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

περὶ τριακοσίους—subject; so Xen. Hell. iv. 6, 11, ἀπεθανον περὶ τριακοσίους: prep. with object, Thuc. iv. 48, 1, ἐς ἑξήκοντα ἔλαθον διαφθξίραντες: cf. vii. 30, 3.

του:ς τε πρεσβυτέρους—see ch. 64, 13. ἐβοήθησε—‘had marched out’. Poppo refers to the law mentioned by Hdt. v. 75, ἐτέθη νόμος ἐν Σπάρτῃ μὴ ἐξεῖναι ἕπεσθαι ἀμφοτέρους τοὐς βασιλέας ἐξιούσης στρατιῆς. That law appears rather to mean that the two kings were not to be in joint command of the same army. See however Stein on the passage from Herodotus, and the words which he cites from Xen. Hell. v. 3, 10. We there find that the Phliasians in 381 assumed that they were safe from attack on the part of Agesilaus, as the other king was in the field, οὐδ̓ ἂν γενέσθαι ὥστε ἅμα ἀμφοτέρους τοὺς βασιλέας ἔξω Σπάρτης εἶναι.

τοὺς ἀπὸ Κορίνθου—see ch. 64, 18. ἀπέστρεψαν—iv. 97, 2, ὃς αὐτὸν ἀποστρέψας. ἀπέτρεψαν was formerly read against MSS. authority: ‘ἀποτρέπειν magis notat avertere, dehortari, dissuadere; ἀποστρέφειν autem retro convertere, iubere redire’ (Bauer, cited by Poppo).

Κάρνεια—ch. 54, 9. ἐτύγχανον—ch. 26, 15.

τότε—‘at this time’, i.e. since the capture of Sphacteria, as is shown by what follows. In iv. 40 we are told of the astonishment caused by the surrender at Sphacteria, while complaints of sluggishness and inaction on the part of Sparta had been made even before the war began, for instance in the speech of the Corinthians (i. 68—71). ἐπιφερομἐνην—cf. iii. 46 fin. τὴν αἰτίαν ἐπιφέρειν: so iii. 42, 3, ἀδικίας ἐπιφερομένης.

ἐς—‘for, in respect of’: viii. 88, 1, ες φιλιαν διαβάλλειν, where instances from Plutarch etc., may be found in Poppo. τὴν ἄλλην—ch. 60, 10: Xen. Anab. i. 5, 5, οὐκ ἦν χὁρτος οὐδὲ ἄλλο οὐδὲν δένδρον. ἑνὶ ἔργῳ τούτῳ—οὖτος thus used without the article has a predicative or appositional force; the sense being ‘and thus by one victory they regained their reputation’. κακιζόμενοι—κακίζω, ‘to reproach’, occurs in i. 105, 5, κακιζόμενοι ὑπὸ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων: ii. 22 fin. ἐκάκιζον (τὸν Περικλέα). Here therefore the meaning appears to be ‘open to reproach’. Elsewhere, e.g. Hom. Il. xxiv. 214: Eur. Ion, 984, κακίζομαι means to act the coward, and this would give a good sense in the present passage, viz. that the late inaction and seeming cowardice of the Spartans were due to stress of circumstances, not to failure of spirit. A similar opposition between τύχη and γνώμη is attributed to the Peloponnesian commanders in ii. 87, 3, δίκαιοννομίσαι ταῖς μὲν τύχαις ἐνδέχεσθαι σφάλλεσθαι τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ταῖς δὲ γνώμαις τοὺς αὐτοὺς ἀεὶ ἀνδρείους ὀρθῶς εἶναι.

προτέρᾳ—Cobet would read προτεραίᾳ, but the editors generally retain προτέρᾳ, as πρότερος can be used of days, e.g. Hom. Il. xxi. 5, ἤματι τῷ προτέρῳ. In i. 44, 1, we have τῇ μὲν προτέρᾳ ἐκκλησίᾳ answered by ἐν δὲ τῇ ὑστεραίᾳ. For the following genitive cf. Hdt. v. 56, εν τῇ προτέρῃ νυκτὶ τῶν Παναθηναίων.

ὡς ἐρῆμον οὖσαν—ch. 56, 21. τῶν Ἀργείων—dependent on φύλακας, ἐξελθόντων being added as a predicate, ‘as they had gone out on foreign service’. ἐζελθόντων αὐτῶν, genitive absolute, is also read. Arnold refers ἐξελθόντων to φύλακας, whether αὐτῶν is read or not, rendering ‘as they had ventured out to fight them’. ἐξελθόντες has this force in viii. 25, 2, but the meaning first given is the usual one, and makes the better sense. πολλούς—predicate, ‘in large numbers’.

Ἠλείων—see ch. 62, 8. πρὸς τοῖς προτέροις—ch. 61, 1. Classen points out that no new commander's name is given, though both the Athenian generals had fallen in the battle.

διελόμενοι—sc. τῆν πόλιν, or the operations against it: cf ch. 114, 4: iv. 11, 3, κατ᾽ ὀλίγας ναῦς διελόμενοι, with no object expressed. ἐξεπαύσαντο—a strong expression = ἀπέκαμον τοῦ περιτειχίζειν (schol.) This is the only instance of the middle given in Lid. and Scott.

τὴν ἅκραν—a rocky promontory near the harbour. τὸ Ἡραῖον is in apposition; as in i. 46, 3, ἡ ἄκρα τὸ Χειμέριον. There are various forms of such construction with names; e.g. (a) iv. 25, 5, κατὰ τὸν Ἀκεσίνην ποταμόν (the usual order with ποταμός): iv. 108, 1, ἡ Βόλβη λίμνη: iv. 43, 1, έπὶ την Σολύγειαν κώμην: (b) i. 116, 1, πρὸς Τραγίᾳ τῇ νήσῳ: iv. 96, 5, πρὸς Πάρνηθα το ὄρος: (c) i. 100, 3, τὸ χωρίον αἰ Ἐννέα ὁδοί: vii. 3, 4, τὸ φρούριον τὸ Λάβδαλον: (d) ch. 41, 8, ἔχει Θυρέαν πόλιν: (e) iv. 46, 1, <*>ν τῷ ὄρει τῆς Ἰστώνης. See Kruger's Grammar, § 50, 7.