Book 3
But most of the suppliants, not having consented to be tried, when they saw what was happening set about destroying one another in the sacred precinct itself, while a few hanged themselves on trees, and still others made away with themselves as best they could.
And during the seven days that Eurymedon, after his arrival, stayed there with his sixty ships, the Corcyraeans continued slaughtering such of their fellow-citizens as they considered to be their personal enemies. The charge they brought was of conspiring to overthrow the democracy, but some were in fact put to death merely to satisfy private enmity, and others, because money was owing to them, were slain by those who had borrowed it.
Death in every form ensued, and whatever horrors are wont to be perpetrated at such times all happened then—aye, and even worse. For father slew son, men were dragged from the temples and slain near them, and some were even walled up in the temple of Dionysus and perished there.
To such excesses of savagery did the revolution go; and it seemed the more savage, because it was among the first that occurred; for afterwards practically the whole Hellenic world was convulsed, since in each state the leaders of the democratic factions were at variance with the oligarchs, the former seeking to bring in the Athenians, the latter the Lacedaemonians. And while in time of peace they would have had no pretext for asking their intervention, nor any inclination to do so, yet now that these two states were at war, either faction in the various cities, if it desired a revolution, found it easy to bring in allies also, for the discomfiture at one stroke of its opponents and the strengthening of its own cause.
And so there fell upon the cities on account of revolutions many grievous calamities, such as happen and always will happen while human nature is the same, but which are severer or milder, and different in their manifestations, according as the variations in circumstances present themselves in each case. For in peace and prosperity both states and individuals have gentler feelings, because men are not then forced to face conditions of dire necessity; but war, which robs men of the easy supply of their daily wants, is a rough schoolmaster and creates in most people a temper that matches their condition. And so the cities began to be disturbed by revolutions, and those that fell into this state later, on hearing of what had been done before, carried to still more extravagant lengths the invention of new devices, both by the extreme ingenuity of their attacks and the monstrousness of their revenges.
The ordinary acceptation of words in their relation to things was changed as men thought fit.
Reckless audacity came to be regarded as courageous loyalty to party, prudent hesitation as specious cowardice, moderation as a cloak for unmanly weakness, and to be clever in everything was to do naught in anything. Frantic impulsiveness was accounted a true man's part, but caution in deliberation a specious pretext for shirking. The hot-headed man was always trusted, his opponent suspected. He who succeeded in a plot was clever, and he who had detected one was still shrewder;
on the other hand, he who made it his aim to have no need of such thingsie. either of plotting or of detecting plots. was a disrupter of party and scared of his opponents. In a word, both he that got ahead of another who intended to do something evil and he that prompted to evil one who had never thought of of it were alike commended. Furthermore, the tie of blood was weaker than the tie of party, because the partisan was more ready to dare without demur;
for such associations are not entered into for the public good in conformity with the prescribed laws, but for selfish aggrandisement contrary to the established laws. Their pledges to one another were confirmed not so much by divine law as by common transgression of the law. Fair words proffered by opponents, if these had the upper hand, were received with caution as to their actions and not in a generous spirit.Or, “Fair words proffered by their opponents they received, if they had the upper hand, by vigilant action rather than with frank generosity.” To get revenge on some one was more valued than never to have suffered injury oneself.
And if in any case oaths of reconcilement were exchanged, for the moment only were they binding, since each side had given them merely to meet the emergency, having at the time no other resource; but he who, when the opportunity offered and he saw his enemy off his guard, was the first to pluck up courage, found his revenge sweeter because of the violated pledge than if he had openly attacked, and took into account not only the greater safety of such a course, but also that, by winning through deceit, he was gaining besides the prize of astuteness. And in general it is easier for rogues to get themselves called clever than for the stupid to be reputed good,Or, omitting ὄντες, “And in general men are more willing to be called clever rogues than good simpletons.” and they are ashamed of the one but glory in the other. The cause of all these evils was the desire to rule which greed and ambition inspire, and also, springing from them, that ardourOr, τὸ πρὸθυμον “party-spirit.” which belongs to men who once have become engaged in factious rivalry.
