E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 6

χρήμασι καὶ τοῖς σώμασιν—for the rather unusual art., cf. Demosth. 16, 12 καὶ χρήματ᾽ εἰσφέρειν καὶ τοῖς σώμασι κινδυνεύειν: 22, 55 εἰς χρήματα τὴν δίκην προσήκει λαμβάνειν. ὁ δὲ εἰς τὰ σώματα . . ἐποιήσατο τὰς τιμωρίας. Clas. thinks the art. is added to give prominence to the more important item.

ηὐξῆσθαι—the perf. infin. is rare after ὥστε, but it is here required to express a state in the present.

δίκαιον—sc. έστί. It is probably right to omit εἶναι after ἐνθάδε with C; for, apart from the awkwardness of construction, it is far more pointed to state dogmatically that justice (to ourselves) demands that we should use what we have recovered for ourselves, than to say that we should think it just to do so: and δίκαιόν (ἐστι) is in antithesis to χρήσιμόν (ἐστι) below.

ἐνθάδε—within the limits of our own empire.

ἀναλοῦν—old form of ἀναλίσκειν.

φυγάδων—an exaggeration: only the Leontines could be ealled φυγάδες. Cf. c. 6, 2.

τό τε ψεύσασθαι—‘whom it suits to lie plausibly,’ by promising help and advantage to those who would help them.

τῷ τοῦ π. κ—‘while others face danger, and they themselves provide nothing of their own but pretenees, either, if they succeed, to make no adequate return, or, if they fail at all, to involve their friends in disaster.’ χρήσιμον belongs to ξυναπολέσαι, and the sentiment that ‘there are states which it suits to involve their friends in their own failure’ is in aceordance with a maxim well known in ancient times that trouble is lighter when the burden is shared by many. It was at least recognised in the ease of individuals, and nothing is clearer than that Nicias here, as elsewhere—as he did apparently throughout his career—confuses the political attitude of states with the ethics of the individual. There is therefore nothing strange in χρήσιμον. Nor is there a zeugma in τῷ τοῦ πέλας κινδύνῳ: it belongs equally to κατορθώσαντας and to πταίσαντας —whether they succeed or fail, the danger to their friends is the same.