CHAPTER LXXXI
προὐθυμήθησαν δέ—sc. that Brasidas should be sent; a clause parenthetically inserted and not affecting the construction:
προθυμέομαι takes an acc. of the object, as
v. 17,
προὐθυμήθη τὴν ξύμβασιν (so freq. neut.
τι, τοῦτο, etc.); but this constr. does not extend to persons. Arnold compares
vii. 86,
τοὺς ἄνδρας προὐθυμήθη...ὤστε ἀφεθῆναι, ‘he was anxious with regard to the men...that they should be set free’.
δοκοῦντα—‘held, accounted’, imperf. part.
δραστήριον—‘a man of energy and enterprise’:
ii. 63,
τὸ δραστήριον.
τό τε γάρ—corresponding to this
τε we have
ἔς τε, line 11, these particles connecting the two main divisions of the sentence.
ξνμβαίνειν τε βουλομένοις—‘this answers to
καὶ τοῦ πολέμου κ.τ.λ. When they wanted to come to terms they had places to offer in exchange, and as long as they continued the war it did not press so heavily upon Peloponnesus’ (Jowett).
ὅπερ ἐποίησαν—sc.
ξυνέβησαν ‘made peace’, in 421 (
v. 17). Krüger suggests
ἐπόθησαν, but
ὄπερ, ‘which in fact’, agrees better with the reading of the text.
ἀνταπόδοσιν καὶ ἀποδοχήν=exchange.
τὰ ἐκ Σικελίας—so
iii. 102.
μετὰ τὰ ἐκ τῆς Αἰτωλίας:
viii. 2,
τὴν ἐκ Σικελίας κακοπραγίαν: all these passages refer to a disastrous withdrawal.
ἀρετή—probably generosity and humanity, as in ch. 19, 15, rather than valour.
πρῶτος—to be taken with
ἐξελθών, as both rhythm and sense clearly show. Brasidas was ‘the first of a series of Lacedaemonian generals who, in accordance with a new policy, were regularly sent to the dependencies of Athens either that they might raise revolt or that they might govern a town already revolted (ch. 132, 21).
πρῶτος contrasts Brasidas not with Pausanias, Salaethus, etc. but with Astyochus, and the Harmosts, who were afterwards so notorious’ (Jowett). Classen takes
πρῶτος with
ἐγκατέλιπε, ‘he was the first who left behind him an assured hope’. But what were the grounds of the ‘assured hope’ if other generals had come before Brasidas and not proved equally good?
δόξας—‘having won the name, proved himself’.
ἐγκατἐλιπε—in the minds of the allies, or in the districts which he visited.
