T. G. Tucker, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 8

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γνόντες δὲ . . . τὰς ἐπὶ σφίσι ναῦς ἐπεχοίσας. . ἠμύναντο. This sentence has been variously taken: (1) γνόντες τὰς ἐπὶ σφίσι ναῦς ἐπεχούσας, ‘discovering that the ships opposed to them were pausing.’ To this, though it gives a good order and construction, it was naturally objected by Arnold that there was nothing to make this left Peloponnesian wing pause in its attack. The Pelop. centre is indeed partly disorganised, but it is victorious, and the left wing has its own battle to fight. (2) γνόντες is taken alone as = γνόντες τὸ γιγνόμενον (cf. γνοὺς, c. 12, § 1), while τὰς ναῦς depends on ἠμύναντο. For ἐπεχούσας in the sense of ‘opposition to’ Classen compares Hdt. vi. 49, δοκέοντας ἐπὶ σφίσι έπέχοντας τοὺς Αἰγινήτας κ.τ.λ. With ἐπὶ σφίσιν, ‘over against them,’ ἐπέχειν may stand in the senses of (1) ‘extending,’ cf. i. 48, ii. 77; (2) ‘attending,’ as in ἐπἑχειν τὸν νοῦν; (3) ‘bearing down,’ cf. Hdt. ix. 59, ἐπεῖχε ἐπὶ Λακεδαιμονίοις. The last is the meaning here. For the position of the attributive participle see c. 35, § 2; c. 36, § 1.

τῆς ἐπεξαγωγῆς Cf. c. 104, § 4, ἀντεπεξῆγον.

ὑπολαμβάνοντες πεπλανημένας ‘catching them up in their disorganised state.’ The scholiast has δεξάμενοι (reading ὑπολαβόντες), which gives an inferior sense. ‘Intercepted,’ Jowett. ὑπολαμβάνειν is used poetically and in Herodotus and Xenophon of sudden evils. Cf. Xen. Hell. iii. 5, 20, δυσχωρία ὑπελάμβανεν αὐτούς. In i. 68, iv. 28, ὑπολαβεῖν is to ‘catch up’ or seize suddenly or stealthily.

πεπλανημένας For the perfect of a state or condition cf. τεθορυβημένοι, c. 93, § 1