Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/299

 FOURTH YEAR OF THE WAR- TROUBLES IN KORKVRA. 277 kyraean butchfiry : unfortunately, Thucydides tells us nothing at all about Nikostratus, after the naval battle of the preceding day. 1 "We should have been glad to hear something about the steps taken in the way of restoration or healing, after this burst of murderous fury, in which doubtless the newly-emancipated slaves were not the most backward, and after the departure of Eury- medon. But here again Thucydides disappoints our curiosity. We only hear from him, that the oligarchical exiles who had escaped to the mainland were strong enough to get possession of the forts and most part of the territory there belonging to Kor- kyra ; just as the exiles from Samos and Mitylene became more or less completely masters of the Pertea or mainland possessions belonging to those islands. They even sent envoys to Corinth and Sparta, in hopes of procuring aid to accomplish their resto- ration by force but their request found no favor, and they were reduced to their own resources. After harassing for some time the Korkyraeans in the island by predatory incursions, so as to produce considerable dearth and distress, they at length collected a band of Epirotic mercenaries, passed over to the island, and 1 In reading the account of the conduct of Nikostratus, as well as that of Phormio, in the naval battles of the preceding summer, we contract a personal interest respecting both of them. Thucydides does not seem to have anticipated that his account would raise such a feeling in the minds of his readers, otherwise he probably would have mentioned something to gratify it. Kespecting Phormio, his omission is the more remarkable ; since we are left to infer, from the request made by the Akarnanians to have his son sent as commander, that he must have died or become dis- abled: yet the historian does not distinctly say so (iii, 7). The Scholiast on Aristophanes (Pac. 347) has a story that Phormio was asked for by the Akarnanians, but that he could not serve in consequence of being at that moment under sentence for a heavy fine, which he was unable to pay: accordingly, the Athenians contrived a means of evading the fine, in order that he might be enabled to serve. It is difficult to sea how this can be reconciled with the story of Thucydides, who says that the son of Phormio went instead of his father. Compare Meineke, Histor. Critic. Cornice. Gra?c. vol. i, p. 144, and Frag- ment. Eupolid. vol. ii, p. 527. Phormio was introduced as a chief charac- ter in the Tai-iapxoi of Eupolis ; as a brave, rough, straightforward soldier somo'hing like Lamachus in the Aeharneii of Aristophanes.