, 2.13-2.17, 2.20, 2.22-2.23, 2.37-2.38, 2.50-2.53, 2.57-2.65, 2.65.13, 2.67-2.68, 2.71-2.77, 4.14.3, 4.77, 4.89-4.101, 6.15.4, 6.24, 7.18.2, 7.27.5, 7.29.5, 7.71 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
| 1.71.4. Here, at least, let your procrastination end. For the present, assist your allies and Potidaea in particular, as you promised, by a speedy invasion of Attica, and do not sacrifice friends and kindred to their bitterest enemies, and drive the rest of us in despair to some other alliance. 1.73.4. We assert that at Marathon we were at the front, and faced the barbarian single-handed. That when he came the second time, unable to cope with him by land we went on board our ships with all our people, and joined in the action at Salamis . This prevented his taking the Peloponnesian states in detail, and ravaging them with his fleet; when the multitude of his vessels would have made any combination for self-defence impossible. 1.73.5. The best proof of this was furnished by the invader himself. Defeated at sea, he considered his power to be no longer what it had been, and retired as speedily as possible with the greater part of his army. 1.121.3. which they possess shall be raised by us from our respective antecedent resources, and from the monies at Olympia and Delphi . A loan from these enables us to seduce their foreign sailors by the offer of higher pay. For the power of Athens is more mercenary than national; while ours will not be exposed to the same risk, as its strength lies more in men than in money. 1.122.1. We have also other ways of carrying on the war, such as revolt of their allies, the surest method of depriving them of their revenues, which are the source of their strength, and establishment of fortified positions in their country, and various operations which cannot be foreseen at present. For war of all things proceeds least upon definite rules, but draws principally upon itself for contrivances to meet an emergency; and in such cases the party who faces the struggle and keeps his temper best meets with most security, and he who loses his temper about it with correspondent disaster. 1.125.2. This decided, it was still impossible for them to commence at once, from their want of preparation; but it was resolved that the means requisite were to be procured by the different states, and that there was to be no delay. And indeed, in spite of the time occupied with the necessary arrangements, less than a year elapsed before Attica was invaded, and the war openly begun. 1.144.1. I have many other reasons to hope for a favorable issue, if you can consent not to combine schemes of fresh conquest with the conduct of the war, and will abstain from willfully involving yourselves in other dangers; indeed, I am more afraid of our own blunders than of the enemy's devices. 2.65.13. So superfluously abundant were the resources from which the genius of Pericles foresaw an easy triumph in the war over the unaided forces of the Peloponnesians. 4.14.3. Great was the melee, and quite in contradiction to the naval tactics usual to the two combatants; the Lacedaemonians in their excitement and dismay being actually engaged in a sea-fight on land, while the victorious Athenians, in their eagerness to push their success as far as possible, were carrying on a land-fight from their ships. 6.15.4. Alarmed at the greatness of his license in his own life and habits, and of the ambition which he showed in all things soever that he undertook, the mass of the people set him down as a pretender to the tyranny, and became his enemies; and although publicly his conduct of the war was as good as could be desired individually, his habits gave offence to every one, and caused them to commit affairs to other hands, and thus before long to ruin the city. 7.18.2. But the Lacedaemonians derived most encouragement from the belief that Athens, with two wars on her hands, against themselves and against the Siceliots, would be more easy to subdue, and from the conviction that she had been the first to infringe the truce. In the former war, they considered, the offence had been more on their own side, both on account of the entrance of the Thebans into Plataea in time of peace, and also of their own refusal to listen to the Athenian offer of arbitration, in spite of the clause in the former treaty that where arbitration should be offered there should be no appeal to arms. For this reason they thought that they deserved their misfortunes, and took to heart seriously the disaster at Pylos and whatever else had befallen them. 7.27.5. They were deprived of their whole country: more than twenty thousand slaves had deserted, a great part of them artisans, and all their sheep and beasts of burden were lost; and as the cavalry rode out daily upon excursions to Decelea and to guard the country, their horses were either lamed by being constantly worked upon rocky ground, or wounded by the enemy. 7.29.5. Everywhere confusion reigned and death in all its shapes; and in particular they attacked a boys' school, the largest that there was in the place, into which the children had just gone, and massacred them all. In short, the disaster falling upon the whole town was unsurpassed in magnitude, and unapproached by any in suddenness and in horror. |
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8. Aristotle, Rhetoric, 1.15 (4th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
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9. Strabo, Geography, 9.1.10 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
| 9.1.10. At the present time the island is held by the Athenians, although in early times there was strife between them and the Megarians for its possession. Some say that it was Peisistratus, others Solon, who inserted in the Catalogue of Ships immediately after the verse, and Aias brought twelve ships from Salamis, the verse, and, bringing them, halted them where the battalions of the Athenians were stationed, and then used the poet as a witness that the island had belonged to the Athenians from the beginning. But the critics do not accept this interpretation, because many of the verses bear witness to the contrary. For why is Aias found in the last place in the ship-camp, not with the Athenians, but with the Thessalians under Protesilaus? Here were the ships of Aias and Protesilaus. And in the Visitation of the troops, Agamemnon found Menestheus the charioteer, son of Peteos, standing still; and about him were the Athenians, masters of the battle-cry. And near by stood Odysseus of many wiles, and about him, at his side, the ranks of the Cephallenians. And back again to Aias and the Salaminians, he came to the Aiantes, and near them, Idomeneus on the other side, not Menestheus. The Athenians, then, are reputed to have cited alleged testimony of this kind from Homer, and the Megarians to have replied with the following parody: Aias brought ships from Salamis, from Polichne, from Aegeirussa, from Nisaea, and from Tripodes; these four are Megarian places, and, of these, Tripodes is called Tripodiscium, near which the present marketplace of the Megarians is situated. |
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10. Plutarch, Solon, 10 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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11. Pausanias, Description of Greece, 1.35.3 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
| 1.35.3. There are still the remains of a market-place, a temple of Ajax and his statue in ebony. Even at the present day the Athenians pay honors to Ajax himself and to Eurysaces, for there is an altar of Eurysaces also at Athens . In Salamis is shown a stone not far from the harbor, on which they say that Telamon sat when he gazed at the ship in which his children were sailing away to Aulis to take part in the joint expedition of the Greeks. |
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12. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of The Philosophers, 1.48 (3rd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
| 1.48. And lest it should be thought that he had acquired Salamis by force only and not of right, he opened certain graves and showed that the dead were buried with their faces to the east, as was the custom of burial among the Athenians; further, that the tombs themselves faced the east, and that the inscriptions graven upon them named the deceased by their demes, which is a style peculiar to Athens. Some authors assert that in Homer's catalogue of the ships after the line:Ajax twelve ships from Salamis commands,Solon inserted one of his own:And fixed their station next the Athenian bands. |
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