Speech of Hermocrates of Syracuse at Camarina (76-80)
We are come because we feared you might give heed to what the ambassadors will say. Not the restoration of Leontini, but the subjugation of the whole island is the object of the Athenians. They intend to proceed here just as at home, where the Hellenic cities, which accepted their leadership in the alliance concluded on the pretext of taking revenge on the Medes, have one after another been enslaved on trumped-up charges.
οὐ τὴν παροῦσαν δύναμιν τῶν Ἀθηναίων...ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον τοὺς...λόγους (3): objs. of
δείσαντες so construed that the former recurs as obj. (
αὐτήν) of
μὴ καταπλαγῆτε, while from the latter (
τοὺς λόγους) a subj. is supplied for
μὴ ὑμᾶς πείσωσι. Thuc. freq. uses such proleptic consts. to make vivid important ideas. Cf. 77. 1, 88. 5.
μὴ αὐτὴν καταπλαγῆτε: for accus., cf.
ἡμᾶς . . . ἐκπεπληγμένοι εἶεν 11. 12.
τοὺς μέλλοντας ἀπ̓ αὐτῶν λόγους : sc.
λέγεσθαι,
the words that are going to be said on their part. See on 28. 1, 32. 16; 3. 36. 24. With
τοὺς μέλλοντας λόγους, cf.
τὰ μέλλοντα ἔργα 3. 38. 17; τὸν μέλλοντα πόλεμον 1. 36. 8; 8. 43. 11; ὁ ἀγὼν ὁ μέλλων 7. 61. 2.
πρίν τι καὶ ἡμῶν ἀκοῦσαι : put for emphasis before the
μή clause. See on 80. 17.
ἥκουσι γὰρ κτἑ.: stating what is pointed to in
πρίν τι καὶ ἡμῶν ἀκοῦσαι. For
γάρ, see on 33. 7.
προφάσει μὲν...διανοίᾳ δέ : cf. Hdt. 2. 100. 11
τῷ λόγῳ, νόῳ δέ. The dat.
προφάσει, as 5. 53. 2; elsewhere accus., 33. 8; 3. 111. 2; 5. 80. 17.—
ᾗ πυνθάνεσθε: se.
ἥκειν. In the second clause the rel. is construed as dir. obj. with
ὑπονοοῦμεν, as 7. 73. 1
ὑπονοήσας αὐτῶν τὴν διάνοιαν. On the matter, see 33. § 2.
Λεοντίνους κατοικίσαι: cf. 33. 9, 50. 17, 63. 14, 77. 6.—
κατοικίσαι...ἐξοικίσαι : paronomasia, freq. in Thuc., esp. in speeches. See on 72. 12; 1. 33. 26.
οὐ γὰρ δή: cf. 69. 6.—
τὰς ἐκεῖ πόλεις: as Aegina, Scione, Melos.
ἀναστάτους ποιεῖν: as 8. 24. 15.
Λεοντίνων Χαλκιδέων: cf. 3. § 3.—
κατὰ τὸ ξυγγενές: cf. 6. 4, 77. 6.—
κήδεσθαι: always of especially thoughtful care or sympathy, here ironical. See on 14. 2.— 10.
δουλωσαμένους ἔχειν: see on 39. 10; 1. 38. 15.
τῇ αὐτῇ ἰδέᾳ:
in the same way, as 3. 62. 4; 7. 81. 30. Cf.
τοῦτο τὸ εἶδος 77. 13. For Thuc.'s use of the word, see on 1. 109. 2.—
ἐκεῖνα: i.e. the Hel lenic cities in the east brought under their rule.
πειρῶνται: sc.
σχεῖν.
