History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides [best free ebook reader TXT] 📗

CHAPTER II

_Causes of the War - The Affair of Epidamnus -

The Affair of Potidaea_

 

The city of Epidamnus stands on the right of the entrance of the

Ionic Gulf. Its vicinity is inhabited by the Taulantians, an

Illyrian people. The place is a colony from Corcyra, founded by

Phalius, son of Eratocleides, of the family of the Heraclids, who

had according to ancient usage been summoned for the purpose from

Corinth, the mother country. The colonists were joined by some

Corinthians, and others of the Dorian race. Now, as time went on,

the city of Epidamnus became great and populous; but falling a prey to

factions arising, it is said, from a war with her neighbours the

barbarians, she became much enfeebled, and lost a considerable

amount of her power. The last act before the war was the expulsion

of the nobles by the people. The exiled party joined the barbarians,

and proceeded to plunder those in the city by sea and land; and the

Epidamnians, finding themselves hard pressed, sent ambassadors to

Corcyra beseeching their mother country not to allow them to perish,

but to make up matters between them and the exiles, and to rid them of

the war with the barbarians. The ambassadors seated themselves in

the temple of Hera as suppliants, and made the above requests to the

Corcyraeans. But the Corcyraeans refused to accept their supplication,

and they were dismissed without having effected anything.

 

When the Epidamnians found that no help could be expected from

Corcyra, they were in a strait what to do next. So they sent to Delphi

and inquired of the God whether they should deliver their city to

the Corinthians and endeavour to obtain some assistance from their

founders. The answer he gave them was to deliver the city and place

themselves under Corinthian protection. So the Epidamnians went to

Corinth and delivered over the colony in obedience to the commands

of the oracle. They showed that their founder came from Corinth, and

revealed the answer of the god; and they begged them not to allow them

to perish, but to assist them. This the Corinthians consented to do.

Believing the colony to belong as much to themselves as to the

Corcyraeans, they felt it to be a kind of duty to undertake their

protection. Besides, they hated the Corcyraeans for their contempt

of the mother country. Instead of meeting with the usual honours

accorded to the parent city by every other colony at public

assemblies, such as precedence at sacrifices, Corinth found herself

treated with contempt by a power which in point of wealth could

stand comparison with any even of the richest communities in Hellas,

which possessed great military strength, and which sometimes could not

repress a pride in the high naval position of an, island whose

nautical renown dated from the days of its old inhabitants, the

Phaeacians. This was one reason of the care that they lavished on

their fleet, which became very efficient; indeed they began the war

with a force of a hundred and twenty galleys.

 

All these grievances made Corinth eager to send the promised aid

to Epidamnus. Advertisement was made for volunteer settlers, and a

force of Ambraciots, Leucadians, and Corinthians was dispatched.

They marched by land to Apollonia, a Corinthian colony, the route by

sea being avoided from fear of Corcyraean interruption. When the

Corcyraeans heard of the arrival of the settlers and troops in

Epidamnus, and the surrender of the colony to Corinth, they took fire.

Instantly putting to sea with five-and-twenty ships, which were

quickly followed by others, they insolently commanded the

Epidamnians to receive back the banished nobles—(it must be premised

that the Epidamnian exiles had come to Corcyra and, pointing to the

sepulchres of their ancestors, had appealed to their kindred to

restore them)—and to dismiss the Corinthian garrison and settlers.

But to all this the Epidamnians turned a deaf ear. Upon this the

Corcyraeans commenced operations against them with a fleet of forty

sail. They took with them the exiles, with a view to their

restoration, and also secured the services of the Illyrians. Sitting

down before the city, they issued a proclamation to the effect that

any of the natives that chose, and the foreigners, might depart

unharmed, with the alternative of being treated as enemies. On their

refusal the Corcyraeans proceeded to besiege the city, which stands on

an isthmus; and the Corinthians, receiving intelligence of the

investment of Epidamnus, got together an armament and proclaimed a

colony to Epidamnus, perfect political equality being guaranteed to

all who chose to go. Any who were not prepared to sail at once

might, by paying down the sum of fifty Corinthian drachmae, have a

share in the colony without leaving Corinth. Great numbers took

advantage of this proclamation, some being ready to start directly,

others paying the requisite forfeit. In case of their passage being

disputed by the Corcyraeans, several cities were asked to lend them

a convoy. Megara prepared to accompany them with eight ships, Pale

in Cephallonia with four; Epidaurus furnished five, Hermione one,

Troezen two, Leucas ten, and Ambracia eight. The Thebans and

Phliasians were asked for money, the Eleans for hulls as well; while

Corinth herself furnished thirty ships and three thousand heavy

infantry.

