History of the Peloponnesian War

There is a city called Epidamnus on the right hand as one sails into the Ionian gulf, and its next-door neighbours are a barbarian tribe, the Taulantians, of Illyrian race.

The city was colonized by the Corcyraeans, and its founder was Phalius, son of Eratocleides, of Corinthian stock and a descendant of Heracles, who was invited from the mother-city according to the ancient custom;

but some Corinthians and other Dorians joined the Corcyraeans in establishing the colony. As time passed the city of the Epidamnians became great and populous;

but civil wars ensued, lasting, it is said, for many years, and in consequence of a war with the neighbouring barbarians they were crippled and stripped of most of their power.

Finally, just before the Peloponnesian war, the populace expelled the aristocrats, and they, making common cause with the barbarians and attacking Epidamnus, plundered those who were in the city both by land and sea.

These, when they were being hard pressed, sent envoys to Corcyra, as being their mother-city, beg g them not to look on and see them destroyed, but to reconcile them with the exiles and to put a stop to the war with the barbarians.

This petition they made, sitting as suppliants in the temple of Hera. But the Corcyraeans denied their supplication, and sent them back unsuccessful.