CHAPTER LXI
καίτοι τῇ ἑαυτῶν—if we must call in allies, let it be when we gain by it: dat. after
ἐπικτωμένους ‘gaining in addition to’:
i. 144,
ἁρχὴν ἐπικτᾶσθαι.
τὰ ἑτοῖμα βλάπτοντας—‘spoiling what we have’: so
κτᾶσθαί τι is contrasted with
τὰ ἑτοῖμα βλάψαι.
i. 70. The compound
προσλαμβάνειν here means to take on yourselves: so
v. 111:
vi. 78,
προσλαβεῖν:
i. 144,
προστίθεσθαι. etc.
κατὰ πόλεις—‘while taking our several cities we are divided’;
κατά, distributive, one city takes one side, one the other: cf.
i. 15,
διέστησαν ἐς ξυμμαχίαν ἑκατἐρων, = took one side or the other.
παρεστάναι δέ—sc.
χρή. The subject is changed in point of grammar, though in sense it remains the same, = ‘none of us ought to think’: ch. 95, 4,
παραστῇ δὲ μηδενί: Dem. Olynth. iii. 28,
ταὐτὰ παρίσταταί μοι γιγνώσκειν.
οἱ μὲν Δωριῆς ἡμῶν—‘those of us who are Dorians’: ch. 126, 17,
τοῖς Μακεδοσιν αὐτῶν. τὸ δὲ Χαλκιδικόν—‘the Chalcidian element’,=
οί Χαλκιδῆς. τῇ Ἰάδι ξυγγενείᾳ—‘from their Ionian ties of blood’: so the Leontine allies appealed to Athens,
ὅτι Ἴωνες ἦσαν,
iii. 86; cf.
vi. 3.
οὐ γὰρ τοῖς ἔθνεσι—dat. with
δίχα πέφυκε, ‘in respect of its races’. The prominent position of the words however causes them to affect the whole sentence, and gives a sense equivalent to ‘it is not from a quarrel of races, etc.’
πέφυκε—sc.
ἡ Σικελία; so Poppo and Classen: cf.
Plat. Rep. 503 B,
διεσπασμένη φύεται (unless
διεσπασμένα should be read). Krüger and Donaldson take
ἔθνεσι as governed by
ὲπίασι and
ἔθνη as subject of
πέφυκε, ‘they do not invade our races because their origin is different, through hatred of one of them’.
ἐπίασι—like
ἐπιστρατεύονται, ch. 60, 13, conveys the idea of armed intervention rather than actual hostility.
παρακλήσει—‘appeal’, with subjective genitive of those by whom it was made. The verb
παρακαλεῖν is common in the sense of inviting allies and the like, but the subst. is not used elsewhere by Thuc. with this meaning: in
viii. 92 it means advice or exhortation.
αὐτοί—‘of themselves’, contrasting the eagerness of the Athenians with the backwardness of their so-called allies.
τὸ δίκαιον—what is justly due, meaning here the aid which they had covenanted to render.
τῆς ξυνθἠκης—either with
τὸ δίκαιον, ‘the due requirements of the covenant’, or with
μᾶλλον, ‘more than their covenant required’,=
μᾶλλον ἢ κατά. Note the concluding alliteration,
προθύμως παρέσχοντο.
καὶ τοὺς μέν—corresponds to
ὅσοι δέ, line 25.
πολλὴ ξυγγνώμη—‘is fully excusable’, with inf. clause: so
v. 83,
είκὸς καἰ ξυγγνώμη.
ἑτοιμοτέροις—‘still more ready’, than
τοῖς ἄρχειν βουλομένοις: cf. ch. 18, 4,
κυριωτεροι: so
iii. 63,
ἀξιώτεροι.
πέφυκε γάρ—for similar statements of the right of the strongest, cf.
i. 76:
v. 105. In the latter passage the Athenians say that they know that men always rule whatever they can, and they suppose that the deity does the same.
διὰ παντός—‘always’:
i. 38,
ἀφεστᾶσι διὰ παντός: so
v. 105.
ὄσοι—equivalent to
εἴ τινες and therefore followed by
μηδἐ τις=
εἴ τις ἤκει μὴ κ.τ.λ. αὐτά—‘all this’: cf. note on ch. 18, 7.
πρεσβύτατον—‘of highest importance’: more commonly in comparative, e.g.
Soph. O. T. 1365. Compare the Latin use of antiquior and antiquissimus.
εὖ θέσθαι—cf. note on ch. 17, 14.
αὐτου—sc.
τοῦ κοινῶς φοβεροῦ.
εὺπρεπῶς ἄδικοι—note the antithetical balance of two sets of three words with which the sentence concludes. Each member begins with an adverb compounded with
εὖ, εὐπρεπῶς ‘with fair outside’ corresponding to
εὐλόγως ‘with good actual reason’:
ἄδικοι ‘without justice’ corresponds to
ἄπρακτοι ‘without success’; while
ἐλθόντες finds its converse in
ἀπίασιν. This sentence is a good example of the emphatic usage of adverbs, which is characteristic of Thucydides.
