Chapters 2 and 3 of this analysis study the role of war materials in selected sections of book one of the History. Chapter 3 discusses the war materials referenced in the speeches made at the Spartan Congress and in the Pentekontaetia. Overall, it argues that one goal of Thucydides' depiction of this prewar period was to show the size, character, and influence upon events of Athens' acme of wealth and war materials. The present chapter offers a detailed study of Thucydides' account of the conflict between Corcyra and Corinth.

Thucydides' story of this struggle constitutes not only a detailed presentation of the kind of naval conflict – that is, between coastal powers fighting over defenseless properties – he had introduced in the Archaeology, but also an introduction to the Greeks of this wealthiest period of Greek history. His characterization of the Modern Age is at first unexpected: throughout this initial episode of the History, Thucydides typifies the Corcyraeans and Corinthians as rich, angry, and incompetent. However, it becomes clear that their wealth and weapons support and even partially create these character traits, since they give the combatants the means to fulfill their passions quickly and impressively with warfare.

Thucydides' account of their warfare vividly depicts the wasteful fighting that results. His story of the intensifying passions and growing accumulation of weapons that lead to the murderous battle of Sybota once again confutes the glorification of an acme of war materials by displaying the reality of its deployment, and in this way, as well as in many others, introduces us to the world of the Peloponnesian War.