For those who emerged as party leaders in the several cities, by assuming on either side a fair-sounding name, the one using as its catch-word “political equality for the masses under the law,” the other “temperate aristocracy,”For the objectionable terms “democracy” (δημοκρατία) and “oligarchy” (ὀλιγαρχὶα). while they pretended to be devoted to the common weal, in reality made it their prize; striving in every way to get the better of each other they dared the most awful deeds, and sought revenges still more awful, not pursuing these within the bounds of justice and the public weal, but limiting them, both parties alike, only by the moment's caprice; and they were ready, either by passing an unjust sentence of condemnation or by winning the upper hand through acts of violence, to glut the animosity of the moment. The result was that though neither had any regard for true piety, yet those who could carry through an odious deed under the cloak of a specious phrase received the higher praise. And citizens who belonged to neither party were continually destroyed by both, either because they would not make common cause with them, or through mere jealousy that they should survive.
So it was that every form of depravity showed itself in Hellas in consequence of its revolutions, and that simplicity, which is the chief element of a noble nature, was laughed to scorn and disappeared, while mutual antagonism of feeling, combined with mistrust, prevailed far and wide.
For there was no assurance binding enough, no oath terrible enough, to reconcile men; but always, if they were stronger,Or, as Shilleto, “leaning in calculation to considering that security was hopeless, they rather took precautions . . .” cf. Schol., ῥέποντες δὲ οἱ ἄνθρωτοι τοῖς λογισμοῖς πρὸς τὸ υὴ ἐλπίζειν τινὰ πίστιν καὶ βεβαίοτητα. since they accounted all security hopeless, they were rather disposed to take precautions against being wronged than able to trust others.
And it was generally those of meaner intellect who won the day; for being afraid of their own defects and of their opponents' sagacity, in order that they might not be worsted in words, and, by reason of their opponents' intellectual versatility find themselves unawares victims of their plots, they boldly resorted to deeds.
Their opponents, on the other hand, contemptuously assuming that they would be aware in time and that there was no need to secure by deeds what they might have by wit, were taken off their guard and perished in greater numbers.
It was in Corcyra,This chapter is bracketed as spurious by Hude and nearly all recent commentators, because it is condemned by the ancient grammarians, is not mentioned by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and is obelised in Codex F. then, that most of these atrocities were first committed—all the acts of retaliation which men who are governed with highhanded insolence rather than with moderation are likely to commit upon their rulers when these at last afford them opportunity for revenge; or such as men resolve upon contrary to justice when they seek release from their accustomed poverty, and in consequence of their sufferings are likely to be most eager for their neighbours' goods;Or, μάλιστα δ’ ἂν διὰ πάθους ἐπιθυμοῦντες, “would be above all men passionately eager for. . .” and assaults of pitiless cruelty, such as men make, not with a view to gain, but when, being on terms of complete equality with their foe, they are utterly carried away by uncontrollable passion.
At this crisis, when the life of the city had been thrown into utter confusion, human nature, now triumphant over the laws, and accustomed even in spite of the laws to do wrong, took delight in showing that its passions were ungovernable, that it was stronger than justice and an enemy to all superiority. For surely no man would have put revenge before religion, and gain before innocence of wrong, had not envy swayed him with her blighting power.
Indeed, men do not hesitate, when they seek to avenge themselves upon others, to abrogate in advance the common principles observed in such cases—those principles upon which depends every man's own hope of salvation should he himself be overtaken by misfortune—thus failing to leave them in force against the time when perchance a man in peril shall have need of some one of them.
Such then were the first outbreaks of passion which the Corcyraeans who remained at home indulged in toward each other; and Eurymedon sailed away with the Athenian fleet.
Later, however, the Corcyraean fugitives, of whom about five hundredcf. 3.20.2. had got safely across to the mainland, seized some forts there, and thus dominating the territory belonging to Corcyra on the opposite coast made it a base from which they plundered the people of the island and did them much harm, so that a severe famine arose in the city.
They also sent envoys to Lacedaemon and Corinth to negotiate for their restoration; but since nothing was accomplished by these they afterwards procured boats and mercenaries and crossed over to the island, about six hundred in all. They then burned their boats, in order that they might despair of success unless they dominated the country, and went up to Mt. Istone, and after building a fort there began to destroy the people in the city, exercising dominion over the country.
Toward the close of the same summer the Athenians sent twenty ships to Sicily under the command of Laches son of Melanopus and Charoeades son of Euphiletus.
For the Syracusans and the Leontines were now at war with each other. In alliance with the Syracusans were all the Dorian cities except Camarina—the cities which at the outbreak of the war had joined the Lacedaemonian alliance, although they had taken no active part in the war—while the Chalcidian cities and Camarina were allies of the Leontines. In Italy the Locrians allied themselves with the Syracusans, and the Rhegians with the Leontines, because they were kinsmen.cf. 6.44.3.