ἑκόντων : for the matter, cf. 1. 75. § 2, 95. § 1, 96. § 1.—
τῶν τε Ἰώνων καὶ ὅσοι...τιμωρίᾳ :
both of the Ionians (of Asia Minor)
and all who, descended from them, were members of the alliance concluded for revenge upon the Mede. The original members of the Delian Confederation that were not tribally related to the Athenians, as the Lesbians, are disregarded here, because the orator would draw a paralled between the present conduct of the Athenians in Sicily and their attainment to power in the east, and has before spoken of the Athenian pretext of interference on behalf of their kinsmen, the Leontines. For both these reasons, mention of allies not tribally related to the Athenians, which Kr. misses here, would be out of place, and would besides be in open contradiction of 82. § 3, where the Athenian speaker, with manifest reference to the present passage, says:
ἐς τὸ ἀκριβὲς εἰπεῖν οὐδὲ ἀδίκως καταστρεψάμενοι τούς τε Ἴωνας καὶ νησιώτας, οὓς ξυγγενεῖς φασιν ὄντας ἡμᾶς Συρακόσιοι δεδουλῶσθαι. ἦλθον γὰρ ἐπὶ τὴν μητρόπολιν ἐφ᾽ ἡμᾶς μετὰ τοῦ Μήδου. On the other hand, the mention of the Hellespontians in 77. 8 proves nothing for Kr.'s view, since most of the dwellers on the Hellespont and the Propontis were of Ionic descent, and so, in Hdt.'s phrase (1. 147. 7), were
ἀπ᾽ Ἀθηνέων; besides 77. § 1 need not refer merely to the time of the formation of the Delian Confederation. For the whole passage, esp. its importance for the history of the transition of the naval hegemony to Athens, its relation to 1. 89. § 2 and 1. 95. § 1, and its contradiction of Hdt. 9. 106—acc. to which, of the Ionians of Asia Minor only the Chians and Samians at the time of the formation of the Delian alliance had belonged to the great Hellenic confederation, which also is irreconcilable with Arist. Ath. Pol. 23—see Steup, Rh. Mus. XXV, 329 ff., and App. on 1. 89. 8.—
τῶν τε Ἰώνων καὶ ὅσοι: correlation of whole and part, as 16. 21, 69. 21, 88. 55; 1. 5. 18; 2. 69. 9; 3. 51. 7; 4. 5. 6.
ἀπὸ σφῶν ἦσαν: Schol.
ἄποικοι ἦσαν αὐτῶν. Cf. 1. 12. 13
Ἴωνας Ἀθηναῖοι καὶ νησιωτῶν τοὺς πολλοὺς ᾤκισαν. Cf. also 2. 15. 25; 7. 57. 19.—
ξύμμαχοι: here
members of an alliance; see on 1^{4}. 48. 11.—
ὡς ἐπὶ τοῦ Μήδου τιμωρίᾳ:
τιμωρία τινός,
vengeance on some one, as 7. 68. 4; 8. 82. 4; whereas in 3. 63. 3
ἐπὶ τῇ ἡμετέρᾳ τιμωρίᾳ must mean
for your protection against us. The meaning
vengeance here is supported by 1. 96. 4
πρόσχημα ἦν ἀμύνασθαι ὧν ἔπαθον δῃοῦντας τὴν βασιλέως χώραν, and the fact that in § 4 of the present chapter the reference is to events of 480 and 479 B.C. need not keep us from understanding the present passage in agreement with the parallel one in Book I.
τοὺς μὲν...τοὺς δὲ...τοῖς δ̓...ἐπενεγκόντες κατεστρέψαντο : for the matter, cf. 1. 98. § 4, 99. In the first two clauses we have the accus. depending on
κατεστρέψαντο, but in the third
τοῖς δ̓ by attraction to
ὡς ἑκάστοις τινὰ εἶχον αἰτίαν εὐπρεπῆ ἐπενεγκόντες, understanding
αὐτοῖς with
ἐπενεγκόντες in the first two clauses and
αὐτούς with the verb in the third clause. See on 77. 15.—
λιποστρατίαν: for the form, see on 1. 99. 3.
ἐπενεγκόντες: has obj. first in accus. (
λιποστρατίαν), then in inf. clause (
ἐπ᾽ ἀλλήλους στρατεύειν, referring to Samos and Miletus, 1. 115. § 2), and last in rel. cl. (
ὡς ἐκάστοις τινὰ εἶχον αἰτίαν εὐπρεπῆ, sc.
ἐπιφέρειν).
καὶ οὐ περὶ τῆς ἐλευθερίας ἄρα:
ἄρα gives a tone of bitter scorn to the conclusion that even in the preceding conflicts the question was never one of Hellenic
freedom.
οὔτε τῶν Ἑλλήνων οὔθ̓...τῆς ἑαυτῶν : for omission of art. (
τῆς) in the first member, cf. 83. 7, and see on 6. 27.—
τῷ Μήδῳ ἀντέστησαν: not to be understood, with Cl., of the continuance of the war till 449 B.C. The Hellenes here mentioned were at the time of the formation of the Delian Confederation no longer under Persian rule, and the liberation of Hellenes was also not the object of thatalliance. In the reply of Euphemus, too (83. § 2), the struggle for freedom is put in the earlier period.
περὶ δὲ οἱ μὲν σφίσιν...κακοξυνετωτέρου δέ : for analysis of the passage, see App. —
σφίσιν: =
σφίσιν αὐτοῖς. See on 4. 28. 27.
ἐπὶ δεσπότου μεταβολῇ: i.e. to change one master for another. Cf. 18. 39.
κακοξυνετωτέρου: (=
κακοφρονεστέρου) coined for the sake of the paronomasia.
