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Warfare and Society in Ancient Greece
Lecture 11
Thucydides and the Athenian empire II
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The case of Corcyra
Thucydides, 3.70-72
The Corcyraean revolution began with the return of the prisoners taken in the sea-fights off Epidamnus.
These the Corinthians had released, nominally upon the security of eight hundred talents given by their Proxeni
but in reality upon their engagement to bring over Corcyra to Corinth. These men proceeded to canvass each
of the citizens, and to intrigue with the view of detaching the city from Athens. [2] Upon the arrival of an
Athenian and a Corinthian vessel, with envoys on board, a conference was held in which the Corcyraeans voted
to remain allies of the Athenians according to their agreement, but to be friends of the Peloponnesians as they
had been formerly. [3] Meanwhile, the returned prisoners brought Peithias, a volunteer Proxenus of the
Athenians and leader of the commons, to trial, upon the charge of enslaving Corcyra to Athens. [4] He, being
acquitted, retorted by accusing five of the richest of their number of cutting stakes in the ground sacred to
Zeus and Alcinous; the legal penalty being a stater for each stake. [5] Upon their conviction, the amount of the
penalty being very large, they seated themselves as suppliants in the temples, to be allowed to pay it by
instalments; but Peithias, who was one of the senate, prevailed upon that body to enforce the law; [6] upon
which the accused, rendered desperate by the law, and also learning that Peithias had the intention, while still a
member of the senate, to persuade the people to conclude a defensive and offensive alliance with Athens,
banded together armed with daggers, and suddenly bursting into the senate killed Peithias and sixty others,
senators and private persons; some few only of the party of Peithias taking refuge in the Athenian trireme ,
which had not yet departed.
After this outrage, the conspirators summoned the Corcyraeans to an assembly, and said that this would turn
out for the best, and would save them from being enslaved by Athens: for the future, they moved to receive
neither party unless they came peacefully in a single ship, treating any larger number as enemies.
This motion made, they compelled it to be adopted, [2] and instantly sent off envoys to Athens to justify what
had been done and to dissuade the refugees there from any hostile proceedings which might lead to a reaction.
Upon the arrival of the embassy the Athenians arrested the envoys and all who listened to them, as
revolutionists, and lodged them in Aegina.
[2] Meanwhile a Corinthian trireme arriving in the island with Lacedaemonian envoys, the dominant
Corcyraean party attacked the commons and defeated them in battle. [3] Night coming on, the commons took
refuge in the Acropolis and the higher parts of the city, and concentrated themselves there, having also
possession of the Hyllaic harbor, their adversaries occupying the market-place, where most of them lived, and
the harbor adjoining, looking towards the mainland.
Thucydides, 3.80-81
Meanwhile the commons in Corcyra, being still in great fear of the fleet attacking them, came to a parley with
the suppliants and their friends, in order to save the town; and prevailed upon some of them to go on board
the ships, of which they still manned thirty, against the expected attack.
[2] But the Peloponnesians after ravaging the country until midday sailed away, and towards nightfall were
informed by beacon signals of the approach of sixty Athenian vessels from Leucas, under the command of
Eurymedon, son of Thucles; which had been sent off by the Athenians upon the news of the revolution and of
the fleet with Alcidas being about to sail for Corcyra.
81.
The Peloponnesians accordingly at once set off in haste by night for home, coasting along shore; and hauling
their ships across the Isthmus of Leucas, in order not to be seen doubling it, so departed.
[2] The Corcyraeans, made aware of the approach of the Athenian fleet and of the departure of the enemy,
brought the Messenians from outside the walls into the town, and ordered the fleet which they had manned to
sail round into the Hyllaic harbor; and while it was so doing, slew such of their enemies as they laid hands on,
dispatching afterwards as they landed them, those whom they had persuaded to go on board the ships. Next
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they went to the sanctuary of Hera and persuaded about fifty men to take their trial, and condemned them all
to death. [3] The mass of the suppliants who had refused to do so, on seeing what was taking place, slew each
other there in the consecrated ground; while some hanged themselves upon the trees, and others destroyed
themselves as they were severally able. [4] During seven days that Eurymedon stayed with his sixty ships, the
Corcyraeans were engaged in butchering those of their fellow-citizens whom they regarded as their enemies:
and although the crime imputed was that of attempting to put down the democracy, some were slain also for
private hatred, others by their debtors because of the monies owed to them. [5] Death thus raged in every
shape; and, as usually happens at such times, there was no length to which violence did not go; sons were killed
by their fathers, and suppliants dragged from the altar or slain upon it; while some were even walled up in the
temple of Dionysus and died there.