The Leontines and their allies sent an embassyAt the head of this embassy was the celebrated rhetorician Gorgins. to Athens and urged them, both on the ground of an earlier allianceSee C.I.A. i. 33 for some fragments of treaties of alliance renewed under the archon Apseudes (433-432 B.C.). and because they were Ionians, to send them ships; for they were being excluded from both the land and the sea by the Syracusans.
And the Athenians sent the ships, professedly on the ground of their relationship, but really because they wished to prevent the importation of grain from Sicily into the Peloponnesus, and also to make a preliminary test whether the affairs of Sicily could be brought under their own control.
So they established themselves at Rhegium in Italy and proceeded to carry on the war in concert with their allies. And the summer ended.
In the course of the following winter427 B.C. the plague againcf. 2.47. ff. fell upon the Athenians; and indeed it had not died out at any time entirely, though there had been a period
of respite. And it continued the second time not less than a year, having run for two full years on the previous occasion, so that the Athenians were more distressed by it than by any other misfortune and their power
more crippled.This statement may have been written without a knowledge of the later events of the war, especially the unhappy issue of the Sicilian expedition (see Introd. p. xiii.)—unless δύναμις be taken to mean “fighting strength,” or something narrower than “power.” For no fewer than four thousand four hundred of those enrolled as hoplites died and also three hundred cavalry, and of the populace a number that could not
be ascertained. It was at this time also that the great number of earthquakes occurred at Athens, in Euboea, and in Boeotia, and especially at Orchomenus in Boeotia.
The same winter the Athenians in Sicily and the Rhegians made an expedition with thirty ships against the islands of Aeolus, as they are called; for it was impossible to invade them in the summer time on account of the lack of water there.
These islands are occupied by the Liparaeans, who are colonists of the Cnidians. They have their homes on one of the islands, which is not large, called Lipara, and from this go out and cultivate the rest, namely Didyme, Strongyle and Hiera.Strabo names three more, modern geographers eleven or twelve. Strongyle, the modern Stromboli, seat of an active volcano, has recently become especially notable on account of its nearness to Messina and Reggio, where the great earthquake occurred, Dec. 28, 1908.
The people of this region believe that Hephaestus has his forge in Hiera, because this island is seen to send up a great flame of fire at night and smoke by day. The islands lie over against the territory of the Sicels and the Messenians, and were in alliance with the Syracusans;
the Athenians, therefore, laid waste their land, but since the inhabitants would not come over to their side they sailed back to Rhegium. And the winter ended, and with it the fifth year of this war of which Thucydides wrote the history.
In the following summer the Peloponnesians 426 B.C. and their allies, led by Agis son of Archidamus, king of the Lacedaemonians, advanced as far as the Isthmus with the intention of invading Attica; but a great many earthquakes occurred, causing them to turn back again, and no invasion
took place. At about the same time, while the earthquakes prevailed, the sea at Orobiae in Euboea receded from what was then the shore-line, and then coming on in a great wave overran a portion of the city. One part of the flood subsided, but another engulfed the shore, so that what was land before is now sea; and it destroyed of the people as many as could not run up to the high ground
in time. In the neighbourhood also of the island of Atalante, which lies off the coast of Opuntian Locris, there was a similar inundation, which carried away a part of the Athenian fort there,cf. 2.32. and wrecked one of two ships which had been drawn up on
the shore. At Peparethos likewise there was a recession of the waters, but no inundation; and there was an earthquake, which threw down a part of the wall as well as the prytaneum and a few
other houses. And the cause of such a phenomenon, in my own opinion, was this: at that point where the shock of the earthquake was greatest the sea was driven back, then, suddenly returning“Thucydides is pointing out the connection between the earthquake and the inundation. Where the earthquake was most violent, there the inundation was greatest. But the effect was indirect, being immediately caused by the recoil of the sea after the earthquake was over; hence τὴν θαλασσαν, and not, as we might expect, τὸν σεισμόν, is the subject of ποιεῖν. ἀποστέλλειν either active or neuter.” (Jowett.) with increased violence, made the inundation; but without an earthquake, it seems to me, such a thing would not have happened,
During the same summer war was being waged in Sicily, not only by other peoples as they each had occasion to do so, but also by the Siceliots themselves, who were campaigning against one another, and likewise by the Athenians in concert with their allies; but I shall mention only the most memorable things done by the Athenians in concert with their allies, or against the Athenians by their opponents.