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Demosthenes is forced to retreat and suffers heavy losses in his flight. On that account he avoids returning to Athens for some time. μέχρι: here and c. 10. 12 with the impf., so long as; iv. 4. 3, with aor. ind. of an historical, and i. 137. 13 with the aor. subjv. of a hypothetical, case. There are no other instances of the simple μέχρι as conj. in Thuc.; for μέχρι οὗ, however, see on c. 28. 15.— αὐτοῖς: on their side, dat. of interest in loose relation, as in l. 9; i. 6. 8; 48. 9. G. 1170; H. 771. Schol. ἀντὶ τοῦ οἱ τοξόται αὐτῶν. Reiske's proposed change in the order, καὶ αὐτοῖς . . . χρῆσθαι, is unnecessary.— 2. οἱ δέ: δέ in apod. as in ii. 46. 6; 65. 19. G. 1422; H. 1046, 1 c; Kühn. 533, 1. See on i. 11. 6; 37. 20.— τοξευόμενοι . . . ἀνεστέλλοντο: i.e. so long as they were exposed to the arrows of the archers they were driven back. ἀνεστέλλοντο, as in vi. 70. 15. —3. ἄνθρωποι ψιλοί: cf. c. 94. 21. The words are bracketed by v. H., as a gloss from l. 12 ἄνθρωποι ποδώκεις καὶ ψιλοί, on the ground that hoplites also could have been wounded with arrows, and that the archers were ψιλοί as well as the Aetolians. But hoplites, could, at any rate, protect themselves far better, and the τοξόται are not reckoned among the ψιλοί also in iv. 36. 3; 94. 4; v. 47. 39; viii. 71. 18.—4. οὗτοι: οἱ τοξόται.— 5. αὐτοί: the main body of the army, esp. the hoplites.— καὶ ἐπὶ πολύ: for quite a long time. καί, as in καὶ μάλα or καὶ πάνυ. Cf. i. 91. 3 καὶ σαφῶς, quite positively. Kr. Spr. 69, 32, 18. ἐπὶ πολύ, as c. 97. 18; i. 6. 12.— τῷ αὐτῷ πόνῳ: referring to the manner of fighting described in c. 97. § 3.— ξυνεχόμενοι: hard pressed, as in ii. 49. 24.—6. οἵ τε Αἰτωλοί: τε introducing third cause.— οὕτω δή: introducing the decisive moment, as in i. 131. 8; ii. 12. 16; 19. 3. Cf. τότε δή, i. 49. 30; 58. 9.—7. ἐσπίπτοντες . . . διεφθείροντο: cf. c. 112. 22.— χαράδρας: here, as in c. 25. 4; 107. 14; 112. 22, the deep beds of mountain streams, whether filled with water or not.—10. ἐτύγχανε τεθνηκώς: i.e. in the preceding battle. αὐτοῦ ἐν τῇ τροπῇ: see on αὐτοῦ ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ, c. 81. 15.— κατὰ πόδας αἱροῦντες: Schol. συντόμως. Cf. iv. 126. 38; v. 64. 8; viii. 17. 15.—12. πο- δώκεις: poetic word, found also in Plato Rep. 467 e; Xen. Mem. iii. 11. 8; de Eq. 3. 12.—14. ἐσφερομένους: falling into. Bk. proposed ἐκφερομένους, which Cobet (Mnem. N. S. viii. p. 144) approves as the proper expression for those who have lost their way. πᾶσα ἰδέα: see on c. 81. 22.— 16. τῷ στρατοπέδῳ: Reiske's emendation, for τῶν στρατοπέδων of all the Mss., restores the proper number (c. 97. 17) and case (c. 83. 2).—17. τὸν Οἰνεῶνα: cf. c. 95. 16. The masc., as τὸν Κρομμυῶνα in iv. 42. 22. See Göttling, p. 266. τοσοῦτοι μὲν . . . διεφθάρησαν: the removal of the colon before οὖτοι, as Haase suggested (Lucubr. p. 7), brings the two modifiers, of number and age, into a pred. relation to οὖτοι. “So many in number and all of the same age, these were the best men from the city of Athens that perished in this war.” ἡλικία ἡ αὐτή collective and pregnant in meaning = ἴσοι τὴν ἡλικίαν. Arn. prob. rightly infers from this remark, ‘that the epibatae on this occasion were not taken solely from the class of the Thetes, but that some young men of higher families had been induced to serve on this expedition.’ See on c. 16. 5. The emphasis laid by Thuc. upon the greatness of the Athenian loss makes strongly against the view of Swoboda (Thuk. Quellenstud. p. 50 ff.), approved by Köhler (Hermes xxvi. p. 46), that Thuc.'s account of the Aetolian campaign and its results is too favourable to Demosthenes.—21. βέλτιστοι δὴ ἄνδρες: since Thuc. gives no explanation of this high praise, it is left uncertain whether ἐν τῷ πολέμῳ τῷδε refers to the ten years', or to the twenty-seven years', war. Προκλῆς: cf. c. 91. 3.—24. ὑποσπόνδους ἀνελόμενοι: an acknowl edgment of defeat. In ii. 22. 15, the words ἀνείλοντο αὐτοὺς ἀσπόνδους show that the defeat was not decisive. See on i. 63. 17.—27. ὑπελείφθη: sc. until he returned to Athens with the booty from the Amphilochian campaign, c. 114. § 1.— τοῖς πεπραγμένοις . . . Ἀθηναίους: cf. c. 114. 7. For the causal dat., see on c. 97. 6.
Commentary on Thucydides Book 3 Edited on the basis of the Classen-Steup Edition. Charles F. Smith. Boston. Ginn & Company. 1894.
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