Power, Prestige, and the Corcyrean Affair in Thucydides 1

After analyzing early human history and discussing his methodology, Thucydides begins his account of the Peloponnesian War with a dispute that arises between Corinth and Corcyra over the city of Epidamnus. ¹ A fifth-century audience would have understood this choice of a beginning: where Thucydides himself speaks of a ten-year war, Aristophanes (Peace 987–90) refers to the war that ended in 421 as a thirteen-year war, while Andocides (3.3) and, later, Aeschines comment that the peace of 447/6 lasted thirteen years. Thucydides specifically differs from this interpetation, distinguishing the affairs of Corcyra and Potidaea as the αἰτίαι and διαφοραί that preceded, and provided the major πρόφασις for, the war (1.146).