82.
So bloody was the march of the revolution, and the impression which it made was the greater as it was one of
the first to occur.
Later on, one may say, the whole Hellenic world was convulsed; struggles being everywhere made by the
popular chiefs to bring in the Athenians, and by the oligarchs to introduce the Lacedaemonians. In peace there
would have been neither the pretext nor the wish to make such an invitation; but in war, with an alliance always
at the command of either faction for the hurt of their adversaries and their own corresponding advantage,
opportunities for bringing in the foreigner were never wanting to the revolutionary parties. [2] The sufferings
which revolution entailed upon the cities were many and terrible, such as have occurred and always will occur,
as long as the nature of mankind remains the same; though in a severer or milder form, and varying in their
symptoms, according to the variety of the particular cases. In peace and prosperity states and individuals have
better sentiments, because they do not find themselves suddenly confronted with imperious necessities; but war
takes away the easy supply of daily wants, and so proves a rough master, that brings most men's characters to a
level with their fortunes. [3] Revolution thus ran its course from city to city, and the places which it arrived at
last, from having heard what had been done before carried to a still greater excess the refinement of their
inventions, as manifested in the cunning of their enterprises and the atrocity of their reprisals. [4] Words had to
change their ordinary meaning and to take that which was now given them. Reckless audacity came to be
considered the courage of a loyal ally; prudent hesitation, specious cowardice; moderation was held to be a
cloak for unmanliness; ability to see all sides of a question inaptness to act on any. Frantic violence, became the
attribute of manliness; cautious plotting, a justifiable means of self-defence. [5] The advocate of extreme
measures was always trustworthy; his opponent a man to be suspected. To succeed in a plot was to have a
shrewd head, to divine a plot a still shrewder; but to try to provide against having to do either was to break up
your party and to be afraid of your adversaries. In fine, to forestall an intending criminal, or to suggest the idea
of a crime where it was wanting, was equally commended, [6] until even blood became a weaker tie than party,
from the superior readiness of those united by the latter to dare everything without reserve; for such
associations had not in view the blessings derivable from established institutions but were formed by ambition
for their overthrow; and the confidence of their members in each other rested less on any religious sanction
than upon complicity in crime. [7] The fair proposals of an adversary were met with jealous precautions by the
stronger of the two, and not with a generous confidence. Revenge also was held of more account than selfpreservation. Oaths of reconciliation, being only proffered on either side to meet an immediate difficulty, only
held good so long as no other weapon was at hand; but when opportunity offered, he who first ventured to
seize it and to take his enemy off his guard, thought this perfidious vengeance sweeter than an open one, since,
considerations of safety apart, success by treachery won him the palm of superior intelligence. Indeed it is
generally the case that men are readier to call rogues clever than simpletons honest, and are as ashamed of
being the second as they are proud of being the first. [8] The cause of all these evils was the lust for power
arising from greed and ambition; and from these passions proceeded the violence of parties once engaged in
contention. The leaders in the cities, each provided with the fairest professions, on the one side with the cry of
political equality of the people, on the other of a moderate aristocracy, sought prizes for themselves in those
public interests which they pretended to cherish, and, recoiling from no means in their struggles for
ascendancy, engaged in the direct excesses; in their acts of vengeance they went to even greater lengths, not
stopping at what justice or the good of the state demanded, but making the party caprice of the moment their
only standard, and invoking with equal readiness the condemnation of an unjust verdict or the authority of the
strong arm to glut the animosities of the hour. Thus religion was in honor with neither party; but the use of fair
phrases to arrive at guilty ends was in high reputation. Meanwhile the moderate part of the citizens perished
between the two, either for not joining in the quarrel, or because envy would not suffer them to escape.
