Wandering Greeks (16 page)

Deportations during the Peloponnesian War

Several deportations are known to have taken place during the Peloponnesian War and no doubt many others occurred of which we have no report, since hostilities necessarily intensified the political divisions within individual
poleis
. On the positive side of the equation, wartime
deportees would have had little difficulty in putting their services to good use, so long as they were prepared to take up arms against their homeland, since virtually the entire Greek world was divided into two opposing factions.

Epidamnus
. The deportation of oligarchs from Epidamnus by their democratic opponents that occurred shortly before the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War is a classic demonstration of how a localized instance of
stasis
could spark a major conflagration. Thucydides writes (1.24.3–5; cf. D.S. 12.30.2–5):

As time went by Epidamnus became a powerful and populous city. Having, however, succumbed for a good number of years to
stasis
, allegedly as the result of war with the neighboring barbarians, the city became weakened and was deprived of much of its power. Immediately before the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, the
dêmos
drove the oligarchs into exile. The deportees joined forces with the barbarians and proceeded to harry those in the city by land and by sea.

Thucydides omits to tell us how the
dêmos
gained control of Epidamnus, other than to indicate that it was a consequence of the external pressures of war. Nor does he tell us what tactics the
dêmos
employed to expel their opponents, though it is a reasonable assumption that the latter must have feared for their lives. Quite possibly some took to their heels before any deportation order was given, whereas others did so only after the order was promulgated. That, of course, is assuming that an order was issued. It may be that the oligarchs voluntarily fled following a riot orchestrated by the most violent elements of the
dêmos
. It is worth noting that no historian has provided us with a detailed explanation of how any instance of
stasis
resulted in deportation.

Fearing the coalition of oligarchs and barbarians that now formed, the democrats sent ambassadors requesting help in resolving the conflict to Corcyra, which, jointly with Corinth, was Epidamnus's mother-city. The Corcyraeans were loath to become involved, however, so they consulted Delphi as to whether they should hand their city over to Corinth for protection. Having received Delphi's support for this plan,
they now sent an embassy to their other mother-city. The Corinthians agreed to assist and issued an announcement that “anyone who wished” should depart as an
oikêtôr
(settler) to Epidamnus to supplement the citizen body, which had been depleted by the removal of the oligarchs. They also dispatched some mercenaries to help defend the city against its enemies.

In the meantime, the oligarchs who had been driven into exile made an emotive appeal to the Corcyraeans for help, “pointing out the tombs of their ancestors” to emphasize their common ancestry. Their appeal also succeeded, and the Corcyraeans launched an attack on Epidamnus with the intention of restoring the oligarchs. Corinth then issued a second appeal for volunteer settlers to depart for Epidamnus, promising that they would enjoy political equality (1.24.6–27.1). The conflict between Corcyra and Corinth was a major contributor to the outbreak
of the Peloponnesian War, since Athens took the side of Corcyra, whereas Corinth was a member of the Peloponnesian League. We hear nothing further of the exiles, who, we are bound to note, have ceased to be of any interest to the historian.

Aegina
. Shortly after the outbreak of war the Athenians deported the Aeginetans, along with their wives and children, from their island “on the grounds that they were chiefly responsible for the conflict that had come upon them” (Thuc. 2.27.1). The Spartans permitted the Aeginetans to settle in Thyrea, a region between Laconia and the Argolid, “because the Aeginetans had always sided with Sparta” (4.56.2). The number of deportees who took up the Spartan offer was evidently sufficient to pose a threat to the Athenians, who seized Thyrea in 424 and slaughtered most of its inhabitants. They then deported the survivors to Athens and executed them. Aegina now became an Athenian
apoikia
, inhabited by Athenians. Meanwhile the Aeginetans who had declined the Spartan offer to settle in Thyrea and thus escaped the massacre were “scattered throughout the Greek world” (2.27.2). At the end of the war they were permitted to return home (Plu.
Lys
. 14.3).

Plataea
. It was the preemptive attack on Plataea, an ally of Athens, by the Thebans in 431 that directly prompted the outbreak of war. In 429 the Spartans and their Peloponnesian allies began besieging the city (Thuc. 2.71–78, 3.20–24, 3.52–68). About 212 Plataeans managed to break out and found refuge in Athens. The rest put up a spirited resistance, but eventually, weakened by hunger, were forced to surrender. Though they appealed to their captors for leniency, the Thebans accused them of war crimes, and the Spartan judges, after asking each of their prisoners in turn if they had done any service to Sparta, determined that all the men, numbering about 200, should be slaughtered and all the women, numbering about 110, should be sold into slavery. All other noncombatants, including slaves and the elderly, had previously been evacuated (Thuc. 2.78.3–4; 3.66 and 68.2; Dem. 59.103). For a year or so, the Spartans permitted some Megarian oligarchs and a few Plataeans who had supported their cause to inhabit the vacant site. In 426, however, they destroyed its walls and no doubt other parts of the
city. They used the salvaged wood to build a
katagôgeion
(hostel) for dignitaries visiting the adjoining sanctuary of Hera, the city's tutelary goddess (Thuc. 3.68.3).

