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Thucydides · History of the Peloponnesian War §3.72.1-3.72.3

Arrest of Envoys and Outbreak of Street Fighting in Corcyra

Passage 321 of 917 · Greek

Summary

The Corcyraean ambassadors who arrived in Athens are arrested, while in Corcyra, the oligarchic faction, supported by Corinthian and Lacedaemonian arrivals, attacks and defeats the democratic commons, leading to a divided occupation of the city.

§3.72.1ἐλθόντων δὲ οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι τούς τε πρέσβεις ὡς νεωτερίζοντας ξυλλαβόντες, καὶ ὅσους ἔπεισαν, κατέθεντο ἐς Αἴγιναν.
When they arrived, the Athenians arrested the ambassadors as revolutionists, and also detained all those whom they had persuaded, placing them in Aegina.
§3.72.2ἐν δὲ τούτῳ τῶν Κερκυραίων οἱ ἔχοντες τὰ πράγματα ἐλθούσης τριήρους Κορινθίας καὶ Λακεδαιμονίων πρέσβεων ἐπιτίθενται τῷ δήμῳ, καὶ μαχόμενοι ἐνίκησαν.
Meanwhile, those of the Corcyraeans who held power, on the arrival of a Corinthian trireme and Lacedaemonian ambassadors, attacked the commons, and defeated them in battle.
§3.72.3ἀφικομένης δὲ νυκτὸς ὁ μὲν δῆμος ἐς τὴν ἀκρόπολιν καὶ τὰ μετέωρα τῆς πόλεως καταφεύγει καὶ αὐτοῦ ξυλλεγεὶς ἱδρύθη, καὶ τὸν Ὑλλαϊκὸν λιμένα εἶχον· οἱ δὲ τήν τε ἀγορὰν κατέλαβον, οὗπερ οἱ πολλοὶ ᾤκουν αὐτῶν, καὶ τὸν λιμένα τὸν πρὸς αὐτῇ καὶ πρὸς τὴν ἤπειρον.
When night came on, the commons fled to the acropolis and the high parts of the city, and having assembled there, established themselves, and they also held the Hyllaic harbour; while the other party seized the market-place, where most of them lived, and the harbour adjacent to it and facing the continent.

Notes

  1. §3.72.1ἐλθόντων — Genitive absolute with the subject pronoun omitted, referring back to the ambassadors (πρέσβεις) mentioned in the previous section.
  2. §3.72.1ὅσους ἔπεισαν — A relative clause with an omitted antecedent, functioning as the direct object of the main verb κατέθεντο. The subject of ἔπεισαν is the ambassadors, and the object refers to the refugees in Athens mentioned in §3.71.2.
  3. §3.72.3αὐτοῦ — An adverb of place derived from the genitive case, meaning 'there' or 'in that very place'. It refers to the acropolis and the high parts of the city.
  4. §3.72.3πρὸς αὐτῇ — The preposition πρός with the dative, meaning 'near' or 'adjacent to'. The pronoun αὐτῇ (feminine singular dative) refers back to the market-place (τὴν ἀγοράν).

Cite this passage

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War §3.72.1-3.72.3. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0003.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:3.72.1-3.72.3

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