previous next
126. 12. ἐπρεσβεύοντο—following, as it turned out, the advice of Archidamus; see c. 82. He was afterwards blamed for not having been eager to begin the war.

18. τὸ ἄγος τῆς θεοῦ—i.e. those who were under the curse of Athena. The chief authorities for the story of Cylon and the Alcmaeonidae are, besides Thuc, Hdt. 5.71 (Thuc. differs from him, and is perhaps correcting his account), Plut. Sol. 12. The Ath. Pol. mit. shows that the attempt of Cylon preceded the legislation of Draco. ἄγος is a pollution under which a person, a house, or a community labours.

[3] 20. Κύλων ἦν—two scholia show that the following narrative was admired in antiquity for its clearness and smoothness; one says ‘The Lion laughed here.’

Ὀλυμπιονίκης—in 640 B.C. (see Sandys on Ath. Pol. init.).

21. τῶν πάλαι—part., ‘of his date’ (not, ‘of an ancient family’).

23. κατ᾽ ἐκεῖνον τὸν χρόνον—his expulsion is supposed to have occuried in 600 or 590 B.C.

[4] 24. χρωμένῳ—cf. c. 123. 1. Both act. and mid. are rare in Attic, the act sense being given by ἀναιρῶ or μαντεύομαι, the mid. by ἐπερωτῶ.

[5] 1. ἐπῆλθεν—the reading ἐπῆλθον has not enough MS. support to be acceptable; but in 5.49 all MSS. give Καρνει_α ετύγχανον ὄντα. In two other places in Thuc. all MSS. give plur. with neut. plur. subj.—5.26 ἁμαρτήματα εγένοντο; 6.62 ἐγένοντο ... εἴκοσι καὶ ἑκατὸν τάλαντα. In Xen. the plur. is common.

4. τι προσήκεινhad some connexion.

7. ἔτι κατενόησε ... ἐδήλουhad not gone on to consider ... gave no information.

[6] 8. Διάσιαfor the Athenians too have (their festival of Zeus) the Diasia, which is called the greatest festival of Zeus Meilichius, in contrast with other festivals of Zeus Meilichius. Of course καί before Ἀθηναίοις does not imply that the Pel. had Diasia, but Διάσια is a brachylogy for ἑορτὴ Διὸς Διάσια.

10. πανδημεί—by the whole people together, not in separate demes.

πολλὰ οὐχ ἱερεῖα, ἀλλ᾽ < ἁγνὰ > θ. .—Pollux 1.26 (2nd cent. A.D.) says ‘spices are also ealled “incense”: Thuc. calls them ἁγνὰ θύματα in contrast with τὰ αἱμάσσοντα καὶ σφαττόμενα,’ i.e. with ίερεῖα. Hence ἁγνά is to be read here. The Schol. says ‘cakes made in the shape of animals’ are meant. πολλοί of the MSS. will not do, because it is inconsistent with πανδημεί. (πολλοί without δέ could not=but many, as the Schol. suggests; and the Schol. eannot have read here πανδημεὶ ἑορτάζουσι, θύουσι δὲ πολλοί, which Stahl prints, since those are the very words of his note, and he would merely have copied out the text verbatim. Lastly θύματα ἐπιχώρια, meaning cakes or ‘incense,’ is not inconsistent with Xen. Anab. vii. 8, where we read that Xen. had sacrificed holocausts to Zeus Meilichius when at home: this cannot refer to the Diasia, but must mean another feast of Zeus Meilichius.)

[7] 14. αὐτούς—Cylon and his supporters, who had seized the acropolis.

προσκαθεζόμενοι—this form serves for the aor. as well as pres.

[8] 15. ἐγγιγνομένουbeing spent over the matter. Cf. χρόνος ἐνέσται p. 61 l. 17.

17. τοῖς ἐννέα ἄρχουσι—Megacles the Alcmaeonid was one of them.

18. αὐτοκράτορσι—without reference to the assembly.

19. ἄριστα—adj., sc. εἶναι, like ἄμεινόν ἐστι, for this is merely plur. for sing.

τότε δέ—the ten στρατηγοί did not as yet exist, and the archons were appointed (not elected by lot) by the Areopagus. In the time of Thuc. their duties were almost entirely judicial.

[10] 26. τὸν βωμόν of Athena

[11] 1. ἀναστήσαντες=ἀναστῆναι πείσαντες, and on this depends ἐφ᾽ , for which cf. c. 103. 1.

τῶν Ἀθηναίων—partitive: see c. 9. 2.

5. ἐπὶ τῶν σεμνῶν θ. τοῖς βωμοῖςat the altars of the Eumenides, probably the most sacred asylum at Athens. The shrine stood by the cleft in the NE. side of the Areopagus, where the Furies were established, after being reconciled to Athena. τοῖς βωμοῖς is however probably spurious; the order is suspicious (cf. 5.50 ἐπὶ τὸν βωμὸν τοῦ Διός), and cf. Arist. Knights 1311 καθῆσθαί μοι δοκεῖ εἰς τὸ Θης εῖον πλεούσαις 'πὶ τῶν σεμνῶν θεῶν, and Thesm. 224 (θέωἐς τὸ τῶν σεμνῶν θεῶν.

6. ἐν τῇ παρόδῳ with καθεζομένους, on the way, while passing from the altar of Athena. It was because they feared they were to be killed that they sought asylum a second time.

7. ἐναγεῖς καὶ ἀλιτήριοι τῆς θεοῦ—cf. Arist. Eq. 445 ἐκ τῶν ἀλιτηρίων σέ φημι γεγονέναι τῆς θεοῦ (Cleon to the Sausage-man). άλιτήριοι were thought dangerous people to live with (cf. Neil ad l.c.), and so the Alcmaeonidae were all banished, and at first for ever, Ath. Pol. i. But they returned, and in 508 a second expulsion took place at the instigation of the opponents of Cleisthenes the Alcmaeonid, who were supported by Cleomenes.

[12] 12. στασιαζόντων—the party opposed to Cleisthenes and led by Isagoras. Cleisthenes was almost immediately recalled.

13. τὰ ὀστᾶ ἀνελόντες—so Ath. Pol. i. ἐκ τῶν τάφων ἐξεβλήθησαν, but the incident is there connected with the first expulsion.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide References (11 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (11):
    • Herodotus, Histories, 5.71
    • Thucydides, Histories, 1.103.1
    • Thucydides, Histories, 1.123.1
    • Thucydides, Histories, 1.82
    • Thucydides, Histories, 1.9.2
    • Thucydides, Histories, 5.26
    • Thucydides, Histories, 5.49
    • Thucydides, Histories, 5.50
    • Thucydides, Histories, 6.62
    • Xenophon, Anabasis, 7.8
    • Plutarch, Solon, 12
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: