[11,70] ὕστερον δὲ Ἀλεξάνδρου τελευτήσαντος, οὗ λέγεται ἐρᾶν, Δηιφόβῳ συνεῖναι, καθάπερ οἶμαι κἀκείνῳ τῆς Ἀφροδίτης ὑποσχομένης, καὶ μήτε αὐτὴν ἐθέλειν ἀπιέναι παρὰ τὸν αὑτῆς ἄνδρα μήτε τοὺς Τρῶας ἀποδοῦναι {τὴν Ἑλένην βίᾳ, μέχρι ἁλῶναι τὴν πόλιν}. τούτων οὐθὲν εἰκὸς οὐδὲ δυνατόν. ἔτι δὲ καὶ τόδε πρὸς τοῖς εἰρημένοις. τοὺς μὲν ἄλλους ἅπαντας Ἀχαιούς φησιν Ὅμηρος κοινωνῆσαι, οἷς ἧττον ἔμελε, τῆς δυνάμεως· Κάστορα δὲ καὶ Πολυδεύκην μόνους μὴ ἀφικέσθαι, τοὺς μάλιστα ὑβρισμένους. (71) ταύτην δὲ τὴν ἀλογίαν κρύπτων Ὅμηρος πεποίηκε θαυμάζουσαν τὴν Ἑλένην· ἔπειτα αὐτὸς ἀπελογήσατο, εἰπὼν ὅτι τεθνήκεσαν πρότερον. οὐκοῦν τό γε ζώντων αὐτὴν ἁρπασθῆναι δῆλόν ἐστιν. ἔπειτα πῶς Ἀγαμέμνονα περιέμενον δέκα ἔτη διατρίβοντα καὶ συνάγοντα στρατιάν, ἀλλ´ οὐκ εὐθὺς ἐδίωξαν τὴν ἀδελφήν, μάλιστα μὲν εἰ κατὰ πλοῦν ἕλοιεν· (72) εἰ δ´ οὖν, ὡς πολεμήσοντες μετὰ τῆς αὑτῶν δυνάμεως; οὐ γὰρ ἐπὶ Θησέα μὲν ἦλθον εὐθύς, ἄνδρα Ἕλληνα καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἄριστον, ἔτι δὲ αὐτόν τε πολλῶν ἄρχοντα καὶ Ἡρακλέους ἑταῖρον καὶ Πειρίθου καὶ Θετταλοὺς καὶ Βοιωτοὺς ἔχοντα συμμάχους· ἐπὶ δὲ Ἀλέξανδρον οὐκ ἂν ἦλθον, ἀλλὰ τοὺς Ἀτρείδας περιέμενον δέκα ἔτη συλλέγοντας τὴν δύναμιν. Ἴσως γὰρ εἰκὸς ἦν καὶ αὐτὸν ἀφικέσθαι τὸν Τυνδάρεων καὶ μηθὲν αὐτὸν κωλῦσαι τὴν ἡλικίαν. (73) οὐ γὰρ δὴ Νέστορος παλαιότερος ἦν οὐδὲ Φοίνικος, οὐδὲ μᾶλλον ἐκείνους προσῆκον ἦν ἀγανακτεῖν ἢ τὸν πατέρα αὐτόν. ἀλλ´ οὔτε αὐτὸς οὔτε οἱ παῖδες ἧκον οὐδὲ ἦν αὐτοῖς βουλομένοις τὰ τῆς στρατείας. ἑκόντες γὰρ αὐτοὶ τὴν Ἑλένην ἐξέδωκαν, προκρίναντες τῶν ἄλλων μνηστήρων τὸν Ἀλέξανδρον διὰ μέγεθος τῆς ἀρχῆς καὶ ἀνδρείαν· οὐδενὸς γὰρ ἦν χείρων τὴν ψυχήν. οὔτε οὖν ἐκεῖνοι ἀφίκοντο πολεμήσοντες οὔτε Λακεδαιμονίων οὐδείς, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦτο ψεῦδός ἐστιν ὅτι Μενέλαος ἦγε Λακεδαιμονίους καὶ τῆς Σπάρτης ἐβασίλευε Τυνδάρεω ζῶντος ἔτι. (74) καὶ γὰρ ἦν δεινόν, εἰ Νέστωρ μὲν μήτε πρότερον μήτε ὕστερον ἐλθὼν ἀπ´ Ἰλίου παρεχώρησε τοῖς υἱοῖς τῆς βασιλείας καὶ τῆς ἀρχῆς διὰ γῆρας, Τυνδάρεως δὲ Μενελάῳ ἐξέστη. φαίνεται γὰρ καὶ ταῦτα πολλὴν ἀπορίαν ἔχοντα. ἐπεὶ δ´ οὖν ἦλθον οἱ Ἀχαιοί, τὸ μὲν πρῶτον εἴργοντο τῆς γῆς, καὶ Πρωτεσίλαός τε ἀποθνῄσκει βιαζόμενος ἀποβῆναι καὶ πολλοὶ τῶν ἄλλων, ὥστε διέπλευσαν εἰς τὴν Χερρόνησον, ὑποσπόνδους τοὺς νεκροὺς ἀνελόμενοι, κἀκεῖ θάπτουσι τὸν Πρωτεσίλαον. ἔπειτα περιπλέοντες ἀπέβαινον εἰς τὴν χώραν καὶ τῶν πολισμάτων τινὰ ἐπόρθουν.

