Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/288

 26G HISTORY OF GREECE. nian prisoners, like that of Salsethus by the Athenians, was not beyond the rigor admitted and tolerated, though not always prac- tised, on both sides, towards prisoners of war. We have now gone through the circumstances, painfully illus- trating the manners of the age, which followed on the surrender of Mitylene and Platsea. We next pass to the west of Greece, the island of Korkyra, where we shall find scenes not less bloody, and even more revolting. It has been already mentioned, 1 that in the naval combats be- tween the Corinthians and Korkyrasans during the year before the Peloponnesian war, the former had captured two hundred Juicl fifty Korkyraean prisoners, men of the first rank and consequence in the island. Instead of following the impulse of blind hatred in slaughtering their prisoners, the Corinthians displayed, if not greater humanity, at least a more long-sighted calculation : they had treated the prisoners well, and made every effort to gain them over, with a view of employing them on the first opportu- nity to effect a revolution in the island, to bring,' it into alliance with Corinth, 2 and disconnect it from Athens. Such an oppor- tunity appears first to have occurred during the winter or spring of the present year, while both Mitylene and Plattca were under blockade ; probably about the time when Alkidas departed foi Ionia, and when it was hoped that not only Mitylene would be relieved, but the neighboring dependencies of Athens excited to revolt, and her whole attention thus occupied in that quarter. Accordingly, the Korkyraean prisoners were then sent home from Corinth, nominally under a heavy ransom of eight hundred talents, for which those Korkyraan citizens who acted as proxeni to Corinth made themselves responsible : 3 the proxeni, lending themselves thus to the deception, were doubtless participant in the entire design. But it was soon seen in what form the ransom was really to be paid. The new-comers, probably at first heartily welcomed, after so long a detention, employed all their influence, combined with the most active personal canvass, to bring about a complete rupture of all alliance with Athens. Intimation being sent to See above, chop, xlvii. * Thucyd. i. 55
 * Thucyd. iii, 70: compa'* Diodor. xii, 57.