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Multiple theatres of war
Theatres 1: Megaris
Thucydides, 2.31
Towards the autumn of this year the Athenians invaded the Megarid with their whole levy, resident aliens
included, under the command of Pericles, son of Xanthippus. The Athenians in the hundred ships round
Peloponnese on their journey home had just reached Aegina, and hearing that the citizens at home were in full
force at Megara, now sailed over and joined them. [2] This was without doubt the largest army of Athenians
ever assembled, the state being still in the flower of her strength and yet unvisited by the plague. Full ten
thousand heavy infantry were in the field, all Athenian citizens, besides the three thousand before Potidaea.
Then the resident aliens who joined in the incursion were at least three thousand strong; besides which there
was a multitude of light troops. They ravaged the greater part of the territory, and then retired. [3] Other
incursions into the Megarid were afterwards made by the Athenians annually during the war, sometimes only
with cavalry, sometimes with all their forces. This went on until the capture of Nisaea.
Theatre 2: Attica
Thucydides, 2.57
During the whole time that the Peloponnesians were in Attica and the Athenians on the expedition in their
ships, men kept dying of the plague both in the armament and in Athens.
Indeed it was actually asserted that the departure of the Peloponnesians was hastened by fear of the disorder; as
they heard from deserters that it was in the city, and also could see the burials going on. [2] Yet in this invasion
they remained longer than in any other, and ravaged the whole country, for they were about forty days in
Attica.
Thucydides, 3.26.1-2
The next summer the Peloponnesians sent off the forty-two ships for Mitylene, under Alcidas, their high
admiral, and themselves and their allies invaded Attica, their object being to distract the Athenians by a double
movement, and thus to make it less easy for them to act against the fleet sailing to Mitylene.
[2] The commander in this invasion was Cleomenes, in the place of King Pausanias, son of Pleistoanax, his
nephew, who was still a minor. [3] Not content with laying waste whatever had shot up in the parts which they
had before devastated, the invaders now extended their ravages to lands passed over in their previous
incursions; so that this invasion was more severely felt by the Athenians than any except the second
Theatre 3: The Northwest of Greece
Thucydides, 1.81
Confidence might possibly be felt in our superiority in heavy infantry and population, which will enable us to invade and devastate
their lands. [2] But the Athenians have plenty of other land in their empire, and can import what they want by sea. [3] Again, if
we are to attempt an insurrection of their allies, these will have to be supported with a fleet, most of them being islanders.
Thucydides, 2.9.4-6
That of Athens comprised the Chians, Lesbians, Plateans, the Messenians in Naupactus, most of the
Acarnanians, the Corcyraeans, Zacynthians, and some tributary cities in the following countries, viz., Caria
upon the sea with her Dorian neighbors, Ionia, the Hellespont, the Thracian towns, the islands lying between
Peloponnese and Crete towards the east, and all the Cyclades except Melos and Thera. [5] Of these, ships were
furnished by Chios, Lesbos, and Corcyra, infantry and money by the rest. [6] Such were the allies of either party
and their resources for the war.
Thucydides, 2.80
The same summer, not long after this, the Ambraciots and Chaonians, being desirous of reducing the whole of
Acarnania and detaching it from Athens, persuaded the Lacedaemonians to equip a fleet from their
confederacy and send a thousand heavy infantry to Acarnania, representing that if a combined movement were
made by land and sea, the coast Acarnanians would be unable to march; and the conquest of Zacynthus and
Cephallenia easily following on the possession of Acarnania, the cruise round Peloponnese would be no longer
so convenient for the Athenians.