In recognition of their long-standing alliance with the Plataeans, the Athenians granted citizenship to all those who had managed to escape (Dem. 59.103–4; Isoc. 12.94). Then, when they captured Scione in Chalcidice in 421, after they had slaughtered the men and enslaved the women—in other words, after they had meted out to the Scionians exactly the same punishment that the Peloponnesians had meted out to the Plataeans—they permitted the Plataeans residing in Athens to settle on the abandoned site (Thuc. 5.32.1). Many of them declined the offer and stayed put, however, evidently because they had become acculturated to Athens (Lys. 23.5–7). Incidentally, Plataea's walls were rebuilt in 386, this time with the help of the Spartans (Paus. 9.1.6), but they were again destroyed by the Thebans in 373 (Arr.
Anab
. 1.9.9–10).

Megara
. Some time after the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War a democratic coup in Megara led to the deportation of the oligarchs (Thuc. 4.66–74). Initially the oligarchs fled north to Plataea where, as we just saw, they were allowed to reside temporarily (3.68.3). When the Spartans destroyed it a year later, however, the oligarchs returned to the Megarid. They took possession of Pegae, a port on the Corinthian Gulf, from which they made raids into Megarian territory. Since the Athenians were also invading the Megarid twice a year to destroy the crops, conditions inside the city soon became dire. In fact they became so dire that the democratic faction started to wonder aloud whether to reinstate the deportees in order to eliminate at least one of their problems. Seizing the moment, a group whom Thucydides identified as “the friends of the exiles” sought to introduce a proposal permitting the oligarchs to return.

Alarmed at the prospect of their enemies returning, the democrats hastily entered into negotiations with the Athenians with the intention of betraying their city to them, since this was now seen as the lesser of two evils. Before the Athenians had time to respond, however, a Peloponnesian army appeared in the Megarid. The “friends of the exiles” now seized the initiative and handed over their city to the Pelopon-nesians,
whereupon the democratic faction fled to Athens. Those who remained permitted the deported oligarchs to return on condition that they would not exact revenge. Once reinstated, however, the oligarchs broke their oath and executed about a hundred democrats, along with the pro-Athenian democrats who had not managed to escape.

Leontini
. After the Congress of Gela (424), which brought about the departure of the Athenians from Sicily following a vote by the Sicilian Greeks to respect the autonomy of all the cities on the island, the
dunatoi
(powerful aristocrats) in Leontini, with the help of the Syracusans, deported their democratic opponents just as the latter were about to undertake land redistribution on behalf of newly enrolled citizens (Thuc. 5.4.2–4). Evidently unable to find refuge as a single group, the democrats dispersed “in various directions,” some to Euboea in mainland Greece. Even so, they maintained their collective identity over the years as Leontines in exile, in the hope that they would one day be repatriated.

Meanwhile the oligarchs had destroyed most of Leontini and migrated to Syracuse, where they received citizenship. After a while, however, they fell out with their hosts. So they returned to what was still standing of their old city and seized an outpost in a nearby region called Bricinniae. In 422 the Athenians sent a representative to Sicily, warning the islanders of Syracuse's imperialistic designs and urging them to join a coalition in order to “save the people of Leontini.” Realizing that the mission was fuelled by Athens's own imperialistic designs, however, the Sicilians declined. A curious irony lies in the fact that the oligarchs who had taken refuge in the ruins of Leontini were now joined by “most of the deported democrats.” For once attachment to
polis
seems to have trumped political affiliation.

We next hear of Leontini when the Athenians were debating whether to undertake the Sicilian Expedition in 415. Some of the
phugades
had allied themselves with a native Sicilian people called the Elymnians and were requesting that the Syracusans be punished for depopulating their city (Thuc. 6.6.2 and 19.1). The Athenians agreed, and made it one of their principal objectives to rebuild Leontini after their victory. Since the expedition failed, however, the city was not rebuilt until 405/4 by citizens of Gela and Camarina (D.S. 13.114.1; cf. Berger 1991, 137).