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περιβαλοῦσαι. Cf, Hdt. vi. 44, ἐκ δὲ Ἀκάνθου ὁρμεόμενοι τὸν Ἄθων περιέβαλλον. Θορικοῦ . . . Πρασιῶν Thoricus and Prasiae are the two seaside towns nearest to Sunium after the cape is rounded. Thoricus, seven miles from Sunium, was a place of some importance. Ὠρωπόν which was now in the hands of the Boeotians, c. 60, § 1.
ἀξυγκροτήτοις lit. ‘not welded together,’ i.e. not trained to work together. Cf. Dem. 520, συγκροτεῖν καὶ διδάσκειν τὸν χορόν; Xen. Hell. vi. 2, 12, οὐ φαῦλον ἡγούμενος εἶναι ἐπὶ συγκεκροτημένας ναῦς εἰκῇ περιπλεῦσαι. ἀποκεκλῃμένης τῆς Ἀττικῆς ‘now that Attica was shut off from them,’ viz. through the occupation of Deceleia by the enemy. In vii. 27-28 the Athenians τῆς χώρας ἀπάσης ἐστέρηντο, and ἡ τῶν ἐπιτηδείων παρακομιδὴ is ἐκ τῆς Εὐβοίας. The city itself τῶν πάντων ἐπακτῶν ἐδεῖτο καὶ ἀντὶ τοῦ πόλις εἶναι φρούριον κατέστη. This will explain why Euboea was ‘all in all’ to them. Θυμοχάρη The same general proceeds to the Hellespont in Xen. Hell. i. 1, 1.
ἐν Εὐβοίᾳ οὔσαις. The reading of half a dozen good MSS., ἐς Εὔβοιαν οὔσαις is indefensible. εἶναι ἐς is not equivalent to παρεῖναι ἐς. In Hdt. i. 21, ἀπόστολος ἐς τὴν Μίλητον ἦν (which has been weakly quoted), the verbal adj. decides the construction (=ἀπεσταλμένος ἐς τὴν Μ. ἦν), and the same is the case with Hdt. v. 108, προσδόκιμον ἐς τὴν Κύπρον εἶναι. The reading ἐς Εὔβοιαν is either a mere slip due to the illusion that the words belonged to ἀφικομένων, or else οὔσαις is an error for e.g. (ἐλθ）ούσαις or (ἡκ）ούσαις. θαλάσσης μέτρον ‘the distance by which it is separated is about sixty stadia of sea.’ The intervening distance is measured over and consists of sea. Cf. ii. 86, διέχετον δὲ ἀπ᾽ ἀλλήλων σταδίους μάλιστα ἑπτὰ τῆς θαλάσσης.
ἐπωλεῖτο ‘was on sale.’ See on c. 90, § 5. πληρουμένων probably neuter. Cf. ἐσαγγελθέντων, i. 116. ‘The manning of the ships proceeding slowly.’ τῶν νεῶν could scarcely be supplied. ὅπως τύχοιεν optative by assimilation, regular in dependent clauses. Goodwin, M. and T., § 563.
διὰ τοιαύτης δὴ παρασκευῆς ‘after only this amount of preparation.’ ὑπὲρ τοῦ λιμένος ‘in front of the harbour.’ ὑπὲρ implying that they moved out, and, in the Greek idea, up, only so far. Cf. i. 112, πλεύσαντες ὑπὲρ Σαλαμῖνος . . . ἐναυμάχησαν; i. 137, ἀποσαλεύσας ὑπὲρ τοῦ στρατοπέδου. Putting out to sea is to go upwards, ἀνάγεσθαι, μετέωρος γίγνεσθαι )( κατάγεσθαι.
οἱ δὲ . . . περιγίγνονται κ.τ.λ. ‘others get into the fortification in Eretria which the Athenians held in their own hands, and so escape, as do all the ships which reach Chalcis.’ περιγίγνονται thus has οἱ for subject, and is regularly' constructed. Editors generally prefer to read οἳ δὲ, understanding καταφεύγουσι from the previous sentence. Χαλκίδα some fifteen miles farther up the channel.
Εὔβοιάν τε ἀποστήσαντες . . . καὶ τἆλλα . . . καθίσταντο. For the anacoluthon of τε with participle answered by καὶ with finite verb (as if ἀπέστησαν had been written) see c. 81, § 1, αἰεί τε . . . ἐχόμενος . . . καὶ τέλος ἔπεισε. Cl. and P-S suppose a lacuna of e.g. ἔσχον after ἀποστήσαντες. πλὴν Ὠρεοῦ in the extreme north of the island, formerly called Histiaea (vii. 57). 2000 Athenian cleruchs had been settled in the place by Pericles after the Euboean revolt of B.C. 445 (i. 114). Hence αὐτοὶ εἶχον.
Commentary on Thucydides Book 8. T.G. Tucker. London. MacMillan & Company. 1892.
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