History of the Peloponnesian War | Page 8

In fine, I have written my work, not as an essay
which is to win the applause of the moment, but as a possession for all
time.
The Median War, the greatest achievement of past times, yet found a
speedy decision in two actions by sea and two by land. The
Peloponnesian War was prolonged to an immense length, and, long as
it was, it was short without parallel for the misfortunes that it brought
upon Hellas. Never had so many cities been taken and laid desolate,

here by the barbarians, here by the parties contending (the old
inhabitants being sometimes removed to make room for others); never
was there so much banishing and blood-shedding, now on the field of
battle, now in the strife of faction. Old stories of occurrences handed
down by tradition, but scantily confirmed by experience, suddenly
ceased to be incredible; there were earthquakes of unparalleled extent
and violence; eclipses of the sun occurred with a frequency unrecorded
in previous history; there were great droughts in sundry places and
consequent famines, and that most calamitous and awfully fatal
visitation, the plague. All this came upon them with the late war, which
was begun by the Athenians and Peloponnesians by the dissolution of
the thirty years' truce made after the conquest of Euboea. To the
question why they broke the treaty, I answer by placing first an account
of their grounds of complaint and points of difference, that no one may
ever have to ask the immediate cause which plunged the Hellenes into a
war of such magnitude. The real cause I consider to be the one which
was formally most kept out of sight. The growth of the power of
Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Lacedaemon, made war
inevitable. Still it is well to give the grounds alleged by either side
which led to the dissolution of the treaty and the breaking out of the
war.



CHAPTER II
_Causes of the War - The Affair of Epidamnus - The Affair of
Potidaea_
The city of Epidamnus stands on the right of the entrance of the Ionic
Gulf. Its vicinity is inhabited by the Taulantians, an Illyrian people. The
place is a colony from Corcyra, founded by Phalius, son of Eratocleides,
of the family of the Heraclids, who had according to ancient usage been
summoned for the purpose from Corinth, the mother country. The

colonists were joined by some Corinthians, and others of the Dorian
race. Now, as time went on, the city of Epidamnus became great and
populous; but falling a prey to factions arising, it is said, from a war
with her neighbours the barbarians, she became much enfeebled, and
lost a considerable amount of her power. The last act before the war
was the expulsion of the nobles by the people. The exiled party joined
the barbarians, and proceeded to plunder those in the city by sea and
land; and the Epidamnians, finding themselves hard pressed, sent
ambassadors to Corcyra beseeching their mother country not to allow
them to perish, but to make up matters between them and the exiles,
and to rid them of the war with the barbarians. The ambassadors seated
themselves in the temple of Hera as suppliants, and made the above
requests to the Corcyraeans. But the Corcyraeans refused to accept their
supplication, and they were dismissed without having effected
anything.
When the Epidamnians found that no help could be expected from
Corcyra, they were in a strait what to do next. So they sent to Delphi
and inquired of the God whether they should deliver their city to the
Corinthians and endeavour to obtain some assistance from their
founders. The answer he gave them was to deliver the city and place
themselves under Corinthian protection. So the Epidamnians went to
Corinth and delivered over the colony in obedience to the commands of
the oracle. They showed that their founder came from Corinth, and
revealed the answer of the god; and they begged them not to allow
them to perish, but to assist them. This the Corinthians consented to do.
Believing the colony to belong as much to themselves as to the
Corcyraeans, they felt it to be a kind of duty to undertake their
protection. Besides, they hated the Corcyraeans for their contempt of
the mother country. Instead of meeting with the usual honours accorded
to the parent city by every other colony at public assemblies, such as
precedence at sacrifices, Corinth found herself treated with contempt
by a power which in point of wealth could stand comparison with any
even of the richest communities in Hellas, which possessed great
military strength, and which sometimes could not repress a pride in the
high naval position of an, island whose nautical renown dated from the
days