Page:The City-State of the Greeks and Romans.djvu/274

250 conflagration in which the life and strength of all that was best in Hellas was withered. Thucydides shall tell the tale for himself of the first beginning of this momentous war.

"The city of Epidamnus is situated on the right hand as you sail up the Ionian gulf. Near it dwelt the Taulantians, a barbarian tribe of the Illyrian race. The place was colonised by the Corcyræans, but under the leadership of a Corinthian; ... he was invited, according to ancient custom, from the mother city, and Corinthians and other Dorians joined in the colony. In process of time Epidamnus became great and populous, but there followed a long period of civil commotion, and the city is said to have been brought low in a war against the neighbouring barbarians, and to have lost her ancient power. At last, shortly before the Peloponnesian war, the notables (i.e. oligarchs) were driven out by the people; the exiles went over to the barbarians, and, uniting with them, plundered the remaining inhabitants both by sea and land. These, finding themselves hard pressed, sent an embassy to the mother city, Corcyra, begging the Corcyræans not to leave them to their fate, but to reconcile them to the exiles and put down their barbarian enemies. The ambassadors came, and sitting as suppliants in the temple of Herê, preferred their request; but the Corcyræans would not listen to them, and they returned without success," etc.

Here we must note, not only the struggle of factions, and the expulsion of the oligarchs, but once more the significant fact that these are ready to take part with non-Hellenic peoples in order to get the better of their own fellow-citizens. And worse still, when the cry comes up to Corcyra of the besieged Epidamnians asking for friendly intervention and aid against barbarian attack, the mother city will not listen; she prefers to sit still and see the