Kitap 3
and the women were sold as slaves. As for the city itself, they gave occupation of it for about a year to some men of Megara who had been driven out in consequence of a sedition, and also to such of the surviving Plataeans as favoured the Lacedaemonian cause. Afterwards, however, they razed it entirelyOr, taking ἐκ τῶν θεμελίων with ᾠκοδόμησαν, as Steup and others do, “they built on the old foundations.” to the ground, and built, in the neighbourhood of the sanctuary of Hera, an inn two hundred feet square, with rooms all around, above and below, using for this purpose the roofs and doors of the Plataeans; and with the rest of the material inside the walls, articles of copper and iron, they fashioned couches, which they dedicated to Hera; and they also built for her a stone temple one hundred feet long.
But the land they confiscated and leased for ten years, and the Thebans occupied it. Indeed it was almost wholly for the sake of the Thebans that the Lacedaemonians in all their dealings with the Plataeans showed themselves so thoroughly hostile to them, thinking that the Thebans would be serviceable in the war then just beginning.
Such was the fate of Plataea, in the ninety-third year after they became allies of Athens.519 B.C.
MeanwhileResuning the narrative interrupted at 3.33.1. the forty Peloponnesian ships, which had gone to the relief of the Lesbians and were at that time traversing the open sea in flight, after they had first been pursued by the Athenians and had been caught in a storm off Crete, had come straggling back to the Peloponnesus, where they found, at Cyllene, thirteen Leucadian and Ambraciot triremes and Brasidas son of Tellis, who had come as adviser to Alcidas.
For after they had failed to capture Lesbos the Lacedaemonians wished to strengthen their fleet and to sail to Corcyra, which was in the throes of a revolution. The Athenians had a fleet of only twelve ships at Naupactus, and the Lacedaemonians desired to reach Corcyra before a larger fleet could come from Athens to re-enforce them. It was with this end in view that Brasidas and Alcidas set about making their preparations.
The Corcyraeans had been in a state of revolution ever since the home-coming of the captives who had been taken in the two sea-fights off Epidamnuscf. 1.47.-1.55 and had been released by the Corinthians. They had nominally been set free on bail in the sum of eight hundred talents£160,000, $776,000. pledged by their proxeni, but in fact they had been bribed to bring Corcyra over to the Corinthian side.
And these men had been going from citizen to citizen and intriguing with them, with a view to inducing the city to revolt from Athens. And on the arrival of an Attic and Corinthian ship bringing envoys, and after the envoys had held conferences with them, the Corcyraeans voted to continue to be allies to the Athenians according to their agreement,The agreement was for a defensive alliance (ἐπιμαχία); cf. 1.44.1. but on the other hand to renew their former friendship with the Peloponnesians.
Thereupon the returned prisoners brought Peithias, a volunteer proxenus of the Athenians and leader of the popular party, to trial, charging him with trying to bring Corcyra into servitude to Athens.
But he, being acquitted, brought suits in turn against the five wealthiest men of their number, alleging that they were cutting vine-poles from the sacred precincts of Zeus and Alcinous, an offence for which a fine of a staterIf of gold, about 16s.; if the silver Athenian stater, about 2s. 8d.; if the silver Corinthian stater, about 1s. 4d. for each stake was fixed by law.
When they had been convicted and because of the excessive amount of the fine took refuge at the temples as suppliants, that they might arrange for the payment of the fine by instalments, Peithias persuaded the senate, of which he was also a member, to let the law take its course.
The condemned men, seeing that they were debarred by the law from carrying out their proposal and at the same time learning that Peithias, so long as he continued to be a member of the senate, would persist in his attempt to persuade the populace to conclude an offensive and defensive alliance with the Athenians, banded together and suddenly rushing into the senate with daggers in their hands killed Peithias and others, both senators and private persons, to the number of sixty. A few, however, who held the same political views as Peithias, took refuge in the Attic trireme that was still in the harbour.
