ABSTRACT
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.' 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 OL'tlaL and OLOCPOQOl that preceded, and provided the major 1tQocpomc; for, the war (1.146).
