History of the Peloponnesian War

After they had taken these measures the conspirators called the Corcyraeans together and told them that it was all for the best, and that now they would be least likely to be enslaved by the Athenians; and in future they should remain neutral and receive neither party if they came with more than one ship, regarding any larger number as hostile. Having thus spoken they compelled the people to ratify their proposal.

They also sent at once to Athens envoys to explain recent events at Corcyra, showing how these were for the interests of Athens, and to persuade those who had taken refuge there to do nothing prejudicial to them, in order that there might not be a reaction against Corcyra.[*](Or, perhaps, ἐπιστροφή = animadversio, “that no attention should be paid”—by way of punishment for the change in Corcyraean policy.)

But when the envoys arrived, the Athenians arrested them as revolutionists, and deposited them in Aegina,

Btogether with such of the fugitives as they had won over. Meanwhile the dominant party at Corcyra, on the arrival of a Corinthian trireme with Lacedaemonian envoys, attacked the people and were victorious in the fight.

But when night came on the people fled for refuge to the acropolis and the high places of the city, and getting together in a body established themselves there. They held also the Hyllaïc harbour,[*](Probably the present bay Chalikiopulon.) while the other party seized the quarter of the market-place where most of them lived, and the harbour[*](Now bay of Kastradu.) adjacent to it which faces the mainland.

On the next day they skirmished a little, and both parties sent messengers round into the fields, calling upon the slaves and offering them freedom; and a majority of the slaves made common cause with the people, while the other party gained the support of eight hundred mercenaries from the mainland.