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

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οἱ μὲν the Athenians in Samos.

οἱ δὲ the oligarchs at Athens.

ἀναγκάζοντες i.e. attempting to do so. Cf. c. 48, § 3, ξυνιστάντες.

ἐπόησαν see on ἐποίουν, c. 36, § 2. Not ‘held’ an assembly, but ‘got together.’

ἔπαυσαν sc. τῆς ἀρχῆς.

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ἐχόντων σφῶν. ἔχοντες (σφεῖς) would be the normal construction, i.e. subjective rather than circumstantial. But cf. ii. 83, ἐπειδὴ ἀντιπαραπλέοντας ἑώρων αὐτοὺς παρὰ γῆν σφῶν κομιζομένων; iii. 13, βοηθησάντων δὲ ὑμῶν . . . προσλήψεσθε; vii. 48, χρημάτων γὰρ ἀπορίᾳ αὐτοὺς ἐκτρυχώσειν ἄλλως τε καὶ . . . θαλασσοκρατούντων.

τάς τε ἄλλας κ.τ.λ. answered by καὶ δυνατώτεροι κ.τ λ., the sentence from πόλιν τε . . . to καὶ πρότερον being an cxplanatory parenthesis.

τὰ χρήματα i.e. τὸν φόρον. ὁμοίως . . . καὶ εἰ . . . κ.τ.λ., ‘in the same way as if they had their headquarters at Athens.’

παρ᾽ ἐλάχιστον δὴ ‘within exceedingly little of . . .’ For the phrase cf. c. 33, § 3.

ὅτε ἐπολέμησεν viz. in B.C. 440 (i. 115). For the comparative naval successes see i. 116, 117.

οὗπερ i.e. ἐξ οὗπερ, v. c. 73, § 1.

σφεῖς grammatically unnecessary, but added to emphasise the contrast.

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καὶ δι᾽ ἑαυτούς τε. For καὶ . . . τε sec Jowett's note on i. 9, and the remark on c. 68, § 2.

προκαθημένους Cf. Xen. Hell. v. 2, 4, τοῖς ἡμίσεσι τῶν στρατιωτῶν προκαθημένοις τῶν ταφρευόντων; Hdt. viii. 36, etc προ- expresses protection.

αὐτοὺς sc. τοὺς ἐν ταῖς Ἀθήναις. They (the speakers) had kept the Peloponnesians from blockading the port of Athens. καὶ with πρότερον. κρατεῖν is imperfect.

(οἳ) καὶ νῦν . . . καταστήσονται The MS. reading καὶ . . . καταστήσονται, with sudden change to the finite verb (as if ὅτι had preceded), is not tolerable in a passage where every other clause is put consistently in the infinitive. Dobree's καταστήσεσθαι is obvious, but would not have suffered this corruption. Classen's καταστῆναι (which seems meant for καθεστάναι) is open to the same objection. Haase, P-S and others suppose a lacuna, P-S giving καὶ νῦν ἔτι μᾶλλον, ἐπεὶ ἐς κ.τ.λ. Something less drastic is desirable, and correction must start with the considerations that (1) καταστήσονται is likely to be genuine, in which case the clause must be relative and introduced by some relative pronoun or adverb, which was accidentally lost for some not too recondite reason; (2) the genitive βουλομένων (sc. τῶν ἐν τῇ πόλει) makes it most probable that the subject of καταστήσονται is not ‘the party at Athens’ but either ‘those in Samos’ or else ‘the several parties.’ The likelihood that the subject is the speakers is increased by the clause ὥστε αὐτοὶ δυνατώτεροι εἶναι κ.τ.λ. [The scholiast says ἐν τούτῳ δυνάμεως αὐτοὶ καθεστᾶσιν, ὥστε κ.τ.λ., which would seem to imply a reading καθεστάναι, but which certainly shows his view as to the subject of the verb.] The easiest correction satisfying these conditions is to insert οἳ, which fell out accidentally after the -ΟΥ of ἔσπλου, and whose loss was facilitated by the apparent co-ordination of καὶ πρότερον . . . καὶ νῦν. Compare the total loss of οὐ after Χίου c. 101, § 1, and at the same time confusions like that of οἵπερ and οὗπερ inf. § 6. οἳ refers to the emphatic word in the previous clause, viz. ἑαυτούς.

καὶ δυνατώτεροι ‘that they would actually be better able’: i.e. not merely as well off, but even better.

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βραχύ τέ τι, τε introducing a new point.

ἀπολωλεκέναι sc. σφεῖς.

οἵ γε a brachylogy for οὐδὲν ἀπολωλεκέναι (ἀπολωλεκότες τούτους) γε, οἳ . . . When it is said that in such condensations the relative = ἐπεὶ ἐκεῖνοι, the strict analysis of the expression should not be lost sight of. Cf. ii. 44, χαλεπὸν οἶδα πείθειν ὄν, ὧν καὶ πολλάκις ἕξετε ὑπομνήματα; iv. 26, ἀθυμίαν τε πλείστην ὁ χρόνος παρεῖχε παρὰ λόγον ἐπιγιγνόμενος, οὓς ᾤοντο ἡμερῶν ὀλίγων ἐκπολιορκήσειν.

μήτε preferred to οὔτε because οἵ γε is descriptive.

ἀλλ᾽ αὐτοὶ . . . στρατιῶται a lax semi-parenthesis, constructed, however, as if it were part of the relative sentence, οἵ γε being treated as = ἐπεί γε.

οὗπερ ἕνεκα κ.τ.λ. either (1) ‘which is the reason why a state exercises control over camps,’ or (2) (as Grote) ‘which is the great superiority of a city over a camp.’ The former is the better in point of sense, while the latter would rather have required δι᾽ ὅπερ or ᾧπερ.

καὶ ἐν τούτοις ‘even in these matters,’ sc ἐν οἶς ἐβούλευον.

αὐτοὶ δὲ σῴζειν κ.τ.λ. ‘whereas they themselves were upholding them, and would endeavour to compel the oligarchs also to uphold them.’

ὥστε οὐδὲ τούτους . . . χείρους εἶναι lit. ‘so that these too, who could give good advice, were not worse among them (than at Athens).’ Jowett neatly renders ‘our advisers in the camp then are at least as good as theirs in the city.’ ἂν with βουλεύοιεν forms an apodosis.

ὥστε οὐδὲ Cf. v. 40, ὥστε οὐδὲ πρὸς Ἀθηναίους ἔτι σφίσιν εἶναι ξυμμαχίαν ποήσασθαι. See Shilleto, Appendix B to Dem. De Falsa Leg. οὐ in such sentences represents οὐ with indic. in the direct narration (here οὐκ εἰσὶ . . . )