United States or Jordan ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Trade was at standstill in the Agora. The most careless frequented the temples. Old foes composed their cases before the arbitrator. The courts were closed, but there was meeting after meeting in the Pnyx, with incessant speeches on one theme—how Athens must resist to the bitter end. And why should not the end be bitter? Argos and Crete had Medized. Corcyra promised and did nothing.
After these events, as the clouds were gathering for the Peloponnesian war, Pericles persuaded the Athenians to send assistance to the people of Corcyra, who were at war with the Corinthians, and thus to attach to their own side an island with a powerful naval force, at a moment when the Peloponnesians had all but declared war against them.
Athens on her part reviewed her existing confederacy, and sent embassies to the places more immediately round Peloponnese Corcyra, Cephallenia, Acarnania, and Zacynthus perceiving that if these could be relied on she could carry the war all round Peloponnese. And if both sides nourished the boldest hopes and put forth their utmost strength for the war, this was only natural.
As soon, therefore, as the news of this sudden change reached the lieutenant-general Flamininus, in Corcyra, he instantly set sail with the fleet for Leucas; and coming to an anchor at a place called Heraeus, advanced thence towards the walls with every kind of machine used in the attacking of cities; supposing that the first appearance of danger might bend the minds of the inhabitants to submission.
Of the immediate causes of the war the first is to be found in the affairs of Epidamnus, Corcyra, and Corinth, of which Corcyra was a colony. Of the Greek states, the most were joined either to the Athenian or the Peloponnesian league, but Corcyra had joined neither.
The weak Macedonian fleet under Heraclides remained inactive at Heraclea, and did not venture to dispute the possession of the sea with the enemy. The latter went early to winter quarters, the Romans proceeding to the Piraeeus and Corcyra, the Rhodians and Pergamenes going home. Philip might on the whole congratulate himself upon the results of this campaign.
Most of them found their way, partly through the desolate mountains of Macedonia and Illyria, partly by the aid of the fleet, to Corcyra, where Marcus Cato commanded the reserve left behind.
Demosthenes was now in imminent danger, being threatened with an immediate assault by sea and land, which he had no adequate means of repelling. Having sent off two of his ships to recall the Athenian squadron from its voyage to Corcyra, he prepared to defend himself, until the arrival of succour, as best he could.
For the Athenians wished to avoid breaking the Thirty Years' Truce, and therefore refrained from entering into any agreement which might oblige them to acts of open aggression against Corinth. There can be little doubt that Pericles, who was mainly responsible for this decision, committed a fatal error in advising the Athenians to take up the cause of Corcyra.
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.
Word Of The Day