Epidamnus location

Megarian decree
Thucydides megarian decree
Potidaea peloponnesian war

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How the war begins: Epidamnus, a colony of Corcyra, is pressed by its own exiled former leaders. When Corcyra refuses aid to Epidamnus, instead supporting the exiled party, theEpidamnians consult an oracle which instructs them to submit instead to Corinth, a city of Peloponnesus and the original founder of both cities. Corcyra and Corinth go to war. Both cities send envoys to Athens to request aid. ssThe true cause of the war: "War began when the Athenians and the Peloponnesians broke the Thirty Years Truce which had been made after the capture of Euboea. As to the reasons why they broke the truce, I propose first to give an account of the causes of complaint which they had against each other and of the specific instances where their interests clashed: this is in order that there should be no doubt in anyone's mind about what led to this great war falling upon the Hellenes. But the real reasoning for the war is, in my opinion, most likely to be disguised by such an argument. What made war inevitable was the growth of Athenian power and the fear which this caused in

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Affair of Epidamnus

Coup by Epidamnus' democratic faction (c. 436 – 433 BCE)

The Affair of Epidamnus, also known as the Epidamnian Affair, is cited by the Ancient Greek historian Thucydides as one of the major immediate causes for the Peloponnesian War. The conflict began as a minor coup by a democratic faction of the city-state of Epidamnus (later Roman Dyrrachium, now modern-day Durrës), but eventually escalated into a major conflict between the cities of Athens and Corcyra (modern Corfu) on one side and the city of Corinth on the other. The culminating Battle of Sybota subsequently led to the Potidaean Affair and the Megarian Decree, both also major contributors to the final outbreak of hostilities between Athens and Sparta, beginning the Peloponnesian War.

Background

Epidamnos was a city-state located on the modern-day Albanian coast facing the Adriatic Sea north of the Strait of Otranto. The city was founded by colonists from the nearby city of Corcyra. Like many other Greek city states, Epidamnos suffered from internecine factionalism between Oligarchs and

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A fascinating theme of Thucydides’ timeless work is that power abhors a vacuum, and within this theme the Corinthians asserted that Spartan inaction encouraged Athens to commit further aggression:

For the true author of the subjugation of a people is not so much the immediate agent, as the power which permits it having the means to prevent it…. For aggressors with matured plans to oppose to our indecision have cast threats aside and betaken themselves to action. And we know what are the paths by which Athenian aggression travels, and how insidious is its progress. A degree of confidence she may feel from the idea that your bluntness of perception prevents your noticing her; but it is nothing to the impulse which her advance will receive from the knowledge that you see, but do not care to interfere…. (1.69)

In what follows, the Corinthians describe the relatively aggressive and pragmatic character of the Athenian people as compared to the passive and cautious nature of the Peloponnese. Thucydides concludes their speech with this compelling narrative:

Such is Athens, yo