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

---

---

τοῖς δὲ ναύταις—Sailors, I urge, nay more, I entreat you, not to be in any way too overcome by your misfortunes; you have now better arrangements above, and a greater number of ships. Think, I beg you, how well worth preserving is the pleasant feeling that, being thought Athenians so long even if you are not so, by your knowledge of our language and your imitation of our institutions you were admired in Greece, and—as far as advantages go—had as great a share as we in our empire, while, in the matter of respect from onr subjects and immunity from wrong, you had much more than we. This § appears to start with the 3rd pers., which is changed for the 2nd in ἐθαυμάζεσθε (l. 18); but the Gk. orators habitually mingle statements about people with direct address to them in this way.

τῷδε—i.e. ἐν τῷ περαινεῖν.

τὴν ἡδονὴν—the pleasure which he describes in the rel. clause following.

οἳ—the antecedent, ὑμῖν, is omitted. The sentence ἀξία ἐστὶν ἡ ἡδονὴ διασώσασθαι οἳ . . . ἐθαυμάζεσθε is constructed like τὸ δ᾽ εὐτυχές, οἳ ἂν . . . λάχωσιν in II. 44.1.

Ἀθηναῖοι νομιζόμενοι — he means the ξένοι and μέτοικοι serving as ναῦται; at the same time he lays stress on the influence of the Athenian ὄχλος ναυτικός. So in [Xen.] Ath. Pol. 2 οἱ κυβερνῆται καὶ οἱ κελευσταὶ καὶ . . . οἱ πρῳρᾶται καὶ οἱ ναυπηγοί, οὗτοί εἰσιν οἱ τὴν δύναμιν περιτιθέντες τῇ πόλει πολὺ μᾶλλον ἢ οἱ ὁπλῖται καὶ οἱ γενναῖοι καὶ οἱ χρηστοί. There was promotion from the lowest position as a rower to the highest as κυβερνήτης. There would be few true-born Athenians amongst the ναῦται now owing to the disasters in Sicily. Prob. many θῆτες, who ordinarily served as sailois, were employed as hoplites. 18,

τῇ ἐπιστήμῃ—causal with θαυμάζω, as IV. 85.3, with φοβοῦμαι II. 89.6.

τῶν τρόπων—the private habits as contrasted with the πολιτεία, the public institutions, of Athens. The A. prided themselves both on their πολιτεία and on their τρόποι.

ἐθαυμάζεσθε κατὰ τὴν Ἑλλάδα—Thuc., owing to his own exile and his travels, would have good reason to know the fact and to appreciate the value of the ἡδονή.

ἔς τε τὸ φοβερὸν τοι_ς ὑπηκόοις—some of the μετοικοι whom N. is supposed to be addressing must have been by origin υπήκοοι, so that Thuc. prob. means that those of them who had served in the A. fleet were regarded with awe in their own cities. φοβερὸν=‘causing fear’; cf. on c. 42.3.

πολὺ πλεῖον—chiasmns with οὐκ ἔλασσον. This passage, besides containing an exaggeration (see crit. note), seems rather lacking both in taste and in tact, even when we remember that most of the doubtful supporters of A. had deserted. But it must be remembered that none of the speeches in Thuc., and least of all the military harangues, could possibly have been delivered. Sce Appendix I.