[11,70] Afterwards too it is just as unlikely that on the death of Paris, whom they say Helen loved, she should have been the wife of Deïphobus—I suppose because Aphrodite had promised her to him also—and that not only she should have been unwilling to return to her husband, but that the Trojans should not have been unwilling, until their city was captured, to surrender her through compulsion. All that is improbable and indeed impossible. The same applies also to the following. "According to Homer, all the other Greeks, in spite of the fact that they had but a secondary interest in the dispute, took part in the expedition, while Castor and Pollux, who had been most deeply injured, did not go. Homer in veiling this blunder has represented Helen as expressing her astonishment and then, made excuse for them himself by saying that they had died before this. Hence it is evident that they were still living when she was carried off. And yet did they wait ten years for Agamemnon to waste time and muster an army instead of pursuing their sister at once in the hope of taking her on the voyage if possible, or else waging war with their own force if they failed? I cannot believe that they would have proceeded at once against Theseus, a man of Greek blood and peerless in valour, a ruler also of many and a comrade of Heracles and Peirithoüs with Thessalians and Boeotians to help him, and yet would not have proceeded against Paris but would have waited ten years for the Atreidae to muster their forces. Why, perhaps we should have expected Tyndareüs himself to go and to find his years no hindrance. He certainly was not older than Nestor or Phoenix either, nor was it any more fitting for them to feel resentment than for the father himself. Yet neither he nor his sons came nor did they approve of the expedition. The reason was, in fast, that they had voluntarily given Helen in marnage since they preferred Paris to the other suitors on account of the greatness of his kingdom and his manly qualities, for he was no man's inferior in character. So neither did those men come to fight nor anyone from Lacedaemon; nay, it is also untrue that Menelaus led the Lacedaemonians and was king of Sparta while Tyndareüs was yet alive. It would have been strange indeed if Nestor, neither previous to his departure nor afterwards on his return from Troy, ceded his royal power and realm to his sons because of his age, and yet Tyndareüs made way for Menelaus. These considerations also certainly raise serions difficulties. "Now when the Achaeans arrived, they were at first prevented from making a landing, and Protesilaüs with many others was slain in trying to force one. They therefore sailed across to the Chersonese after recovering their dead under truce, and there Protesilaüs was buried. After this they sailed around, effected a landing in the country, and sacked some of the towns,