Revolution

“Death thus raged in every shape; and, as usually happens at such times, there is no length to which violence did not go…” This sentence encapsulates Thucydides’ theories on revolution. The whole Hellenic world was doomed to be consumed by its unrestrained ravaging as a direct result of Athens’s folly. Although the entire Hellenic world was consumed by revolution at least at one point during the given period, Thucydides only gives the first occurrence of revolution in the Peloponnesian War a thorough examination. The significance of revolution is revealed by analyzing the separate writing components and themes of Thucydides’ passage concerning the Corcyran Revolution and comparing them with those of the rest of the book.

The Peloponnesian War was in its fifth year when Corcyraean oligarchs massacred Peithias and sixty members of his party. The conspirators justified this bloodshed with the explanation of Peithias’s betrayal of Corcycra. Peithias, who opposed neutrality and wished to serve Athens, had attempted to persecute his political opponents. In failing to do so, those he betrayed launched themselves at him and his companions (the head of the democratic faction in Corcyra) and revenge was answered by revenge. Then the conspirators called for an assembly among all the citizens, and the city-state was declared neutral. However, the betrayal had spread the seed of suspicion and when a Corinthian trireme arrived with Spartan envoys, the leaders of Corcyra attack those incorporated with the Democratic Party with allegiance with Athens, referred to by Thucydides as “The People”. The Corcyran oligarchs were able to defeat The People in the first battle of the revolution; however, the stage was set for the next, more decisive battle when The

People retreated to the higher ground of the Acropolis, and the oligarchs settled in the agora.

After a day filled with minor skirmishes, The People received the support of a majority of the slaves and were reinforced by eight hundred mercenaries. Once the second battle commenced, the supporters of the democratic party were named the victors of the day. The original instigators found themselves with the tables turned and were now in the hands of their own betrayed victims. This passage is one of the many areas through out The Peloponnesian War which Thucydides compels his reader to contemplate the many aspects of human nature. Here he explores how greed and ambition repeatedly turn the inhabitants of Corcyra against one another. The victors of this last battle desired to deliver an even more devastating blow to their opponents. The members of The People asked the Athenian general, Nicostratus, to leave five hundred of his men there and they would replace his Athenian soldiers with five hundred Corcyraeans. This would ensure the defeated remained compliant. However The People’s agenda was revealed when they demanded that their betrayers be the men to serve on the Athenian ships heading to Athens. Now a new wave of revenge, greed, and betrayal ravaged the citizens yet again.