CHAPTER XCII
Speech of Pagondas. It is right as a general principle to attack an invader at once, wherever we encounter him.
μηδ᾽ ἐς ἐπίνοιαν—‘none of us ought even to have conceived the idea’;
τινὰ ἡμῶν is the subject of
ἐλθεῖν: cf.
iii. 46,
όπως μηδ᾽ ἐς ἐπίνοιαν τούτου ἴωσι. διὰ μάχης ἐλθεῖν—
ii. 11,
ἐλθεῖν ἡμῖν διὰ μάχης.
ἐνοικοδομησάμενοι—the Athenians had ‘built for themselves’ a stronghold in Boeotia: so
iii. 85: this is probably the meaning of
vi. 90,
τὰς δὲ (
τῶν πόλεων)
ἐντειχισάμενοι, ‘reducing some of the states by establishing strongholds in the country’.
ἐν ᾦ τε ἂν...ἔδρασαν—‘in whatever place they may have been caught and wherever they came from to attack us’. The latter clause might have been
ὅθεν ἂν ἐπέλθωσι ὤστε τὰ πολέμια δρᾶσαι, but the construction is changed to the indicative because
ἔδρασαν denotes definite acts of hostility undoubtedly committed. Cob.
ἐν ὅτῳ ἂν...ὄθεν, omitting
τε and
καί.
εἴ τῳ—see note on ch. 68, 34,
εἰ μή τις. As this clause is in opposition to the opening words
χρῆν μέν κ τ.λ., καί seems to emphasize
ἀσφαλέστερον ἔδοξε, not simply
ἀσφαλέστερον. ‘if any one did think it safer’.
ἀσφαλέστερον—sc.
τὸ μὴ διὰ μάχης ἐλθεῖν.
οὐ γὰρ τὸ προμηθές—‘for forethought, in the case of such as are invaded by foes, does not admit of calculation, when their own land is in danger, in the same way as when a man is in possession of his own but chooses to attack another from desire of more’. Prudence itself teaches men to repel an invader at once without reflection, though it may be prudent to reflect before invading another country.
τὸ προμηθές—prudence and forethought, in a good sense:
iii. 82,
μέλλησις προμηθής opposed to
τόλμα ἀλόγιστος. With
οἷς ἄν and
ὅστις are to be supplied
τούτοις, τούτῳ, eth. dat. ‘for, in the case of’.
περὶ τῆς σφετέρας—sc.
γῆς: the pron. refers to what is in sense the subject of the sentence, viz. those who have been invaded by others.
ἐνδέχεται λογισμόν—so ch. 10, 7.
καὶ ὅστις—with
ὀμοίως, ‘as in the case of one who’. The constr. passes to the indic. as in line 9: here too it may be meant to denote the actual conduct of the Athenians;
ὅστις, the rel. of a class, often referring to a definite antecedent as possessing the characteristics of that class. There is a similar change of construction in
ii. 44,
τὸ δὲ εὐτυχές, οἳ ἂν τῆς εὐπρεπεστάτης λάχωσι, καὶ οἷς...ξυνεμετρήθη: cf. ch. 18, 13.
Ἀθηναίους δέ—the speaker now passes to the particular need of repelling an Athenian invasion.
ἀμύνεσθαι is to be supplied with
δεῖ.
πρός τε γάρ—‘in the relations of neighbours freedom is always (
πᾶσι) ensured by a manful spirit of resistance’. The subject is
τὸ ἀντίπαλον, ‘being a match for’ one's adversary, i.e. being able and determined to resist him:
καὶ ἐλεύθερον is the predicate.
οἳ καὶ μή—Poppo, with Haack, seems right in taking
μή for
μὴ ὅτι, ‘ne dicam’; the sense required being ‘not only’, or ‘not to say only’: no other instance however is given of
μή thus standing alone. The restless and aggressive spirit of the Athenians is often spoken of; cf. ch. 55, 17.
ἐπὶ τὸ ἔσχατον ἀγῶνος—in illustration of this gen Classen cites
i. 49,
ἐς τοῦτο ἀνάγκης:
i. 118,
ἐπὶ μέγα δυνάμεως, etc.
παράδειγμα δέ—so
iii. 39, of a warning example,
παράδειγμα δ᾽ αὐτοῖς...ἐγένοντο κ.τ.λ.:
vi. 77,
ἔχοντες παραδείγματα τῶν Ἐλλήνων, ὠς ἐδουλώθησαν. ἀντιπέρας—‘across the water’, Euboea being right opposite the Boeotian coast, and in full view. The island was entirely subdued by Pericles in 445 (
i. 114).
ὡς αὐτοῖς διάκειται—‘in what relations it stands to them’, i.e. regards them with hostility, and is always in danger from their ambition. This rendering gives a more satisfactory sense than ‘how it is disposed towards them’, and does no violence to the meaning of
διάκειμαι, which denotes ‘being in a certain condition’, of mind, body, or circumstances. It has also been proposed to render the words ‘how it has been treated, to what condition it is reduced, by them’: or to take
διάκειται impersonally and
αὐτοῖς to refer to the Euboeans and Greeks, ‘how things stand as regards them’. In support of this last view Krüger cites
Xen. Anab. vii. 3. 17,
ἄμεινον ὐμῖν διακείσεται.
