CHAPTER CXI
ὁπότε...ἀνοιχθεῖεν—this corresponds to
ὁπόταν ἀνοιχθῶσι with present tense; so ch. 32, 22,
ᾗ χωρήσειαν, τὸ σημεῖον— cf. ch. 42, 23.
ξυνέκειτο=pass. of
ξυντίθεσθαι, as in ch. 23, 4. Krüger quotes
Ar. Eccles. 6,
ὅρμα φλογὸς σημεῖα τὰ ξυγκείμενα.
ἐγγιγνομένου—so
i. 113,
χρόνου ἐγγενομένου. The gen. absolute is connected by
καί with a nom. participle, as in
i. 65: cf. ch. 29, 1, etc. The tenses are to be noticed; the imperfect participle giving the ‘side-view’ (Clyde) of what went on for some time, the aorists the ‘end-view’ of the concluded fact that ‘little by little they had got close up to the city’.
οἱ τῶν Τορωναίων κ.τ.λ.—we have a similar order in
i. 126,
οἱ τῶν Ἀθηναίων ἐπιτετραμμένοι τὴν φυλακήν: so
iii. 22 etc.
παρασκευάζοντες=
οἱ πράσσοντες ch. 110.
αὐτοῖς—usually taken as ‘by them’, sc.
τοῖς εἰσεληλυθόσι. From its position however it seems rather the ethical dative, ‘when they (the conspirators) saw the postern forced’, or ‘when they (the forlorn hope) had got the postern open’.
αἱ κατὰ τὴν ἀγοράν—from what follows we see that ‘the market-gate’ was on the land side, opposite the ‘postern’.
τοῦ μοχλοῦ—the wooden bar which went across the gates on the inside; it was secured by inserting a pin (
βάλανος): cf.
ii. 4; and comm. on Ar. Vesp. 200,
τὴν βάλανον ἔμβαλλε πάλιν ἐς τὸν μοχλόν.
περιαγαγόντες—outside the walls;
ἐσεκόμισαν—going with
κατὰ τὴν πυλίδα.
ἀνέσχον—so
iii. 22,
παρανῖσχον φρυκτούς. Classen reads
ἀνῖσχον in the present passage, but here the aorist gives the better sense, referring to lighting one particular beacon.