After they had taken these measures the conspirators called the Corcyraeans together and told them that it was all for the best, and that now they would be least likely to be enslaved by the Athenians; and in future they should remain neutral and receive neither party if they came with more than one ship, regarding any larger number as hostile. Having thus spoken they compelled the people to ratify their proposal.
They also sent at once to Athens envoys to explain recent events at Corcyra, showing how these were for the interests of Athens, and to persuade those who had taken refuge there to do nothing prejudicial to them, in order that there might not be a reaction against Corcyra.Or, perhaps, ἐπιστροφή = animadversio, “that no attention should be paid”—by way of punishment for the change in Corcyraean policy.
But when the envoys arrived, the Athenians arrested them as revolutionists, and deposited them in Aegina,
Btogether with such of the fugitives as they had won over. Meanwhile the dominant party at Corcyra, on the arrival of a Corinthian trireme with Lacedaemonian envoys, attacked the people and were victorious in the fight.
But when night came on the people fled for refuge to the acropolis and the high places of the city, and getting together in a body established themselves there. They held also the Hyllaïc harbour,Probably the present bay Chalikiopulon. while the other party seized the quarter of the market-place where most of them lived, and the harbourNow bay of Kastradu. adjacent to it which faces the mainland.
On the next day they skirmished a little, and both parties sent messengers round into the fields, calling upon the slaves and offering them freedom; and a majority of the slaves made common cause with the people, while the other party gained the support of eight hundred mercenaries from the mainland.
After a day's interval another battle occurred, and the people won, as they had the advantage in the strength of their position as well as in numbers. The women also boldly took part with them in the fight, hurling tiles from the houses and enduring the uproar with a courage beyond their sex.
But about twilight, when their forces had been routed, the oligarchs, fearing lest the people, if they came on, might at the first onset get possession of the arsenal and put them to the sword, set fire to the dwelling-houses around the marketplace and to the tenements,Large buildings rented to several poor families (=insulae at Rome). in order to prevent an assault, sparing neither their own houses nor those of others. The result was that much merchandise was burned up and that the whole city was in imminent danger of being entirely destroyed if a wind blowing toward the city had sprung up to reinforce the flames.
And during the night, after they had desisted from battle, both parties rested but remained on the alert; and now that the people had got the upper hand the Corinthian ship slipped out to sea, and most of the mercenaries were secretly conveyed over to the mainland.
On the following day Nicostratus son of Diitrephes, general of the Athenians, came to their assistance from Naupactus with twelve ships and five hundred Messenian hoplites. He tried to negotiate a settlement between the factions, and succeeded in persuading them to come to a mutual agreement: that the twelve men who were chiefly to blame should be brought to trial (whereupon they fled at once) and that the rest should make peace with each other and dwell together, and enter into an offensive and defensive alliance with the Athenians.
When he had accomplished this, he was about to sail away; but the leaders of the people persuaded him to leave them five of his ships, that their opponents might be somewhat less inclined to disturbance, agreeing on their part to man and send with him an equal number of their own ships.
He agreed, and they began to tell off their personal enemies as crews for the ships. But these, fearing that they might be sent off to Athens, sat down as suppliants in the temple of the Dioscuri.
Nicostratus, however, urged them to rise and tried to reassure them. But when he could not induce them to rise, the people took this pretext to arm themselves, interpreting their distrustand refusal to sail with Nicostratus as proof that their intentions were anything but good. Accordingly they took arms from their houses, and would have slain some of the oligarchs whom they chanced to meet, if Nicostratus had not prevented them.
The rest, seeing what was going on, sat down as suppliants in the temple of Hera, and they were not less than four hundred in number. But the people, fearing that they might start a revolution, persuaded them to rise and conveyed them over to the island which lies in front of the temple of Hera; and provisions were regularly sent to them there.
At this stage of the revolution, on the fourth or fifth day after the transfer of the men to the island, the Peloponnesian ships arrivedcf. 3.69.1. from Cyllene, where they had been lying at anchor since their voyage from lonia, being fifty-three in number; and Alcidas was in command of them as before, with Brasidas on board as his adviser. They came to anchor first at Sybota, a harbour of the mainland, and then at daybreak sailed for Corcyra.
