The general conception of the Samian tyrant is indeed that he used his ships in naval and piratical operations rather than for peaceful purposes of trade. Thucydides says of him that “having a powerful fleet he made divers of the islands subject to him, and in particular captured Rheneia and dedicated it to the Delian Apollo[371].” But even the capture of Rheneia, which Thucydides seems to regard as the principal warlike achievement of Polycrates’ fleet, was one that may have had important commercial consequences. By capturing Rheneia Polycrates became practically master of Delos. He celebrated the Delian games[372]. Considering the unrivalled situation of Delos it is not unlikely that the festival was even in the sixth century the “commercial affair[373]” that it was in later ages, and such as others also of the great Greek games appear to have been from the days of the tyrants[374]. In that case it is not inconceivable that the repeated purifications of Delos in the sixth and fifth centuries may have had not only a religious signification, but also the purpose of restricting a commercial element that was constantly reasserting itself. We need not be surprised to find a commercial potentate exerting his power by means of an army or navy. War has so far in the world’s history always stood in the immediate background of even the most peaceful political power. There is nothing in the nature of a capitalist government to make it anti-militarist. If, as seems to have been the case, the early tyrants realized how seldom war does anything for commercial prosperity except to ruin it, it only shows them to have been men of unusual insight, as indeed there are many reasons for thinking that they were. If Polycrates was an exception to the generally peaceful character of the early tyranny, the fact may be explained by his antagonism to Persia, with which he appears to have been openly at war during part of his reign[375].