ABSTRACT
Politically, the relations of Athens with the Western Greeks can be traced as far back as the middle of the fifth century. The commercial relations of Athens with the West dated from early in the sixth century; the black-figured Attic vases found their way to Etruria before 550. We suggest that when Thucydides says 'the Athenians', he means the Athenians and not Pericles, because 'the Athenians' had a policy of their own, which Pericles adopted only when his hand was foreed. So long as Pericles is on the scene there is complete silence about his colonial policy in the West, complete silence about political relations with Sicilian and Italian states. But these current assumptions will not account for the fact that Thucydides completely effaces the action of Pericles in regard both to the Megarian decrees and to the Corcyrean alliance.