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Besides which there was a hope of taking Naupactus. [2] The Lacedaemonians accordingly at once sent off a
few vessels with Cnemus, who was still high admiral, and the heavy infantry on board; and sent round orders
for the fleet to equip as quickly as possible and sail to Leucas. [3] The Corinthians were the most forward in the
business; the Ambraciots being a colony of theirs. While the ships from Corinth, Sicyon and the neighborhood
were getting ready, and those from Leucas, Anactorium and Ambracia, which had arrived before, were waiting
for them at Leucas, [4] Cnemus and his thousand heavy infantry had run into the gulf, giving the slip to
Phormio, the commander of the Athenian squadron stationed off Naupactus, and began at once to prepare for
the land expedition. [5] The Hellenic troops with him consisted of the Ambraciots, Leucadians, and
Anactorians, and the thousand Peloponnesians with whom he came; the barbarian of a thousand Chaonians,
who, belonging to a nation that has no king, were led by Photius and Nicanor, the two members of the royal
family to whom the chieftainship for that year had been confided. With the Chaonians came also some
Thesprotians, like them without a king, [6] some Molossians and Atintanians led by Sabylinthus, the guardian
of king Tharyps who was still a minor, and some Paravaeans, under their King Oroedus, accompanied by a
thousand Orestians, subjects of King Antiochus and placed by him under the command of Oroedus. [7] There
were also a thousand Macedonians sent by Perdiccas without the knowledge of the Athenians, but they arrived
too late. [8] With this force Cnemus set out, without waiting for the fleet from Corinth. Passing through the
territory of Amphilochian Argos, and sacking the open village of Limnaea, they advanced to Stratus the
Acarnanian capital; this once taken, the rest of the country, they felt convinced would speedily follow.
Theatre 4: Eastern Greece and Thrace
Thucydides, 3.93
The foundation of this town, evidently meant to annoy Euboea the passage across to Cenaeum in that island
being a short one, at first caused some alarm at Athens, which the event however did nothing to justify, the
town never giving them any trouble.
[2] The reason of this was as follows. The Thessalians, who were sovereign in those parts, and whose territory
was menaced by its foundation, were afraid that it might prove a very powerful neighbor, and accordingly
continually harassed and made war upon the new settlers, until they at last wore them out in spite of their
originally considerable numbers, people flocking from all quarters to a place founded by the Lacedaemonians,
and thus thought secure of prosperity. On the other hand the Lacedaemonians themselves, in the persons of
their governors, did their full share towards ruining its prosperity and reducing its population, as they
frightened away the greater part of the inhabitants by governing harshly and in some cases not fairly, and thus
made it easier for their neighbors to prevail against them.
Thucydides, 4.83
Upon the arrival of Brasidas and his army, Perdiccas immediately started with them and with his own forces
against Arrhabaeus, son of Bromerus king of the Lyncestian Macedonians, his neighbour, with whom he had a
quarrel and whom he wished to subdue.
[2] However, when he arrived with his army and Brasidas at the pass leading into Lyncus, Brasidas told him
that before commencing hostilities he wished to go and try to persuade Arrhabaeus to become the ally of
Lacedaemon, [3] this latter having already made overtures intimating his willingness to make Brasidas arbitrator
between them, and the Chalcidian envoys accompanying him having warned him not to remove the
apprehensions of Perdiccas, in order to insure his greater zeal in their cause. [4] Besides, the envoys of
Perdiccas had talked at Lacedaemon about his bringing many of the places round him into alliance with them;
and thus Brasidas thought he might take a larger view of the question of Arrhabaeus. [5] Perdiccas however
retorted that he had not brought him with him to arbitrate in their quarrel, but to put down the enemies whom
he might point out to him; and that while he, Perdiccas, maintained half his army it was a breach of faith for
Brasidas to parley with Arrhabaeus. [6] Nevertheless Brasidas disregarded the wishes of Perdiccas and held the
parley in spite of him, and suffered himself to be persuaded to lead off the army without invading the country
of Arrhabaeus; after which Perdiccas, holding that faith had not been kept with him, contributed only a third
instead of half of the support of the army.
Theatre 5: The eastern Aegean
Thucydides, 3.31
These words of Teutiaplus failing to move Alcidas, some of the Ionian exiles and the Lesbians with the
expedition began to urge him, since this seemed too dangerous, to seize one of the Ionian cities or the Aeolic
town of Cyme, to use as a base for effecting the revolt of Ionia.
