Book 1
Pay back like with like, determining that this is the supreme moment when assistance is cne truest friendship—opposition the worst hostility.
We beg you neither to accept the Corcyraeans as your allies in despite of us, nor to aid them in their wrong-doing.
And if you do this, you will not only be taking the fitting course, but will also be consulting your own best interests."
Thus spoke the Corinthians. And the Athenians, having heard both sides, held a second session of the Ecclesia; and although at the earlier one they were rather inclined to agree with the words of the Corinthians, on the second day they changed their minds in favour of the Corcyraeans, and decided, not, indeed, to make an offensive and defensive alliance with them, for in that case, if the Corcyraeans then asked them to join in an expedition against Corinth, they would have to break, on their own responsibility, the treaty with the Lacedaemoniansbut they made a defensive alliance, namely to aid one another in case anyone should attack Corcyra or Athens or the allies of either.
For they believed that in any event the war with the Peloponnesians would have to be faced, and they did not wish to give up Corcyra, which had so large a fleet, to the Corinthians, but hoped to wear them out upon one another as much as possible, in order that the Corinthians as well as other naval powersReferring especially to those mentioned Thuc. 1.27.2. might be found weaker in case they had to go to war with them.
Besides, the island seemed to them admirably situated for a coasting voyage to Italy and Sicily.cf. Thuc. 1.36.2.
With these motives the Athenians received the Corcyraeans into alliance and sent to their aid, soon after the departure of the Corinthians,
ten ships commanded by Lacedaemonius son of Cimon, Diotimus son of Strombichus, and Proteas son of Epicles.
Orders were given to these not to engage with the Corinthians, unless they should sail against Corcyra and attempt to land there, or to some place belonging to the Corcyraeans; but in that case they were to thwart them if possible. The object of these orders was to avoid breaking the treaty.
These ships arrived at Corcyra, and the Corinthians, when their preparations had been made, sailed against Corcyra with one hundred and fifty ships. Of these ten belonged to the Eleans, twelve to the Megarians, ten to the Leucadians, twenty seven to the Ambraciots, one to the Anactorians, and ninety to the Corinthians themselves.
The several cities had each its own general, but Xenocleides son of Euthycles and four others commanded the Corinthians.
They sailed from Leucas, and when they drew near the mainland over against Corcyra, anchored at Cheimerium in the territory of Thesprotia.
It is a harbour, and above it lies a city away from the sea in the Eleatic district of Thesprotia, Ephyra by name. Near it is the outlet into the sea of the Acherusian lake; and the river Acheron runs through Thesprotia and empties into the lake, to which it gives its name. There is also the river Thyamis, which separates Thesprotia and Cestrine, and between these rivers rises the promontory of Cheimerium.
It was at this point of the mainland then that the Corinthians cast anchor and made a camp.
The Corcyraeans, when they became aware of their approach, manned a hundred and ten ships under the command of Miciades, Aesimides, and Eurybatus, and encamped on one of the islands which are called Sybota, the ten Attic ships being also present.
Their land-forces were at the promontory of Leucimne, and also a thousand hoplites of the Zacynthians who had come to aid the Corcyraeans.
The Corinthians, also, had the aid of many barbarians who had assembled on the mainland adjacent; for the dwellers on the mainland in that region have always been friendly to them.
When their preparations had been made, the Corinthians, taking provisions for three days, put off by night from Cheimerium with the intention of giving battle,
and at daybreak as they sailed along they descried the ships of the Corcyraeans out at sea and sailing to meet them.
And as soon as they saw one another, they drew up in opposing battle lines, the Attic ships on the right wing of the Corcyraeans, who themselves held the rest of the line forming three divisions, each under the command of one of the three generals.
So the Corcyraeans arrayed themselves; but the right wing of the Corinthian fleet was held by the Megarian ships and the Ambracian, in the centre were the other allies with their several contingents, while the left was held by the Corinthians themselves with their best sailing ships, opposed to the Athenians and the right wing of the Corcyraeans.
When the standards were raised on either side they joined battle and fought, both having many hoplites on the decks as well as many archers and javelin-men, for they were still equipped rather rudely in the ancient fashion.
And so the sea-fight was hotly contested, not so much by reason of the skill displayed as because it was more like a battle on land.
