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

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τῷ τοιούτῳ εἴδει either (1) πολιτείας, cf. iii. 62, καίτοι σκέψασθε ἐν οἴῳ εἴδει ἑκάτεροι ἡμῶν τοῦτο ἔπραξαν and context; or (2) in a wider sense of εἶδος, ‘such a course,’ cf. c. 56, § 2, τρέπεται ἐπὶ τοιόνδε εἶδος and note. The scholiast explains by καταστάσει. The sense of τοιούτῳ is to be gathered from the latter part of the preceding chapter.

καὶ προεστῶτες i.e. who had most influence among that faction.

ὃς καὶ . . . διηνέχθη viz. cc. 48-51. ποτὲ cannot, of course, be sound with τότε. Editors therefore for the most part bracket ποτὲ (which is omitted by several MSS.) They do not, however, notice a greater difficulty in the tense of στρατηγήσας. The aorist should refer to an action past with reference to the time of the leading verb, i.e. the time indicated in στρατηγήσας should be previous to that intended in διηνέχθη. The present instance belongs to no class of exceptions. Greek would require either ὁ καὶ στρατηγήσας ἐν τῇ Σ. ποτὲ καὶ τῷ Ἀλ. (τότε) διενεχθείς, or ὃς καὶ στρατηγῶν . . . ποτὲ . . . διηνέχθη. The words στρατηγήσας . . . ποτὲ are probably an interpolation, in explanation of the brief Thucydidean ὃς καὶ τῷ Ἀλκιβιάδῃ τότε διηνέχθη. See also crit. note. ὃς καὶ=‘the same who . . .’

Ἀρίσταρχος Xen. (Hell. i. 7, 28), writing of B.C. 406, shows that, before that date, A. had been brought to trial for his share in these proceedings, and for the treachery mentioned inf. c. 98, § 1.

ἐν τοῖς μάλιστα κ.τ.λ. v. c. 89, § 2, on ἐν τοῖς πρώτοις. The order is ἐναντίος ἐν τοῖς μάλιστα καὶ ἐκ πλείστου, the words ἐν τοῖς belonging to both superlatives.

Πείσανδρος see cc. 49, 53.

Ἀντιφῶν see c. 68, § 1.

οἱ δυνατώτατοι Cf cc. 21 and 47, § 2, for the sense ‘most aristocratic,’ and c. 63, § 3, for the sense ‘most influential.’

πρότερόν τε )( πολλῷ τε μᾶλλον . . .

καὶ ἐπειδὴ is merely connective to ἐπεὶ. πρέσβεις τε . . . καὶ . . . ἐποιοῦντο belongs to the first part of the proceedings.

σφῶν with ἀπέστη.

πρέσβεις ἀπέστελλον see c. 71, § 3; c. 86, § 9.

τὴν ὁμολογίαν which they had been pressing for (c. 71, § 3). For the accus. with προὐθυμοῦντο cf. c. 1, § 1.

τὸ ἐν τῇ Ἠετιωνείᾳ The article is anticipatory. Cf. τὸ νησίδιον, c. 11, § 1.

τοὺς πολλοὺς ‘people generally,’ outside the 400, as the following καὶ σφῶν shows.

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τὰ αὐτοῦ at Athens.

ὅστις καὶ ὁπωσοῦν ἀνεκτός sc. ἐστι. καὶ emphasises ὁπωσοῦν. Lit. ‘in every way, i.e. whatever way was in any possible degree tolerable.’

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καὶ ναυσὶ καὶ πεζῷ δέξωνται. The dative is circumstantial, and is a noticeable instance of the possible extension of a case-use. καὶ ναυσὶ καὶ πεζῷ ἐλθεῖν would be normal; the substitution of δέξασθαι causes an extension which would hardly be allowed by a priori notions of syntax.

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χηλὴ ‘a mole,’ resembling a ‘claw.’ Cf. i. 63, παρῆλθε παρὰ τὴν χηλὴν διὰ τῆς θαλάσσης; vii. 53, etc. Two moles ran out from the north and south sides of the harbour, nearly meeting in the middle of the channel, and leaving a passage for only two or three triremes abreast. The harbour was thus made into what was called a κλῃστός λιμήν (vii. 38). Eetioneia was the northern mole. There was a natural promontory which was very helpful in forming the κλῇθρον, but the χηλή in question was a further projection from it and was of artificial work. Xen. Hell. ii. 3, 46, φανεροὶ ἐγένοντο ἐπὶ τῷ χώματι ἔρυμα τειχίζοντες, εἰς ὃ ἐβούλοντο τοὺς πολεμίους δεξάμενοι κ.τ.λ. Various late and mediaeval authorities (Harpocration, Suidas, etc.) call Eetioneia an ἄκρα, and the name may have belonged to a portion of the natural promontory as well as to the χῶμα, or the χηλή itself may be loosely spoken of as an ἄκρα.

