previous next


Καὶ . καὶ—parataxis; cf. c. 46, 1.

προσδεχο- μένῳ ... γεγένηται—cf. c. 3, 2. M. T. 900.

τὰ τῆς ὀργῆς— ‘this outburst of wrath,’ as τὰ τῆς τύχης; see on c. 44, 2.

ξυνήγαγον—the aor. of momentary action, as continually in tragedy.

ὄπως—the subjun. is certainly to be preferred to the fut. indic. here, as this is a pure final clause. M. T. 364 (ὅπως is Thuc.'s favourite final particle, but is rare in other prose authors except Xen.).

εἴ τι—he does not doubt it, but softens the expression.


Πλείω—with ὠφελεῖν. This sentence contains a triple antithesis.

ὀρθουμένην .. σφαλλομένην—the state is personified.

καθ᾽ ἕκαστον—because it is when prosperity has engendered selfishness and oblivion of corporate life that states go to ruin.


Καλῶς φερόμενος—cf. v. 15, 2, 16, 1; φ. of the course that affairs take. This γνώμη is the premiss of the following enthymeme (see c. 11, 7) ‘It is well for the citizens that the state should prosper even if they have to sacrifice themselves: for the citizens must fall with the state, and when the state prospers, the citizens easily overcome their troubles. Therefore the citizens must sacrifice themselves for the state.’ Cf. 4 below.

τὸ καθ᾽ ἑαυτὸν—cf. c. 11, 3.

διαφθειρομένης—there is παρονομασία between this and φερόμενος, also between κακοτυχῶν and εὐτυχούσῃ. πολλῷ μᾶλλον —sc. ἐν κακοτυχούσῃ.


Ὁπότε—‘since,’ so that the verb to be supplied is ἐστί. Andoc 1, 7 and 89.

εἶς ἕκαστος—cf. VI. 41 εἶς τε ἕκαστος καὶ ξύμπασα πόλις; VIII. 89 ἠγωνίζετο εἶς ἔκαστος. μὴ—the sentence does not end regularly, the construction being carried on to suit the parenthesis νῦν . δρᾶτε. We expect καὶ μὴ ἀφίεσθαι. Cf. Plat. Phaedrus, 272 D παντάπασι γάρ, καὶ κατ᾽ ἀρχὰς εἴπομεν τοῦδε τοῦ λόγου, ὅτι οὐδὲν ἀληθείας μετέχειν δέοι τὸν μέλλοντα ῥητορικὸν ἔσεσθαι. ταῖς κατ᾽ οἶκον κ.τ.λ.—epexegesis of δρᾶτε. Cf. VI. 11 ὅπερ ... πεπόνθατε: διὰ τὸ περιγεγενῆσθαι ... Σικελίας ἐφίεσθε. Shil notes that Latin idiom expresses the epexegesis of facio by ut.

κατ᾽ οἶκον— cf. Aristoph. Lys. 261 ἃς ἐβόσκομεν κατ᾽ οἶκον, ‘at home.’ This phrase differs from κατὰ τὴν οἰκίαν = ‘about the house,’ Aristoph. Thesm. 402, and has a wider sense than κατ᾽ οἰκίαν, ‘in private,’ Aristoph. Vesp. 1180.

τοῦ κοινοῦ—objective gen. to σωτηρίας, but put first for the sake of the emphatic antithesis to κατ᾽ οἶκον. ὑμᾶς—he dexterously throws the charge back on them.

ξυνέγνωτε—the prep. here has an adverbial force. Cf. c. 64, 1.

δι᾽ αἰτίας ἔχειν—cf. c. 59, 2, and 11, 3 This idiom is rare in other Attic prose writers (not found in orators).


Καίτοι—there is no prothesis to this speech (see on c. 36, 4), the reason being that in c. 59. 3, and 65, 1 Thuc. explains the object which Pericles had in the Πίστις, and so had no need to insert it here.

