The Trojan War is dismissed by an a

The Trojan War is dismissed by an argument based on the likelihood that the attacking forces had inadequate logistics (ch. 11) and by a calculation derived from the figures in Homer's Catalogue of the Ships (iliad 2). Thucydides assumes that Homer mentions the largest and smallest crew sizes (120 and 50) in this catalogue and accepts, proVisionally, the Homeric total figure of 1,200 Greek ships against Troy. Taking the mean (85) between the largest and smallest crew sizes (and assuming there were no other warriors aboard) Thucydides concludes that "not many seem to have gone on this expedition considering that they went from all Greece in common" (1.10.5). Thucydides never completes the multiplication of 85 by 1,200. But the total, 102,000 is by Greek standards' 'a very large number for an overseas expedition ... and much larger than any that sailed in the Peloponnesian War." (Gomme in HCT on l.lO.5IP. 114)]. The Persian expedition is treated no less cavalierly, dismissed as something swiftly completed in a pair of naval and a pair of land battles (23.1), none of which is even named. So much for Salamis and Artemisium, Thermopylae and Plataea.