For when they dashed against one another they could not easily get clear, partly by reason of the number and throng of the ships, still more because they trusted for victory to the hoplites on the decks, who stood and fought while the ships remained motionless; and there was no cutting of the line,διέκπλους was a breaking of the line so as to ram the enemy's ship in the flank or astern. but they fought with fury and brute strength rather than with skill.
Accordingly there was everywhere much tumult and confusion in the sea-fight. The Attic ships, if they saw the Corcyraeans pressed at any point, came up and kept the enemy in awe; but their generals would not begin fighting, fearing to disobey the instructions of the Athenians.
The right wing of the Corinthians suffered most; for the Corcyraeans with twenty ships routed them and pursued them in disorder to the mainland, and then, sailing right up to their camp and disembarking, burned the deserted tents and plundered their property. In that quarter, then, the Corinthians and their allies were worsted, and the Corcyraeans prevailed;
but on the left wing where the Corinthians themselves were, they were decidedly superior, for the Corcyraeans, whose numbers were fewer to begin with, had the twenty ships away in the pursuit.
But the moment the Athenians saw that the Corcvraeans were being hard pressed, they began to help them more unreservedly, and though they at first refrained from actually attacking an enemy ship, yet when it was conspicuously clear that they were being put to flight and the Corinthians were close in pursuit, then at length every man put his hand to work, and fine distinctions were no longer made; matters had come to such a pass that Corinthians and Athenians of necessity had to attack one another.
After the rout of the Corcyraeans the Corinthians did not take in tow and haul off the hulls of the ships which had been disabled, but turned their attention to the men, cruising up and down and killing them in preference to taking them alive; and they unwittingly slew their own friends, not being aware that their right wing had been worsted.
For since the ships or the two fleets were many and covered a great stretch of sea, it was not easy, when they joined in combat, for the Corinthians to determine just who were conquering and who were being conquered; for this sea-fight was in number of ships engaged greater than any that Hellenes had ever before fought against Hellenes.Thucydides makes allowance for Salamis, for example, where Greeks had fought against Persians.
But as soon as the Corinthians had chased the Corcyraeans to the shore, they turned to the wrecks and their own dead,The bodies of the dead which were on the disabled ships. and they were able to recover most of them and to fetch them to Sybota, an unused harbour of Thesprotia, whither the land forces of the barbarians had come to their aid. When they had accomplished this, they got their forces together and sailed once more against the Corcyraeans.
And they, with such of their vessels as were seaworthy and all the rest that had not been engaged, together with the Attic ships, on their part also sailed to meet them, fearing that they would attempt to disembark on their territory.
It was now late and the paean had been sounded for the onset, when the Corinthians suddenly began to back water; for they sighted twenty Attic ships approaching, which the Athenians had sent out after the ten as a reinforcement, fearing just what happened, namely that the Corcyraeans would be defeated and their own ten ships would be too few to help them.
So when the Corinthians sighted these ships before the Corcyraeans did, suspecting that they were from Athens and that there were more of them than they saw, they began to withdraw.
For the Corcyraeans, however, the Athenian ships were sailing up more out of view and could not be seen by them, and so they wondered that the Corinthians were backing water, until some of them caught sight of the ships and said, " Yonder are ships sailing up."
Then they too retreated—for it was already getting dark; whereupon the Corinthians put their ships about and broke offthe action.
Thus they separated, the sea-fight ending at nightfall. And while the Corcyraeans were encamping at Leucimne, the twenty ships from Athens, under the command of Glaucon son of Leagrus and Andocides son of Leogoras, having made their way through the corpses and the wrecks, sailed down to the camp not long after they were sighted.
And the Corcyraeans—for it was night—were afraid they were enemies; but afterwards they recognized them and the ships came to anchor.
On the next day the thirty Attic ships and as many of the Corcyraean as were seaworthy put to sea and advanced against the harbour at Sybota, where the Corinthians lay at anchor, wishing to see whether they would fight.
But the Corinthians, although they put out from shore and drew up in line in the open sea, kept quiet: for they had no thought of beginning a fight if they could avoid it as they saw that fresh ships had arrived from Athens and that they themselves were involved in many perplexities, both as regards guarding the captives whom they had in their ships and the impossibility of refitting their ships in a desert place.