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THE WAR BETWEEN MILETUS AND SAMOS ΠΕΡΙ ΠΡΙΗΝΗΣ (THUC. 1.115.2; DIOD. SIC. 12.27.2; AND PLUT. PER. 25.1)*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 July 2016
Extract
Thucydides, Diodorus and Plutarch describe the outbreak of war between Miletus and Samos in 441/440 b.c.e., ostensibly over possession of their smaller neighbour Priene, in similar ways (Thuc. 1.115-17; Diod. Sic. 12.27-8; Plut. Per. 25-8). What began as a local conflict over land escalated when Miletus appealed to Athens as hegemon of the Delian League. The Athenians ordered arbitration to resolve the conflict, but the Samians, probably concerned that the Athenians would side with the Milesians (Diod. Sic. 12.27.1), refused, which in turn led to war between Samos and Athens. Eight months later a coup at Samos started another war. When the Samians finally surrendered, the Athenians forced them to repay the cost of the siege (IG I2.293; Thuc. 1.117.3) and collected hostages (Thuc. 1.117.3).
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Footnotes
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I am indebted to Ian Worthington and the anonymous CQ referee for their invaluable feedback.
References
1 V. Gorman, Miletos: The Ornament of Ionia (Ann Arbor, 2001), 236; A.M. Greaves, Miletos (New York, 2002), 133; Hornblower, S., ‘Thucydides, the Panionian festival, and the Ephesia (III 104)’, Historia 31 (1982), 241–5Google Scholar, at 245; D. Kagan, The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War (Ithaca, NY, 1989), 170; L. Rubinstein, ‘Ionia’, in M. Herman Hansen and T.H. Nielsen (edd.), An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis (Oxford, 2004), 1092.
2 All translations are my own, except where noted.
3 R. Warner (trans.), Thucydides (New York, 1954), 101.
4 R. Crawley (trans.), The Landmark Thucydides (New York, 1996), 63.
5 A.W. Gomme, A Historical Commentary on Thucydides 1 (Oxford, 1945), 349.
6 R. Meiggs, The Athenian Empire (Oxford, 1973), 428, however, dismisses the scholiast's statement as a mere guess.
7 Thucydides also uses περί plus the genitive when describing the conflicts over Epidamnus (1.34.2) and the border between Corinth and Megara (1.103.4). The former explicitly describes the cause of a conflict, with the Corcyrean ambassador describing attempts to submit the dispute over Epidamnus to arbitration. The latter example describes the cause of the war, but also locates the conflict between the two poleis and embeds the phrase within the description of the conflict (ὅτι αὐτοὺς Κορίνθιοι περὶ γῆς ὅρων πολέμῳ κατεῖχον).
8 Gomme (n. 5), 349.
9 P.A. Stadter, A Commentary on Plutarch's Pericles (Chapel Hill, NC, 1989), 243.
10 Meiggs (n. 6), 188–9, 428; P. Green, Diodorus Siculus, Books 11-12.37.1 (Austin, TX, 2006), 216; Demand, N., ‘The relocation of Priene reconsidered’, Phoenix 40 (1986), 35–44 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 36.
11 S. Hornblower, Commentary on Thucydides 1 (Oxford, 1991), 189.
12 G. Shipley, A History of Samos (Oxford, 1987), 113.
13 M.J. Metcalfe, ‘Reaffirming regional identity’ (Diss., University College London, 2005), 129-32.
14 See Meiggs (n. 6), 428.