Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/688

 670 COBCYRA. nsembliince in shape to a scythe. (Apoll. Rbod. ir. 983, with Schol.; Callimach. ap. Plm. iv. 12. s. 19.) It KB farther said that its next name was Scheria QiX*P^^)t which Homer describes as a fertile and lovely island, inhabited by the Phaeaci«nSf an enter- prizing seafaring people, the subjects of king Alci- sons. (Od V. 34, seq.) Although the Carcyraeans identified their island with the Homeric Scheria, and prided themselveB upon the nautical fame of their Phaeacian ancestors (Thoc. L 25), yet it is very doubtful whether the Homeric Scheria ought to be regarded as an island, which ever had any real ex- istence. It is not unlikely that the Phaeadans are only a creation of the poet, to wh(»n he assigns a place in the far distant West, the scene of so many marvels in the Odyssey. (Comp. Welcker, Ueber tUe Hifmeriachen Phaeakm^ in Bhtiinachei Museum, vol. i. pp. 219—283.) The fint historical fact recorded respecting Cor- cyn is its colonizaticn by the Corinthians; for we may pass over the earlier Eretrian colony, which rests upon the authority of Plutarch alone. (^QfiauL Graec. c. 11.) Archias, the founder of Syracuse, is said to have touched at Corcyra on his way to Sicily, and to have left behind him Chersicrates, one of the Heradidae, who expelled the Libumians, then inha- biting the island, and built the city of Corcyra, which he peopled with Corinthian settlers. (Strab. vL p. 269 ; Timaeus, ap. Schol. ad Apoll. Rhod. iv. 12 1 6.) This event we may place in b.c. 734, the date usually assigned to the foundation of Syracuse. [Syracusab.] Corcyra rapidly rose to be one of the first maritime powers in Greece. We are told that it was at variance with the mother country almost from the very time of its focmdation (Herod, iii. 49), which was no doubt owing to its being the cmnmercial rival of Corinth in the western seas <^ Greece. The dissensions between the two states bfoke out into open hostilities as early as b. c. 665, when a naval engagement took place between them, which is mentioned by Thucydides as the first sea- fight on record. (Thuc. L 13.) In b. c. 617 the Corcyraeans founded Epidamnus on the Illyrian coast; but notwithstanding their hostility to the mother country, they so &r complied with Grecian usages as to choose a Corinthian as the Oekist or founder of the new colony. (Thuc. i. 24.) Peri- ander, who ruled at Corinth from b. c. 625 to 585, reduced Corcyra to subjection in the course of his reign ; but of the details of its subjugation we have no account Herodotus tells an interesting story of the murder of Lycophron, the son of Periander, by the Corcyraeans, and of the cruel way in which Periander attempted to take revenge. (Herod, iii. 49, seq.) It wa ; during the tame that Corcyra was subject t / Pei-wder, that Apollonia and Anactorium were foundeu by the two states conjointly. After the death of Periander the Corcyraeans seem to have recovered their independence; but in the Persian wars they made use of it in a manner little creditable to their Hellenic patriotism. Haring promised their aid to the confederate Greeks, they sent a fieet of 60 ships, but with orders to advance no further than the promontory <^ Taenarus, there to await the issue of the struggle between the Persians and the Greeks, and to j<Mn the victorious party. (Herod, vii. 168) Of their subsequent history till the time of the Peloponnesian war, we know nothing. Having quarrelled with the Corinthians respecting Epidamnus, a war ensued between the states, which was one of the immediate causes of the Peloponnesian. GOBCTRA. war. As tiM history of this quarrel and of the which followed m related at length in all histories of Greece, it is (mly aecessaiy in this place to men- tion the leading events, and sndi as chiefly Mrre to illustrate the geography of Cmt^fn, The first fleet, which the Corinthins seot agamst the Corcyraeans, was completely dcfcatid by the latter off Cape Actium, b. a 435. (Thwu i. 29.) Deeply humbled by this defeat, the Corinthians nftml two whde years in preparations for retrieving it; and by active exertions among their alliea, they were in a condition in the third year to put to sea with a fieet of 150 sail. The Corcyraeans, unable to cope single-handed with so fbnnidable an annament, ap plied for aid to the Athenians, who concluded a defensive alliance with them, feariqg lest tbor powerful navy should fall into the hands of the Pe* loponnesians. Soon afterwards the war was renewed. The Corinthian fleet of 150 ships took up its atataon at Cape Cheimerium on the coast of E^ros, a little south of Corcyra. The Corcyraean fleet of 110 rail, together with 10 Athenian ships, were posted at one of the islands called Sybota (iSMora), now Sytwtct, which lie off the coast of Epeirus to the north of Cape Cheimerium, and <^po8ite the coast of CorcyrB, between Capes Leudmme and Amphipagos. Their land force was statitmed at Leucimme. The engage- ment took place in the open sea between Cape Cheimerium and the Sybota; the Coreyraeaiia were defeated; and the Corinthians were preparing to raiew the attack in the afternoon, but were detei ie d by the arriral of a fresh Athenian squadron, and sailed away home. (Thoc L 44, seq.) Each party claimed the victory. The Corinthians erected their trophy at '* the continental Sybota " {ip rots ir rf iprtip^ S«tf ^oif ), and the Corcyraeans set up thein at the " insular Syb<rta" (^i^ rott hf rf tr^ir^ 2M- Toir, Thuc. i. 54). We learn from CoL Leake that there is a sheltered bay between the two principal islands, called Syvota, and another between the inner island and the main. The '* continental Sybota* was probably the name of a village on the inner strait. (Leake, Northern Greece^ voL iii. pp. 2, 3.) Shortly afterwards the ishmd was distracted by dvU dissensions between the aristocratical and demo- cratical parties, in which the latter finally gained the upper hand, and massacred all their opponeuts with the most frightful atrocities, b. c. 425. (Thuc iv. 46—48.) Corcyra remained in the Athenian alliance till the close of the Peloponnesian war. It was the place of reudezvoas for the fleet of the Athenians and their allies, which was destined to invade Sicily, B. c. 415. (Thuc. vi. 42.) Whether Corcyra was enrolled a member of the Spartan confederacy after the downfall of Athoas, we are not inf(urmed ; but in B. c. 375 Timotheus brought the island agam under the dominion of Athens. (Xen. HeU. v. 4« § 64; comp. Com. Nep. Tun. 2 ; Died. xv. 36.) Two years afterwards, b. c. 373, a large Peloponnesian force, under the command cf the Lacedaemonian Mnaap- pus, was sent to wrest the ishtnd fipom the Athenians. The Athenian fleet had already quitted Corcyra; and the inhabitants, having been defeated in battle by the invaders, were obliged to take refuge within the walls of their city. Xenophon, m a passage already referred to, describes the country at that time as in the highest state of cultivation, abounding in beautiful houses, the cellars of which were stored with excellent wine After ravaging the country, Mnasippus h&id siege to the city, which soon b^an