ἐμοὶ—the analysis makes the πίστις begin here. But the Schol. who notes on these words παραγραφικὸν ἐν δεινότητι must have taken this to be part of the προοίμιον and thought that the πίστις began with c. 61. (I begin the πίστις here with Fr. Muller, against the Schol., Altinger and Leitschel, because the object of Pericles in the πίστις certainly was τῆς ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸν ὀργῆς παραλύειν τοὺς Ἀθηναίους, 65, 1. Τὸ παραγραφικὸν comes in the προοίμιον, but Thuc. may have meant the last part of 4 to represent this.)

τοιούτῳ— here follows another enthymeme: ‘You are unjustly angry with Pericles: for he is able, patriotic, honest and can tell you what is best for you; without all these qualities, a statesman is of little use. Therefore, as Pericles has them all, it is wrong to blame him.’

οὐδενὸς ἥσσων—this is all purely rhetorical, for no proof is offered of the premise, which might be disputed. This illustrates excellently Aristotle's remark that, whereas exact truth is the object of the syllogism, probability is the object of the enthymeme.

φιλόπολις—to us philanthropy and cosmopolitanism mean far more than citizenship and patriotism; but in antiquity the former were vague abstractions which interested none but philosophers, whereas the latter were realities for which every right-minded man was ready to sacrifice himself.

χρημάτων κρείσσων—cf. c. 65, 8. Probably Pericles already knew that Cleon was preparing to charge him with intercepting public money. Intr. p. lxxvi.


Ἐν ἴσῳ—cf. 53, 4.

καὶ—‘as’; so after ἴσος III. 14, 1; ὁμοῖος VI. 11, 1; VIII. 76, 4.

ἐνεθυμήθη—c. 40, 2.

οὐκ ἂν ὁμοίως—meiosis. Cf. for ὁμοίως, c. 44, 3.

οἰκείως—like an οἰκεῖος, ‘as a loyal citizen,’ who regards himself as much bound to the state as to his family.

τοῦδε—this I am speaking of, viz. patriotism.

ϝικώμενος— the reading adopted is far more likely than the MSS. genitive, as the partic. corresponds to γνοὺς and ἔχων. (The gender would be masc., cf. c. 47, 4. So Kr., but recent edd., except Cr., make it neut., with τοῦδε for subj., against which it may be urged (a) τόδε νικᾶται means ‘this view is rejected,’ unless τόδε is personified, in which case (b) we should expect χρήμασι also to be personified, and to become ὑπὸ τῶν χ.)

τούτου— i.e. χρημάτων, cf. τοῦδε above.

ἀπόδοιτο—there are readings πολοῖτο and ἀπόλοιτο in inferior MSS.


Καὶ μέσως—with μᾶλλον ἑτέρων. ‘If you thought that I had somewhat more of these qualifications than others.’ ‘Propria laus tantum abest ut sordeat in ore virorum vere magnorum ut liabeat etiam ingenuae magnificaeque simplicitatis plurimum.’ Doderlein. μᾶλλον ἑτέρωνμέσως εἶπε καὶ οὐ σφόδρα, διὰ τὸ φορτικόν. Schol.

αὐτὰ—cf. c. 1. γε —emphasizes τοῦ ἀδικεῖν: ‘you followed my advice because you thought me φιλόπολις, χρημάτων κρείσσων. Is it not then absurd to impute ἀδικία to me?’ He seems again to refer to the plots of Cleon.

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):
    • Aristophanes, Thesmophoriazusae, 402
    • Aristophanes, Wasps, 1180
    • Thucydides, Histories, 2.59
    • Thucydides, Histories, 2.61
    • Thucydides, Histories, 3.14
    • Thucydides, Histories, 5.15
    • Thucydides, Histories, 6.11
    • Thucydides, Histories, 6.41
    • Thucydides, Histories, 8.76
    • Thucydides, Histories, 8.89
    • Aristophanes, Lysistrata, 261
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: