Book 1
But the last thing which had taken place before this war was, that the commons had driven out the nobles, who, having retired, were plundering those in the city both by land and sea, in conjunction with the barbarians.
The Epidamnians that were in the town, being hard pressed, sent ambassadors to Corcyra, as being their mother-city, praying the Corcyraens not to stand by and see them perish, but to reconcile their exiles to them, and to put an end to the barbarian war.
And this they entreated in the character of suppliants, sitting down in the temple of Juno. But the Corcyraeans, not admitting their supplication, sent them away again without effect.
So the Epidamnians, finding that there was no relief for them from the Corcyraeans, were at a loss how to settle the present affair; and sending to Delphi, inquired of the god whether they should deliver up their city to the Corinthians, as their founders, and try to obtain some aid from them. He answered, that they should deliver it to them, and make them their leaders.
So the Epidamnians went to Corinth, and according to the advice of the oracle, gave up their city, declaring how the first founder of it was a Corinthian, and what answer the oracle had given them; and entreated that they would not stand by and see them destroyed, but help them.
And the Corinthians undertook their defence, both on the ground of equity, (as thinking the colony no less their own than the Corcyraeans',) and also for hatred of the Corcyraeans; because, although they were their colony, they slighted them.
For they neither gave The verbs in this and the two following sentences are in the original participles, depending on παρημέλουν, to be understood from the preceding sentence. Literally, for they did so by neither giving, etc. to them the customary privileges in their general religious assemblies, nor to any individual Corinthian, I have followed the interpretation which Goeller and Arnold give to this disputed passage, viz. that the words κορινθίῳ ἀνδρί depend upon διδόντες; and that the singular number is introduced with reference to any single Corinthian who might be present at a sacrifice in Corcyra, and ought therefore, according to the usual practice of Greek colonies, to be selected for the honourable office of performing the introductory ceremonies; in contradistinction to the marks of respect that should have been shown to the citizens of the mother-country in a more general manner, when the colonists met them at any of their public festivals. Bloomfield makes the dative depend upon προκαταρχόμενοι, and explains it as signifying in the person of or by the agency of, but does not give any instance of its being so used elsewhere. His objection to Goeller's interpretation, as dropping the force of the πρό, has no weight, as is proved by Arnold's quotation from Diodorus, προκατάρχεσθαι πολέμου,and Goeller's reference to the ambiguous use of the more common form κατάρχεσθαι; which might have led Thucydides to prefix the πρό for the sake of clearness. For a later opinion on this passage, see note 540. when performing the initiatory rites of sacrifice, as their other colonies did; but despised them, as they were both equal in wealth to the very richest of the Greeks at that time, and more powerful in resources for war, and sometimes prided themselves on being even very far superior in their fleet; and on the ground of the Phaeacians, who were famous in naval matters, having before lived in Corcyra. And on this account too they prepared their navy with the greater spirit, and were not deficient in power; for they had 120 triremes when they began the war.
The Corinthians therefore, having complaints against them for all these things, gladly proceeded to send the aid to Epidamnus, not only telling whosoever would to go and dwell there, but also sending a garrison of Ambraciots, Leucadians, and their own citizens;
which succours marched by land to Apollonia, a colony of the Corinthians, for fear of the Corcyraeans, lest they should be hindered by them in their passage by sea.
The Corcyraeans, on finding that the settlers Properly, the inhabitants, i. e. those who were sent to inhabit the town. and the garrison were come to Epidamnus, and that the colony was delivered up to the Corinthians, were very angry; and sailing immediately thither with twenty-five ships, and afterwards with another fleet, commanded them, by way of insult, both to recall those whom they had banished, (for the exiles of the Epidamnians had come to Corcyra, pointing out the sepulchres of their ancestors and their kindred to them, on the plea of which they begged that they would restore them,) and to dismiss the garrison sent thither by the Corinthians and the settlers.
But the Epidamnians gave no ear to them. Whereupon the Corcyraeans went against them with forty ships, together with the banished men, with a view to restore them;
taking with them the Illyrians also. And sitting down before the city, they made proclamation, that such of the Epidamnians as would, and all strangers, might depart safely; otherwise they would treat them as enemies. But when they did not obey them, the Corcyraeans proceeded (the place being an isthmus) to besiege the city.