ξὺν τῷ πρότερον κ.τ.λ. ‘with the help of,’ or ‘in connection with . . .’ The ‘landward’ wall is the main outer wall of the town of Peiraens, on the northern side of the harbour. It defended the port from an attack on the landward side.

ἐς αὐτὸ sc. τὸ τεῖχος, to be supplied from the sense.

τοῦ γε ἔσπλου Jowett says ‘a handful of men could protect at any rate the entrance to the harbour, if not the approach from the city.’ The force of γε may rather be ‘they had control of the (important point, viz. the) entrance of the harbour, if nothing else.’ γε thus implies that the control is satisfactory.

ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸν γὰρ κ.τ.λ. i.e. ‘for both the old landward wall and also the inner new one, which was being built inside against the sea, came to an end exactly at the fort (one of a pair), which was at the mouth of the harbour, the said harbour being narrow.’ The description is rather clumsy, probably because Thucydides was himself so well acquainted with the locality. Arnold has rightly explained that the πύργος was at the end of the χηλή; from this πύργος ran the mole to the natural promontory, whence the masonry continued inland as the outer wall of Peiraeus. The oligarchs built another wall inside the heads, at an angle to this, running from the same πύργος by the shore of the harbour. The object of the second wall was to prevent a landing upon Eetioneia from the harbour of Peiraeus itself. Having carried this wall sufficiently far, they carried a third side of the triangle across to the old landward wall (hence sup. ἐτειχίζετο ξὺν τῷ πρότερον κ.τ.λ.), and in doing so they cut off inside the triangle the στοά mentioned below. Thus they have a small triangular space walled in, containing the Eetioneia and the στοά, a space which is a castle (τεῖχος) easily defended by a handful of men.

τὸν ἕτερον because there was another on the opposite mole.

τειχιζόμενον For position of the attributive participle cf. c. 35, § 2; c. 36, § 1, etc.

πρὸς θάλασσαν. θάλασσαν is used rather than τὸν λιμένα for antithesis to πρὸς ἤπειρον. The new castle could be attacked by ‘land’ or by ‘sea.’

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διῳκοδόμησαν i.e. they cut it off from the town and enclosed it by a wall. Cf. iv. 69, ἀρξάμενοι δ᾽ ἀπὸ τοῦ τείχους ο εἶχον καὶ διοικοδομήσαντες τὸ πρὸς Μεγαρέας, and the uses of διασταυρόω, διατειχίζω.

στοάν generally, though wrongly, identified with the μακρὰ στοά of Paus. i. 1, 3, ἔνθα καθέστηκεν ἀγορὰ τοῖς ἐπὶ θαλάσσης, and the στοὰ ἀλφιτόπωλις of Ar. Eccl. 686, built by Pericles. Cf. Ar. Ach. 548, στοᾶς στεναχούσης σιτίων μετρουμένων.

διεθρόει Cf. διεβόων, c. 78.

τοῖς ξύμπασι (1) Taken by Haacke, P-S, etc., as meaning ‘no agreement for the whole Athenian people (though the Lacedaemonians were willing to make terms with the oligarchs).’ This must mean ‘no agreement which the whole body of the people would be likely to accept.’ But the envoys had not sought to obtain terms for any one but the oligarchy. οὐδὲν πράξαντες implies failure in their mission. (2) Bauer, Dukas, etc., take it as = ὅλως, omnino, joining it with the negative: ‘nothing at all.’ The separation from οὐδὲν is apparently too great for this, and the expression is hardly classical Greek. In Demosth. De Cor. 239 (39), τοῖς μὲν γὰρ ὅλοις οὐδὲν μέτριόν μοι δοκεῖτε ποιεῖν, the words are part of a spurious letter of Philip. τοῖς πᾶσιν of ii. 64, v. 28, vii. 50, stands on a different footing. A third rendering may be suggested, viz. ‘on the whole question’: lit. ‘having effected nothing leading to an agreement upon (for) the whole situation.’