CHAPTER LX
καίτοι—the next chapter begins in a similar way.
εἰ σωφρονοῦμεν—cf.
i. 40,
ὄστις μὴ τοῖς δεξαμένοις, εἰ σωφρονοῦσι, πόλεμον ποιήσει. Such expressions are elliptical, =‘as will be the case if, etc.’
ἡ ξύνοδος—‘our conference’; followed by a double construction,
οὐ περὶ..., ἀλλ᾽ εί: cf.
v. 88,
ἡ μέντοι ξύνοδος καὶ περὶ σωτηρίας ἤδε πάρεστι.
ἐπιβουλευομένην—pass. as in ch. 61, 7, though the active takes the dat. in the sense of plotting against.
τὴν ἀποχώρησιν ἐπεβούλευον,
iii. 109, means ‘made arrangements for the withdrawal’.
διαλλακτάς—‘peacemakers’: also in ch. 64, 21: Dem. de Symm. 189:
Eur. Phoen. 468.
ἀναγκαιοτέρους—‘more cogent’. The adj. being here used of a person has an active force=causing
ἀνάγκη: so
v. 105,
ὑπὸ φύσεως ἀναγκαίας, where
φύσις is as it were personified. When used of a thing=such as
ἀνάγκη compels:
i. 61,
ξυμμαχία ἀναγκαία: cf. note on ch. 32, 23.
τηροῦσι—‘are on the look-out for’: ch. 27, 11.
τὸ φύσει πολέμιον—‘are speciously ordering what is naturally hostile to them with a view to their own advantage’; i.e. are merely securing their own interests in dealing with those who are naturally enemies, though they may call them allies. According to this view
τὸ πολέμιον nearly equals
τοὺς πολεμίους: cf.
i. 76,
τὰς πόλεις ἐπὶ τὸ ὑμῖν ὠφέλιμον καταστησάμενοι:
vi. 85,
τἀνθάδε πρὸς τὸ λυσιτελοῦν καθίστασθαι: cf. ch. 76, 33.
Classen takes
τὸ φύσει πολέμιον to mean the hostile and ambitious designs which the Athenians concealed under pretence of alliance; but this does not agree with
καθίστασθαι, a word which implies political arrangements.
ἐπαγομένων—ch. 1, 4.
ἐπιστρατεύουσι—with acc.: so ch. 92, 32. Here it scarcely means attacking, but rather sending troops to. In this passage we have a rhetorical effect of sound produced by three consecutive compounds of
ἐπί.
τέλεσι τοῖς οἰκείοις—‘with our own revenues’:
vi. 16,
τοῖς ἰδίοις τέλεσι, ‘at one's own expense’.
τῆς ἀρχῆς—partitive gen. with
προκοπτόντων:
vii. 56,
τοῦ ναυτικοῦ μέγα μέρος προκόψαντες. προκόπτειν—lit. ‘to pioneer’:
Eur. Hip. 23,
τὰ πολλὰ δὲ πάλαι προκόψασα. The Siceliots by their quarrels are destroying their resources, and preparing the way for Athenian domination.
τετρυχωμένους—‘worn out’:
vii. 28,
τῷ πολέμῳ τετρυχωμένοι. The present
τρυχόω (=
τρύχω) is not found in classical Greek.
ποτέ—‘some day’: ch. 1, 9.
τάδε πάντα—‘all we see’, i.e. all Sicily.
πειράσασθαι—aor. after
εἰκός, as is common: see note on ch. 9, 22. Krüger remarks (on
ii. 5) that Thuc. differs from other writers in preferring the middle aor. form of
πειρῶμαι. We have
πειραθέντες in act. sense
ii. 5, and 33:
πειραθῇ,
vi. 92:
πειραθείς, pass.
vi. 54.