Now the Corinthians, when news was brought from Epidamnus of its being besieged, immediately began to prepare an army; and at the same time proclaimed a colony to Epidamnus, and that any one who would might go on a fair and equal footing; and that if any one should not be willing to join the expedition immediately, but still wished to have a share in the colony, he might stay behind on depositing fifty Corinthian drachmas. And there were many both that went, and that paid down the money.
Moreover, they begged the Megareans to convoy them with some ships, in case they might be stopped in their passage by the Corcyraeans; and they prepared to sail with them with eight, and the citizens of Pale, in Cephalonia, with four. They also begged the Epidaurians, who furnished five, the citizens of Hermione one, the Traezenians two, the Leucadians ten, and the Ambraciots eight. The Thebans and Phliasians they asked for money; and the Eleans both for money and empty ships: while of the Corinthians themselves there were getting ready thirty ships, and three thousand heavy-armed.
Now when the Corcyraeans heard of this preparation, they went to Corinth in company with some Lacedaemonian and Sicyonian ambassadors, whom they took with them, and required the Corinthians to recall the garrison and settlers that were in Epidamnus, as they had nothing to do with the place.
But if they laid any claim to it, they were willing to submit to trial To submit the quarrel to a fair discussion; to offer satisfaction by negociation. In their disputes with one another the several Greek states acknowledged one common public law, like our law of nations, to which they held themselves amenable; and before they appealed to arms, it was considered due to their common blood and common religion, to try to settle their differences by a reference to the principles of this law. —Arnold. in the Peloponnesus before such cities as they should both agree on; and to which ever of the two parties it should be decided that the colony belonged, they should retain it. They were willing also to refer their cause to the oracle of Delphi.
But they told them not to proceed to war; else they would themselves also, they said, be forced by their violence to make very different friends from those they already had, for the sake of gaining assistance.
The Corinthians answered them, that if they would withdraw their fleet and the barbarians from before Epidamnus, they would consult on the matter; but till that was done, it was not right that the Epidamnians should be besieged, while they were appealing to justice.
The Corcyraeans replied, that if the Corinthians too would withdraw the men they had in Epidamnus, they would do so; or they were also content to let the men on both sides stay where they were, and to make a treaty till the cause should be decided.
The Corinthians did not listen to any of these proposals; but when their ships were manned, and their confederates had come, having first sent a herald to declare war upon the Corcyraeans, they weighed anchor with seventy-five ships and two thousand heavy-armed, and set sail for Epidamnus to wage war against the Corcyraeans.
Their fleet was commanded by Aristeus the son of Pellichas, Callicrates the son of Callias, and Timanor the son of Timanthes; the land forces by Archetimus the son of Eurytimus, and Isarchidas the son of Isarchus.
After they were come to Actium in the territory of Anactorium, where is the temple of Apollo, at the mouth of the gulf of Ambracia, the Corcyraeans sent forward a herald to them to forbid their sailing against them; and at the same time were manning their ships, having both undergirded the old ones, so as to make them sea-worthy, and equipped the rest.
When the herald brought back from the Corinthians no peaceable answer, and their ships were manned, to the number of eighty sail, (for forty were besieging Epidamnus,) they put out against them, and formed their line, and engaged them:
and the Corcyraeans won a decided victory, and destroyed fifteen ships of the Corinthians. It happened likewise the same day, that those too who were besieging Epidamnus reduced it to surrender, on condition that they should sell the strangers, and keep the Corinthians in bonds, till something else should be determined.
After the battle, the Corcyraeans having set up a trophy on Leucimna, a promontory of Corcyra, slew the other prisoners they had taken, but kept the Corinthians in bonds.
Subsequently, when the Corinthians and their allies, after being vanquished at sea, were gone home, the Corcyraeans were masters of the whole sea in those parts, and sailed to Leucas, a Corinthian colony, and wasted part of the territory; and burnt Cyllene, the arsenal of the Eleans, because they had furnished both money and shipping to the Corinthians.
And most of the time after the battle they were masters of the sea, and continued sailing against and ravaging the allies of the Corinthians; until, The reading retained by Bekker, Göller, and others, περιόντι τῶ θέρει, is supposed to signify, during the remainder of the summer. For the arguments in favour of each reading, see the notes of Göller, Arnold, and Bloomfield. on the return of summer, the Corinthians sent ships and an army, in consequence of the distress of their allies, and formed an encampment on Actium, and about Chimerium in Thesprotis, for the protection of Leucas and such other states as were friendly to them.
