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

ὅσον—quantum. This seems more expressive than the Vatican ἐς ὅσον, quousque, which is generally adopted.

τῳ—the dat. with προλείπειν is unusual.

ῥώμη—spirit. It suggests high nervous tension—with which Athenians were rarely troubled—as in II. 43.6.

οὐκ ἄνευ ὀλίγων—Valla wrongly renders non sine multis obtestationibus, and all the edd. have mistaken the meaning. The wounded and weak did not stop until they were so utterly exhausted both in body and mind that they could utter only a few appeals and groans. So far from there being no sense in ὀλίγων, there is a terrible amount of sense in it, both as a description of the scene and as an indication of the temperament of Thuc as a man and as an artist.

ἐπιθεασμῶν—Cobet has shown that this is the true orthography, not ἐπιθειασμῶν. Hesych. ἐπιθεάζει: θεοὺς ἐπικαλεῖται.

ἀπολειπόμενοι—being parted from them ἐν τῇ ἀπολείψει τοῦ στρατοπέδου, Cf. on l. 27. The preference which most edd show for the Vat. ὑπολειπόμενοι is mexplicable.

ὥστε κ.τ.λ.—this gives the consequence of all the ἀλγεινὰ of l. 12, and thus carries us back to δεινὸν ἦν.

δάκρυσι—the dat. with πίμπλημι, instead of gen., is poetical.

ἀπορίᾳ—causal dat.

ἐκ πολεμίας—sc. ἀφορμωμένους. ἀφορμᾶσθαι shows that this sentence recalls ἐν τῇ ἀπολείψει τοῦ ς. It is interesting to notice that the whole passage from § 2 to § 4, though it contains statements of fact, happens to be arranged in the form of a rhetorical cnthymeme, and is therefore very characteristic of Thuc.

ἢ κατὰ δάκρυα—Herod. III. 14 μέζω κακὰ ἢ ὥστε ἀνακλαίειν. In giavissimo maerore ne lacrimis quidem locus. Haacke.

τῶν ἐν ἀφανεῖ—in such passages we have the best indication of the historian's own religious views as purely negative. In this matter he was in accord with Protagoras, and, as in other matters, with Euripides, at least until the poet's recantation in his old age. Cf. on c. 86.5.