Stasis in Corcyra: who was fighting there?

Abstract

In this paper, I am attempting to present a different perspective on a famous passage from Thucydides’ Peloponnesian War (Thuc. 3.69–3.85), on the so called stasis in Corcyra island. Many scholars have scrutinized that passage in order to define what the stasis was or to fit it into the historian’s work. My aim is to elucidate the concrete case in Corcyra, not the model of the stasis in general. In this article, I analyse the source to find the answers to the main question, that is, who really was fighting in Corcyra (looking beyond simple dichotomy, which is stressed by Thucydides). I elaborate on the origins of the conflict, the role of individuals, the chief and background groups engaged in the strife and the process of gradation of the stasis, where the neutral status is practically impossible. I am trying to interpret this case of stasis not only as a struggle between democrats with oligarchs, but (what is equally important) as a commixture of different people or bodies of people, who often, in fact, were merely random dwellers (not only citizens) of the island.

Keywords

• stasis
• civil war
• Corcyra
• Thucydides
• democrats
• oligarchs