E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 7

διὰ φρυγανισμὸν—cf. lignatum, pabulatum, aquatum ire.

ἀπολλυμένων . . . αὐτομολοῦσι—anaioluthon, the partic. being exchanged for a finite verb, as in II. 47.3 λεγόμενον μὲν . . . οὐ μέντοι ἐμνημονεύετο. (Anacoluthon is common in Thuc, but many falsely explain the solecisms that appear in the vulgate as anacolutha.）

ἐς ἀντίπαλα καθεστήκαμεν—in II. 89 ἀντίπαλος is contrasted with ὑποδεέστερος. As long as the fleet was intact, the attendants had felt the superiority of the Athenian force: but now the two sides were to contend on equal terms.

ὑπὸ . . . μισθοῦ . . . ἐπαρθέντες—the verbs which in prose commonly have ὑπὸ with things are such as νικῶμαι, βλάπτομαι, διαφθείρομαι, ἀναγκάζομαι, ἡττῶμαι, πείθομαι. Lysias also uses ἐπαίρομαι with ὑπό. The thing so used must be such as can easily be personified, e.g. (1) natural phenomena, χειμών, ἄπλοια, σεισμός, (2) external circumstances, κίνδυνος, συμφορά, πληγαί, δεσμοί, κέρδος, χρήματα, νόμος, (3) emotions, ἡδονή, φθόνος, (4) words that imply a person, λόγοι, πράγματα, δύναμις, when the person is often inserted (as ὑπὸ τῆς τοῦ ῥήτορος δεινότητος), and all the topics of rhetorie, as ὑπὸ τῶν εἰκότων, ὑπὸ τοῦ δικαίου. The construction is optional in these cases; e.g. Isocr. 5.40 says τὰς πόλεις ὡμαλισμένας ὑπὸ τῶν συμφορῶν, but 6, 65 ὡμαλισμένοι ταῖς συμφοραῖς.

παρὰ γνώμην—(1) here ‘unexpectedly’; (2) may mean also ‘unreasonably.’

ἐπ᾽ αὐτομολίας προφάσει—taking the opportunity afforded by desertion is probably the meaning, as perhaps in Dem. 16.25 ἐπὶ τῇ προφάσει τῇ Πλαταιῶν καὶ Θεσπιῶν τὰς οὔσας πόλεις ἀναιρεθείσας περυδεῖν. Elsewhere ἑπὶ προφάσει means on pretext. Some, he says, desert to the enemy; others simply go away. (Classen says ‘on any opportunity of deserting’; but πρόφασις certainly does not mean an opportunity of doing something, but an opportunity which is afforded by something.)

ὡς ἕκαστοι δύνανται—as they find a chance, i.e. without joining the enemy. Hence he adds πολλὴ ἡ Σικελία. Cf. II. 17.3 ὡς ἕκαστός που ἐδύνατο.

πολλὴ δ᾽ ἡ Σικελία—the remark has more point than appears at first sight; for there must have been many in the Ecclesia who still had a very vague notion of the size of Sicily.

Ὑκκαρικὰ—Hyccara (now Carini) was a Sicanian town between Phoenician Panormus and Elymian Segesta. The Athenians captured it shortly after arriving in Sicily. Lais, who became one of the most famous and most exacting of the Beauties of antiquity, was captured there and sent to Corinth. A pathetic episode in the life of Aleibiades is his love for Timandra, mother of Lais.

ἀντεμβιβάσαι ὑπὲρ σφῶν—cf. Herod. III. 14 ὑπὲρ ἀνδρὸς ἑκάστου δέκα ἀνταπόλλυσθαι.

τὴν ἀκρίβειαν τοῦ ναυτικοῦ—cf. Arrian.Anab. I. 2, 7 τὴν ἀ. τῆς διώξεως ἀφείλοντο.