The First Revolution

Thucydides and Hell on Earth in Corcyra

“Death thus raged in every shape; and, as usually happens at such times, there was no length to which violence did not go…”*

In The Peloponnesian War, Thucydides describes a revolution that takes place in Corcyra and says “it was one of the first to occur.” From Corcyra, it quickly spread so that “the whole Hellenic world was convulsed.” Thucydides then goes on to recount the horrors of revolution.

Thucydides starts by stating the cause for revolution:

The cause of all these evils was the lust for power arising from greed and ambition.

From there, the people divide into factions, and what results are a series of atrocities familiar in recorded history. Here are some of the things that Thucydides recounts:

Definitions Change

Words had to change their ordinary meaning and to take that which was now given then.

This idea popped up in one of the Greek Tragedies.

Inaction

…ability to see all sides of a question incapacity to act on any.

Party Loyalty

…even blood became a weaker tie than party.

Institutions Abandoned

…for such associations [party] sought not the blessings derivable from established institutions but were formed by ambition to overthrow them.

No Religion

Thus religion was in honor with neither party.

Moderates Perish

Meanwhile the moderate part of the citizens perished between the two, either for not joining in the quarrel, or because envy would not suffer them to escape.

It’s interesting that this revolution became contagious around the Hellenic world. It spread like a plague to where:

“…every form of iniquity took root in the Hellenic countries by reason of the troubles. The ancient simplicity into which honor so largely entered was laughed down and disappeared; and society became divided into camps in which no man trusted his fellow.”

*All quotes from:

Thucydides. The Peloponnesian War. Translated by Richard Crawley, edited by Robert B. Strassler. New York: Free Press, 1998.