 

When the Corcyraeans heard of their preparations they came to

Corinth with envoys from Lacedaemon and Sicyon, whom they persuaded to

accompany them, and bade her recall the garrison and settlers, as

she had nothing to do with Epidamnus. If, however, she had any

claims to make, they were willing to submit the matter to the

arbitration of such of the cities in Peloponnese as should be chosen

by mutual agreement, and that the colony should remain with the city

to whom the arbitrators might assign it. They were also willing to

refer the matter to the oracle at Delphi. If, in defiance of their

protestations, war was appealed to, they should be themselves

compelled by this violence to seek friends in quarters where they

had no desire to seek them, and to make even old ties give way to

the necessity of assistance. The answer they got from Corinth was

that, if they would withdraw their fleet and the barbarians from

Epidamnus, negotiation might be possible; but, while the town was

still being besieged, going before arbitrators was out of the

question. The Corcyraeans retorted that if Corinth would withdraw

her troops from Epidamnus they would withdraw theirs, or they were

ready to let both parties remain in statu quo, an armistice being

concluded till judgment could be given.

 

Turning a deaf ear to all these proposals, when their ships were

manned and their allies had come in, the Corinthians sent a herald

before them to declare war and, getting under way with seventy-five

ships and two thousand heavy infantry, sailed for Epidamnus to give

battle to the Corcyraeans. The fleet was under the command of

Aristeus, son of Pellichas, Callicrates, son of Callias, and

Timanor, son of Timanthes; the troops under that of Archetimus, son of

Eurytimus, and Isarchidas, son of Isarchus. When they had reached

Actium in the territory of Anactorium, at the mouth of the mouth of

the Gulf of Ambracia, where the temple of Apollo stands, the

Corcyraeans sent on a herald in a light boat to warn them not to

sail against them. Meanwhile they proceeded to man their ships, all of

which had been equipped for action, the old vessels being

undergirded to make them seaworthy. On the return of the herald

without any peaceful answer from the Corinthians, their ships being

now manned, they put out to sea to meet the enemy with a fleet of

eighty sail (forty were engaged in the siege of Epidamnus), formed

line, and went into action, and gained a decisive victory, and

destroyed fifteen of the Corinthian vessels. The same day had seen

Epidamnus compelled by its besiegers to capitulate; the conditions

being that the foreigners should be sold, and the Corinthians kept

as prisoners of war, till their fate should be otherwise decided.

 

After the engagement the Corcyraeans set up a trophy on Leukimme,

a headland of Corcyra, and slew all their captives except the

Corinthians, whom they kept as prisoners of war. Defeated at sea,

the Corinthians and their allies repaired home, and left the

Corcyraeans masters of all the sea about those parts. Sailing to

Leucas, a Corinthian colony, they ravaged their territory, and burnt

Cyllene, the harbour of the Eleans, because they had furnished ships

and money to Corinth. For almost the whole of the period that followed

the battle they remained masters of the sea, and the allies of Corinth

were harassed by Corcyraean cruisers. At last Corinth, roused by the

sufferings of her allies, sent out ships and troops in the fall of the

summer, who formed an encampment at Actium and about Chimerium, in

Thesprotis, for the protection of Leucas and the rest of the

friendly cities. The Corcyraeans on their part formed a similar

station on Leukimme. Neither party made any movement, but they

remained confronting each other till the end of the summer, and winter

was at hand before either of them returned home.

 

Corinth, exasperated by the war with the Corcyraeans, spent the

whole of the year after the engagement and that succeeding it in

building ships, and in straining every nerve to form an efficient

fleet; rowers being drawn from Peloponnese and the rest of Hellas by

the inducement of large bounties. The Corcyraeans, alarmed at the news

of their preparations, being without a single ally in Hellas (for they

had not enrolled themselves either in the Athenian or in the

Lacedaemonian confederacy), decided to repair to Athens in order to

enter into alliance and to endeavour to procure support from her.

Corinth also, hearing of their intentions, sent an embassy to Athens

to prevent the Corcyraean navy being joined by the Athenian, and her

prospect of ordering the war according to her wishes being thus

impeded. An assembly was convoked, and the rival advocates appeared:

the Corcyraeans spoke as follows:

 

“Athenians! when a people that have not rendered any important

service or support to their neighbours in times past, for which they

might claim to be repaid, appear before them as we now appear before

you to solicit their assistance, they may fairly be required to

satisfy certain preliminary conditions. They should show, first,

that it is expedient or at least safe to grant their request; next,

that they will retain a lasting sense of the kindness. But if they

cannot clearly establish any of these points, they must not be annoyed

if they meet with a rebuff. Now the Corcyraeans believe that with

their petition for assistance they can also give you a satisfactory

answer on these points, and they have therefore dispatched us

hither. It has so happened that our policy as regards you with respect

to this request, turns out to be inconsistent, and as regards our

interests, to be at the present crisis inexpedient. We say

inconsistent, because a power which has never in the whole of her past

history been willing to ally herself with any of her neighbours, is

now found asking them to ally themselves with her. And we say

inexpedient, because in our present war with Corinth it has left us in

a position of entire isolation, and what once seemed the wise

precaution of refusing