The Corcyraeans also formed an encampment in opposition to them, on Leucimna, both for their ships and land-forces. And neither party sailed against the other; but remaining in opposite stations this summer, at the approach of winter they then each retired homeward.
Now the whole of the year after the sea-fight, and the succeeding one, the Corinthians, being indignant about the war with the Corcyraeans, were building ships, and preparing with all their might a naval armament, drawing together rowers both from the Peloponnese itself and the rest of Greece, by the inducement of the pay they gave.
And the Corcyraeans, on hearing of their preparations, were alarmed; and being in alliance with none of the Greeks, and not having enrolled themselves in the league either of the Athenians or of the Lacedaemonians, they determined to go to the Athenians, and make alliance with them, and endeavour to obtain some assistance from them.
And the Corinthians, on hearing this, went themselves also to Athens on an embassy, to prevent the addition of the Athenian navy to that of the Corcyraeans being an impediment to their concluding the war as they wished.
And an assembly having been convened, they came to controversy; and the Corcyraeans spoke as follows:-
"It is but just, Athenians, that those who without any previous obligation, either of great benefit or alliance, come to their neighbours, as we now do, to beg their assistance, should convince them in the first place, This is perhaps the most convenient way of rendering the phrase μάλιστα μέν, when used, as it so often is, to draw attention to what appears the best thing of all, with εἰ δέ μή following for the second best, and answering to εἰ δυνατόν, sometimes expressed, but much more generally implied, in the former part of the alternative. Latin writers translate them by maxime quidem and sin minus. if possible, that they ask what is even expedient but if not that, at any rate what is not injurious; and in the second place, that they will also retain a lasting sense of the favour: and if they establish none of these points clearly, they should not be angry if they do not succeed.
Bat the Corcyraeans have sent us with a conviction that, together with their request for alliance, they will show that these points may be relied on by you.
Now the same policy has happened The participle ὄν is understood here, just as ὄντων is, I. 120. 7. See Jelf Gr. Gr, 694. obs. 1. to prove inconsistent in your eyes, with regard to our request, and inexpedient, with regard to our own interest at the present time.
For having never yet in time past voluntarily become the allies of any party, we are now come to beg this of others; and at the same time we have, owing to it, been left destitute with regard to the present war with the Corinthians; and what before seemed our prudence, viz. not to join in the peril of our neighbour's views by being in alliance with others, has turned out now to be evident folly and weakness.
In the late sea-fight, indeed, by ourselves and single-handed we repulsed the Corinthians. But since they have set out against us with a larger force from the Peloponnese and the rest of Greece, and we see ourselves unable to escape by our own power alone; and at the same time our peril is great, if we are subjugated by them; we must beg assistance both from you and every one else : and it is pardonable, if we venture on a course contrary to our former non-interference, [which was practised,] not from any evil intention, but rather from an error of judgment.
"Now if you are persuaded by us, the occurrence of our request will be honourable to you in many respects: first, because you will be granting the assistance to men who are injured, and not injuring others: in the next place, by receiving men who have their highest interests at stake, you would bestow the obligation with testimony [to the fact] i. e. The fact of their having been preserved from such imminent peril will be the most enduring record of the obligation under which you have thereby laid them. Göller explains καταθεῖσθε as being a metaphor taken from laying up money in a bank that it may be drawn out afterwards with interest. that would, as far as possible, be always remembered;
and, [lastly,] we are in possession of a navy the largest except yours. And consider what good fortune is more rare, or what more annoying to the enemy, than if that power, the addition of which to yours you would have valued above much money and favour, come of its own accord, offering itself without dangers and expense; and moreover affording, in the eyes of the world at large, a character for goodness, and to those whom you will assist, obligation; and to yourselves, strength; all of which advantages together have fallen to the lot of few indeed in the whole course of time: and few are there who, when begging alliance, go conferring safety and honour on the men whose aid they invoke, no less than to receive them.
And as for the war in which we should be useful, if any of you do not think that it will arise, he is deceived in his opinion; and does not observe that the Lacedaemonians, through their fear of you, are longing for war and that the Corinthians have power with them, and are hostile to you, and are now first subduing us with a view to attacking you, that we may not stand with each other in common hostility to them; and that they may not fail to gain one of two advantages, either to injure us, or to strengthen themselves.