C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5

στρατείας—most MSS have στρατιᾶς, the usual confusion. περιγίγνεται—‘saves his life’: Hdt. ix. 121, ἀποδώσω τάλαντα διήκοσια περιγενόμενος, ‘if my life be spared’.

Λάχης—most probably the same who commanded the first expedition to Sicily (iii. 86, 1), and was superseded by Pythodorus. His name appears among the signatories to the treaty and alliance in ch. 19 and 24. Nicostratus was sent to Corcyra in 427 (iii. 75); was employed on the Laconian coast in 424 (iv. 53); and in the Macedonian expedition in 423 (iv. 129 sq.).

ὅμως—though indignant and disgusted at the arrangement made; cf. ch. 46, 4: iii. 28, 2, ἐπἰ τοὺς βωμοὺς ὅμως καθίζουσι, i.e. although terms had been promised.

χρηματίσαι—ch. 5, 3. πρὶν ἤ—Lid. and Scott say πρὶν ἤ ‘occurs here and there in Attic Greek, from which it is sometimes removed by correction: it is common in later Greek’. This, if right, is a solitary instance in Thucydides. Perhaps πρὶν δή, which is common, or πρὶν οἱ should be read. For πρίν with the indicative, in the sense of ‘until’, referring to a definite past action, see i. 51, 1: ii. 65, 2, etc. It generally follows a negative (Goodwin § 634).

ἔτι γάρ—ch. 58, 5. πρεσβευτοῦ παρὀντος—‘being there in the capacity of envoy’; and no longer holding a military command. Stahl proposes παριόντος ‘coming forward’ to speak, but this is no improvement. The statement that Alcibiades was the representative of Athens implies that he was spokesman.

ἔν τε τοῖς—=ἐν τοῖς τε. Classen considers ταῦτα unsatisfactory and reads ταὐτά, believing that separate assemblies were held, which is also suggested by τε and καί. Most authorities suppose that the allies were merely present in the Argive assembly.

οὐκ ὀρθῶς αἱ σπονδαί—the influence of the ‘wrongful truce’, which stands first in order, is felt throughout the sentence, though the wording is modified in the second part. ἄνευ—so ch. 60, 28 iv. 78, 3, ἄνευ τοῦ πάντων κοινοῦ.

καὶ γένοιντο—probably καί, in the sense of ‘both’ connects this with καὶ νῦν κ.τ.λ., the conjunctions coupling the two points on which the Athenians insist, the wrong already done them by the treaty, and the present obligation of immediate action. καί is then irregularly placed, as noted on ch. 16, 15, and stands where it does to emphasize the antithesis. Krüger however holds that καί simply emphasizes γένοιντο, the sense being that ‘even the making of the truce was a wrong’.

καὶ νῦν χρῆναι—the construction with ὅτι is now dropped, as in i. 87, 4, ἔλεγον ὅτι δοκοῖεν βούλεσθαι δέ. ἅπτεσθαι—viii. 92, 4, ἥπτοντο τῶν πραγμάτων: so i. 49 fin. ἔργου εἴχετο.

πείσαντες—the subject at first is the Athenians alone, then by apposition it expands into πάντες: cf. iv. 69, 1, γνόντες δὲ οἱ στρατηγοί. ἡ στρατία...ἀπεσταύρουν: so in iv. 108, 3, εἰωθότες οἱ ἄνθρωποι, where certain particular colonists are the original subject of the sentence.

ἐκ τῶν λόγων—F. compares two instances of ἐκ with πείθω, to denote the ground of persuasion; vii. 48, 3, ἐκ τούτων αὐτοὺς πείσεσθαι: viii. 47, 1, πεῖσαι ἐκ τοῦ τοιούτου. Otherwise the meaning might be ‘after the conference’; see also ch. 113, 1.

τὸν Ἀρκαδικόν—as distinguished from Orchomenos in Boeotia, iii. 87, 4. ὅμως καὶ πεισθέντες—though convinced they still hung back: Krüger compares Soph. Oed. Col. 666, ὅμως δὲ καμοῦ μὴ παρόντος τοὐμὸν φυλάξει σ᾽ ὄνομα.

προσκαθεζόμενοι—the accusative construction is found with this word in i. 26, 5: i. 61, 2. The same participle occurs also in i. 11, 4: i. 126, 4: i. 134, 2; in each case with some tense of πολιορκεῖν or with a similar word. The form is aorist; see Vertch's Irregular Greek Verbs.

ἄλλως τε...καὶ ἦσαν—Poppo says ‘noli ὅτι expectare’, and compares i. 110, 2, τοῦτον δὲ διὰ μέγεθος τε τοῦ ἕλους οὐκ ἐδύναντο ἑλεῖν, καὶ ἅμα μαχιμώτατοί εἰσι τῶν Αἰγυπτίων οἱ ἕλειοι: vii. 47, 2, τῆς τε ὤρας ταύτης οὔσης...καὶ τὸ χωρίον ἄμα ἑλῶδες ἦν: so Tac. Hist. i. 76, penes Othonem manebant, non partium studio. sed erat grande momentum in nomine urbis. προσγενέσθαι—ch. 32, 11.

κείμενοι—here and in vi. 61, 3, κεῖμαι does duty as the perfect passive of κατατίθεσθαι, the regular word for bestowing hostages. δείσαντες—see note on δεδιώς, ch. 8, 5. πλῆθος refers to the (small) force in Orchomenos; so iv. 10, 4, ἀντιπάλους τῷ ἡμετέρῳ πλήθει.

μὴ προαπόλωνται—sc. before help arrived. The subjunctive depends on δείσαντες by a modification of construction. The clause with ὡς gives the reason of their alarm, ‘as they saw no prospect of succour’.