Other instances of
διάκειμαι in Thuc. are
vii. 77,
ὠς διάκειμαι ὑπὸ τῆς ϝόσου, ‘to what state I am reduced’:
i. 75,
τοῖς Ἕλλησιν ἐπιφθόνως διακεῖσθαι, ‘to be regarded with jealousy by’:
viii. 68,
ὐπόπτως τῷ πλήθει διακείμενος.
ἐς πᾶσαν—‘extending to and including our whole country’: the following are somewhat similar uses of
ἐς:
iii. 82,
ἐς τὸ ὴδονὴν ἔχον ὀρίζοντες, ‘making their pleasure the limit’;
v. 103,
ἐς ἄπαν τὸ ὑπάρχον ἀναρριπτοῦσι, ‘throwing the die so as to include their all in the risk’.
οὐκ ἀντίλεκτος—‘not to be gainsaid’; there will be no more boundary disputes.
ἑτέρων—i.e.
ἢ τὴν ἑτέρων: see Madvig, § 90.
παροίκησιν—elsewhere only found in the Septuagint, according to Lidd. and Scott.
παροικῶ occurs
i. 71, etc. The proverb
Ἀττικὸς πάροικος, of a restless and dangerous neighbour, is cited by
Ar. Rhet. ii. 21. 12.
εἰώθασί τε—a warlike spirit is the best security against aggression, and has always proved so.
ἰσχύος θράσει—
Soph. Phil. 104,
οὕτως ἔχει τι δεινὸν ἰσχύος θράσος: cf. ch. 86, 25,
ἰσχύος δικαιώσει. προαπαντῶντα—
i. 69,
πρότερον ἢ προαπαντῆσαι, in the same sense, of anticipating an invader.
κατέχειν—probably ‘to hold down’, i.e. oppress, overbear; as in
i. 103,
πολέμῳ κατεῖχον. Several editors give the meaning ‘to withstand’, sustinere; but the sense is not satisfactory, as a notion of aggression is required, nor is it plain that
κατέχω will bear this meaning. The present and imp. are by no means identical in use with the aorist; though the tenses are hopelessly mixed in dictionaries and commentaries.
αὐτοῦ—‘of this’; see note on ch. 18, 7,
ἐπάθομεν αὐτό. ἐς τούσδε—for instances of the use of
ἐς see note on ch. 28, 2.
ἐν Κορωνείᾳ—in 447 (
i. 113). The Athenians had been dominant in Boeotia for eight or nine years, but after the battle of Coronea they entirely evacuated the country (
ἐξέλιπον πᾶσαν), cf.
iii. 62 fin. For
ἐν=‘at’ see note on ch. 5, 5.
κατέσχον—‘over-ran’, or ‘got the mastery’:
vii. 66,
τῷ ναυτικῷ ᾧπερ πάντα κατέσχον.
ἡμᾶς—in apposition with this we have two clauses,
τούς τε...τούς τε.
ὁμοιωθῆναι—to come up to, not to degenerate from. Persons are here compared with things: in
i. 71 we have the opposite,
ἀρχαιότροπα ὐμῶν τὰ ἐπιτηδεύματα πρὸς αὐτούς ἐστιν.
τὰς προσηκούσας ἀρετάς—προσηκούσας denotes the virtues which are as it were the heirloom or belongings of the race or family: cf.
iii. 64,
ἅ ποτε χρηστοὶ ἐγένεσθε, οὐ προσήκοντα νῦν ἐπεδείξατε, ‘the good service you once did you now shew was not natural to you’, but due to accident: so iii. 67, referring to the
παλαιαὶ ἀρεταί of the Plataeans,
οὐκ ἐκ προσηκόντων ἁμαρτάνουσι, i.e. we have a right to expect different conduct: cf. Cope on
Ar. Rhet. i. 9. 31,
ὅσα κατὰ τὸ προσῆκον, οἶον εἰ ἄξια τῶν προγόνων καὶ τῶν προϋπηργμένων, ‘worthy of a man's ancestors and his own previous acquisitions or possessions—a stock of previous good, noble, great deeds’.
πρὸς ἡμῶν ἔσεσθαι—explanatory of
πιστεύσαντας τῷ θεῷ: for
πρός, ‘on our side’, cf.
ii. 86,
πρὸς ἐκείνων, ‘in their favour’.
νέμονται—‘occupy’: so
ἐνοικεῖν. ch. 97, 9.
θυσαμένοις...φαίνεται—the aor. participle denotes a sacrifice performed and complete, though possibly only just completed; the pres.
φαίνεται gives the still remaining result: we found, when we sacrificed, that the omens are in our favour. Sacrifices were always offered before a battle. The mid.
θύεσθαι is used of the army, or commander: the act. of the priest who actually slew the victim.
καλά—of favourable omens; only here in Thuc.:
Xen. Anab. iv. 3, etc.
ὁμόσε χωρῆσαι—ch. 10, 5.
δεῖξαι ὅτι...κτάσθωσαν— not a case of
ὅτι with orat. direct. like ch. 38, 19, but rather a rhetorical change of construction—‘let them win’ instead of ‘they may win’—which gives force and abruptness to the speaker's words.
γενναῖον—according to the Schol.=
πάτριον καὶ ἀπὸ γένους: so
Hom. Il. v. 253,
οὐ γάρ μοι γενναῖον ἀλυσκάζοντι μάχεσθαι, the only passage in which the word occurs in Homer. Paley there takes the meaning to be ‘consistent with honour, worthy of one well born’; and such a sense is quite applicable to the present passage, in which Pagondas is extolling the noble spirit of the Boeotians.