But the Corcyraeans,ie. the democratic party, now in control. being in great confusion and thrown into a panic by the state of affairs in the city as well as by the approaching fleet, proceeded to equip sixty ships and at the same time to send them out against the enemy as fast as they were manned, although the Athenians urged that they themselves be permitted to sail out first, and that the Corcyraeans should come out afterwards with all their ships in a body.
But when their ships were near—the enemy, scattered here and there, two of them deserted immediately, while in others the crews were fighting one another;
and there was no order in anything they did. And when the Peloponnesians saw their confusion they arrayed only twenty ships against the Corcyraeans, and all the rest against the twelve Athenian ships, among which were the two sacred ships, the Salaminia and the Paralos.
Now the Corcyraeans, since they were attacking in disorder and with few ships at a time, were having trouble in their part of the battle; and the Athenians, fearing the enemy's superior numbers and seeing the danger of being surrounded, did not attack the whole body together nor the centre of the ships that were arrayed against them, but charged upon one of the wings and sank a single ship.
And then, when the Peloponnesians after this move formed their ships in a circle, they kept sailing round the Peloponnesian fleet, trying to throw it into confusion. But those who were facing the Corcyraeans, perceiving this manoeuvre and fearing a repetition of what happened at Naupactus,cf. 2.84. came to the rescue, and the whole fleet, now united, advanced simultaneously upon the Athenians.
Thereupon the Athenians began to retire, backing water,ie. keeping their faces to the enemy. hoping at the same time that the Corcyraean ships might as far as possible escape into harbour,ie. with as many ships as possible; as it was they lost thirteen ships. as they themselves retired slowly and the enemy's attacks were directed only against them.
Such then was the course of the battle, which lasted till sunset.
The Corcyraeans, fearing that the enemy, confident of victory, might sail against the city and either take on board the prisoners on the island or commit some other act of violence, transferred these prisoners once more to the temple of Hera and then took measures to protect the city.
The Peloponnesians, however, although they were the victors in the naval battle, did not venture to attack the city, but with thirteen Corcyraean ships which they had taken sailed back to the harbour on the mainland from which they had set out.
On the next day they were no more inclined to attack the city, though the inhabitants were in a state of great confusion and fear, and though Brasidas, it is said, urged Alcidas to do so, but did not have equal authority with him. Instead, they merely landed on the promontory of Leucimne and ravaged the fields.
Meanwhile the people of Corcyra, becoming alarmed lest the ships should attack them, conferred with the suppliants and also with the other members of the opposite faction on the best means of saving the city. And some of them they persuaded to go on board the ships; for in spite of all the Corcyraeans had manned thirty ships.
But the Peloponnesians, after ravaging the land till midday, sailed away, and toward night a signal was flashed to them that sixty Athenian ships were approaching from Leucas. These ships had been sent by the Athenians, under the command of Eurymedon son of Thucles, when they learned of the revolution at Corcyra and that the fleet under Alcidas was about to sail thither.
The Peloponnesians accordingly set sail that very night for home, going with all speed and keeping close to the shore; and hauling their ships across the Leucadian isthmus,This isthmus was the ἀκτὴ ἠπείρου of Homer (ω 378), now Santa Maura, the neck of land, about three stadia in width, joining Leucas with the mainland. in order to avoid being seen, as they would be if they sailed around, they got away.
Now the Corcyraeans had no sooner perceived that the Athenian fleet was approaching and that the enemy's fleet had gone than they secretly brought the Messenians,The 500 whom Nicostratus had bought, the object being doubtless merely the intimidation of the oligarchs. who had till then been outside the walls, into the city, and ordered the ships which they had manned to sail round into the Hyllaic harbourThe object was that the oligarchs on them might be cut off from their friends in the neighbourhood of the agora and in the temple of Hera.; then while these were on their way thither they slew any of their personal enemies whom they could lay hands upon. They also put ashore and despatched all those on board the ships whom they had persuaded to go aboard, then went into the temple of Hera, persuaded about fifty of the suppliants there to submit to trial, and condemned them all to death.