Charles F. Smith, Commentary on Thucydides Book 6

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The Athenians, too, are aware of this. But ambitious men from here wish, by exciting fear of dangers from without, to help themselves into power; these I oppose with word and deed.— 1. ταῦτα: with γιγνώσκοντες.

τὰ σφέτερα αὐτῶν...σῴζουσι : cf. 36. 15 ἀγαπᾶν οἴομαι αὐτοὺς ὅτι οὐχ ἡμεῖς ἐπ᾽ ἐκείνους ἐρχόμεθα. The pres. is conative.—εὖ οἶδ᾽ ὅτι: as 34. 43.—ἐνθένδε ἄνδρες: see on 10. 5.

οὔτε ὄντα οὔτε ἂν γενόμενα: = ἃ οὔτε ἔστιν οὔτε ἂν γένοιτο.

λογοποιοῦσιν : cf. Theophr. Char. 8 ἡ λογοποιία ἐστὶ σύνθεσις ψευδῶν λόγων καὶ πράξεων.

ἦτοι...γε...ἤ : see on 34. 10.— λόγοις...ἔργοις : instrumental dats, with καταπλήξαντας.

βουλομένους : suppl. pte. with ἐπίσταμαι and limited by ἄρχειν.

καταπλήξαντας : cf. 36. 6 τὴν πόλιν ἐς ἔκπληξιν καθιστάναι. The ptc. belongs as means to ἄρχειν.

μέντοι : confirmatory, to be sure.— πολλὰ πειρῶντες καὶ κατορθώσωσιν: by repeated attempts they may finally succeed. καί (etiam) of purposed result.— 8. ἡμεῖς δὲ κακοί: sc. ἐσμέν, i.e. independent, not depending on μήποτε. The orator makes emphatic the reproach that the Syracusans do not know how to take timely precautions. For κακός with inf. (GMT. 763; Kr. Spr. 55, 3, 3), Kr. cites Hdt. 6. 108. 15 τιμωρέειν ἐοῦσι οὐ κακοῖσι, and Soph. O. R. 445 μανθάνειν ἐγὼ κακὸς σοῦ. For the like const. ἄριστοι ἀπατᾶσθαι, see on 3. 38. 21.—πρὶν...ὦμεν : see on 10. 18, 29. 7.

αἰσθόμενοι: sc. τὰς ἐπιβουλάς.

ἐπεξελθεῖν : sc. τοῖς ἐπιβουλεύουσιν, bring to account (the plotters). Cf. 3. 38. 5; 5. 89. 3.

τοιγάρτοι δἰ αὐτά : τοιγάρτοι (only here in Thuc.) referring to ἡμεῖς δὲ . . . ἐπεξελθεῖν, and δἰ αὐτά to the persistent plots against the state.—ἡ πόλις...ἡσυχάζει : cf. 36. 9 οἴπερ αἰεὶ τάδε κινοῦσι.

τυραννίδας δέ : i.e. of Gelon and Hiero (485-467 B.C.).—καὶ δυναστείας ἀδίκους: i.e. ὀλίγων ἀνδρῶν (cf. 3. 62. 11; 4. 78. 15), referring to the unquiet time following the expulsion of the tyrants. Cf. Diod. 11. 72 f., 76. With both nouns sc. ἀναιρεῖται in the sense of ὑπομένει, πάσχει.

ὧν: depends on τι (14).

περιιδεῖν γενέσθαι: for inf. after περιιδεῖν, see GMT. 903, 6.—ὑμᾶς τοὺς πολλούς: as Dem. 8. 1 (cf. τὸ ὑμέτερον πλῆθος l. 6); opp. to ὀλίγους in l. 19.—τοὺς δὲ τὰ τοιαῦτα μηχανωμένους κολάζων: either, as Cl. explains, democratic leaders ambitious for the tyranny, or, as Pp., a set of disturbers belonging to the oligarchs. See App.

μὴ μόνον: not οὐ because the ptc. belongs to the inf. clause (περιιδεῖν).

ὧν: gen. of the thing for which, with κολάζειν, as 2. 74. 16; so with προαμύνεσθαι l. 18 below, and ἀμύνασθαι 1. 96. 5. See on 4. 11. 17.

εἴπερ...τις προπείσεται : since indeed the man who is not first to guard will be first to suffer.

τοὺς δ᾽ αὖ ὀλίγους: opp. to ὑμᾶς μὲν τοὺς πολλούς (14). Cf. 2. 44. 16; 5. 14. 12, 68. 6; 8. 78. 10, 104. 7.—τὰ μὲν ἐλέγχων...διδάσκων : of these three means to be used against the aristocrats the two first are actual precautions: ἐλέγχειν, to convict them of guilt in dangerous plots, φυλάσσειν, to watch them in all their conduct. Only the third, διδάσκειν, is the orator's task, which is immediately carried out in what follows. Pp. wrongly finds the ἐλέγχειν in the conclusion of this chapter and in the next, the διδάσκειν in c. 40. καί before διδάσκων represents this teaching as not yet hopeless, and to this alone refers the foll. hope of success—δοκῶ ἄν μοι οὕτως (i.e. διδάσκων）ἀποτρέπειν τῆς κακουργίας. καὶ δῆτα, and now, ironical, a vivid transition to the διδάσκειν, while both ὃ πολλάκις ἐσκεψάμην (a question which I have often considered) and καί in τί καὶ βούλεσθε make the effort of these people appear entirely unjustified.

ὦ νεώτεροι: from this address it is clear that the majority of the ὀλίγοι, at least as described here by the orator, were younger men. Hermocrates indeed was no longer young, as he had represented Syracuse at the peace congress at Gela in 424 B.C. (4. 58 ff.); cf. also 72. § 2. In 39. 11 also the orator puts the δυνάμενοι by the side of the νέοι.

πότερον : we have in this and the foll. ἀλλὰ δή (25) the same form of refutation by means of questions as in 1. 80. 16, only that there the second question is introduced by simple ἀλλά.

ἤδη : already, i.e. before you have reached the required age for office.—ὁ δὲ νόμος...ἀτιμάζειν : Schol. λέγει περὶ τῶν νέων ὅτι εἴργονται τῆς ἀρχῆς διὰ νόμον οὐκ ἀτιμαζόμενοι, ἀλλὰ κωλυόμενοι διὰ τὴν ἡλικίαν.

ἐκ : with causal force, as not seldomin Thuc., esp. with pass. verb forms. Cf. 40. 16.—μᾶλλον ἤ: the comparison is only in form, the second member being practically denied. See on 1. 73. 11; 3. 37. 12.

μετὰ πολλῶν ἰσονομεῖσθαι: cf. Schol. ἰσότιμοι εἶναι μετὰ τῶν πολλῶν. He prob. had therefore in his text τῶν πολλῶν, which would answer very well to ὀλίγοι (19), and is adopted by Hude. ἰσονομεῖσθαι found elsewhere only in late writers.

τοὺς αὐτούς: i.e. the citizens of the same state. The democratic principle here expressed (δίκαιον . . . ἀξιοῦσθαι) is in direct opposition to the view of Alcibiades in 16. 16 οὐδέ γε ἄδικον ἐφ᾽ ἑαυτῷ μέγα φρονοῦντα μὴ ἴσον εἶναι.