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This was by no means a hopeless enterprise, as their coming was welcome everywhere; their object would be by
this move to deprive Athens of her chief source of revenue, and at the same time to saddle her with expense, if
she chose to blockade them; and they would probably induce Pissuthnes to join them in the war. [2] However,
Alcidas gave this proposal as bad a reception as the other, being eager, since he had come too late for Mitylene,
to find himself back in Peloponnese as soon as possible.
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Breakdown of warfare of rules
The sanctity of the farmer
Aristophanes, Peace 520-580
Trygaeus
[520] Ah! venerated goddess, who givest us our grapes, where am I to find the ten-thousand-gallon words
wherewith to greet thee? I have none such at home. Oh! hail to thee, Opora, and thee, Theoria! How beautiful
is thy face! [525] How sweet thy breath! What gentle fragrance comes from thy bosom, gentle as freedom from
military duty, as the most dainty perfumes!
Hermes
Is it then a smell like a soldier's knapsack?
Trygaeus
Oh! hateful soldier! your hideous satchel makes me sick! it stinks like the belching of onions, [530] whereas this
lovable deity has the odor of sweet fruits, of festivals, of the Dionysia, of the harmony of flutes, of the tragic
poets, of the verses of Sophocles, of the phrases of Euripides—
Hermes
That's a foul calumny, you wretch! She detests that framer of subtleties and quibbles.
Trygaeus
ignoring this.
[535] —of ivy, of straining-bags for wine, of bleating ewes, of provision-laden women hastening to the kitchen,
of the tipsy servant wench, of the upturned wine-jar, and of a whole heap of other good things.
Hermes
Then look how the [540] reconciled towns chat pleasantly together, how they laugh, and yet they are all cruelly
mishandled; their wounds are bleeding still.
Trygaeus
But let us also scan the mien of the spectators; we shall thus find out the trade of each.
Hermes
Good god!
Trygaeus
[545] Do you see that poor crest-maker, tearing at his hair?
Hermes
—and that pike-maker, who has just farted in yon sword-cutler's face?
Trygaeus
And do you see with what pleasure this sickle-maker is thumbing his nose at the spear-maker?
Hermes
[550] Now tell the husbandmen to be off.
Trygaeus
Listen, good folk! Let the husbandmen take their farming tools and return to their fields as quickly as possible,
but without either sword, spear or javelin. All is as quiet as if Peace had been reigning for a century. [555]
Come, let everyone go and till the earth, singing the Paean.
Leader of the Chorus
To Peace.
Oh, thou, whom men of standing desired and who art good to husbandmen, I have gazed upon thee with
delight; and now I go to greet my vines, to caress after so long an absence the fig trees I planted in my youth.
Trygaeus
[560] Friends, let us first adore the goddess, who has delivered us from crests and Gorgons; then let us hurry to
our farms, having first bought a nice little piece of salt fish to eat in the fields.
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Hermes
By Poseidon! what a fine crew they make [565] and dense as the crust of a cake; they are as nimble as guests on
their way to a feast.
Trygaeus
See, how their iron spades glitter and how beautifully their three-pronged mattocks glisten in the sun! How
regularly they align the plants! I also burn to go into the country [570] and to turn over the earth I have so long
neglected.
Trygaeus
Friends, do you remember the happy life that Peace afforded us formerly; can you recall the splendid baskets of
[575] figs, both fresh and dried, the myrtles, the sweet wine, the violets blooming near the spring, and the
olives, for which we have wept so much? Worship, adore the goddess [580] for restoring you so many
blessings.
Thucydides, 3.95.2
Every type of light was attempted; but every manner of destruction befell the Athenian force. Only with
difficulty could the survivors flee to the sea at Oenon in Locris, the very place they had started out from. Many
of the allies perished and 120 Athenian hoplites as well. So great was the number of such dead, and all of the
same age that perished here – literally the best men that the city of Athens lost in the entire war.
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