17 Crisis in Corcyra, 435-432 B.C.

In 435 B.C., a civil war between democrats and oligarchs at Epidamnus, a remote Greek colony on the shores of Epirus, involved the two rivals Corcyra and Corinth in a regional dispute. Corcyra (modern Corfu), a democracy with 120 triremes, had despised Corinth since 664/3 B.C. Now, when Corinth backed the democrats in control of Epidamnus, Corcyra intervened on behalf of the exiled oligarchs, who laid siege to Epidamnus. The Corinthians, after suffering a humiliating naval defeat off Leukimme in 434 B.C., readied a greater fleet to reckon with Corcyra. The Corcyraeans, as neutrals under the Thirty Years’ Peace, appealed to Athens for aid. The Athenian assembly, persuaded by Pericles, offered limited assistance in the form of 10 triremes, which proved decisive in preventing the Corinthians from defeating the Corcyraeans in a second naval battle off Sybota in 433 B.C. The Athenians had acted in violation of the spirit of the Thirty Years’ Peace, lest the Corcyraean fleet fall into Peloponnesian hands. In so doing, the Athenians enraged the Corinthians, who escalated a conflict in northwest Greece into a general crisis.