Histories

This is how the campaign in Sicily [14,37.5] (region), Italy, Europe Sicily fell out. As for the Corcyraeans, their answer to the envoys and their acts were as I will show. The men who had gone to Sicily [14,37.5] (region), Italy, Europe Sicily sought their aid too, using the same arguments which they had used with Gelon. The Corcyraeans straightaway promised to send help and protection, declaring that they would not allow Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas to perish, for if she should fall, the very next day would certainly see them also enslaved. They would accordingly have to help to the best of their ability.

Now this answer seemed fair enough, but when the time came for sending help, their minds changed. They manned sixty ships and put out to sea, making for the coast of the +Peloponnese [22,37.5] (region), Greece, Europe Peloponnese. There, however, they anchored off Pylos [21.7083,36.9167] (Perseus) Pylos and Taenarus in the Lacedaemonian territory, waiting like the others to see which way the war should incline. They had no hope that the Greeks would prevail, but thought that the Persian would win a great victory and be lord of all Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas.

Their course of action, therefore, had been planned with a view to being able to say to the Persian, “O king, we whose power is as great as any and who could have furnished as many ships as any state save Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens,—we, when the Greeks attempted to gain our aid in this war, would not resist you nor do anything displeasing to you.” This plea, they hoped, would win them some advantage more than ordinary; and so, I believe, it would have been.