E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 2

πενίας ἐλπίδι, ὡς .. αὐτὴν—=οὔτε ἐλπίδι, ὡς διαφυγὼν τὴν πενίαν κἂν ἔτι πλουτήσειεν. But πενίας is attracted to ἐλπίδι because of the antithesis to πλούτῳ. ἔτι—some day, as in prophecies and threats.

πλουτήσειεν—ingressive.

ἀναβολὴν ἐποίησατο—these periphrases will be found collected in the index, s.v. ποιεῖσθαι. ποθεινοτέραν—a strong word used of things that are desirable. ποθεῖν is the regular word in oratory to describe the supposed anxiety of tbe hearers to have information on any point. Antiph. 5, 64; Andoc. 1, 70; Lys. 14. 1; Isocr. 12, 167; 15, 43; Isaeus 11, 19; Dem. 4, 28; 21, 77; 50, 43; Aeschin. 2, 7 and 44.

αὐτῶν—again a loose reference to what has been described, here = πλούτου ὴ ἔτι ἀπόλαυσις and τὸ ἔτι πλουτῆσαι. λαβόντες—=ὑπολαβόντες, as ‘I take it’ is used by us for ‘I suppose.’ Often in Thuc.

μετ᾽ αὐτοῦ—sc. τοῦ κινδύνου. It goes with ἐφίεσθαι also.

τῶν δὲ—viz. the enjoyment and the hope: ‘to face this danger in exacting vengeance before tbey indulged in these hopes.’ The chief emphasis is on μετ᾽ αὐτοῦ. (Only Bh., Kraz and Ste. among recent edd. retain ἐφίεσθαι).

ἐλπίδι μὲν—the construction differs from that of ἔργῳ, which is adverbial.

τοῦ κατορθώσειν—the fut. is due to the prominence of tbe idea of futurity here. Cf. c. 13, 9. The infin. approximates in these cases to its use in Oratio Obliqua, in that the writer allows the thought of the person to whom he refers to influence the tense (ἀφανές ἐστιν εἰ κατορθώσομεν). It is characteristic of Thuc. to present an action as it was regarded by the actors themselves. M. T. 113.

ἔργῳ—‘but in the task actually before them at the moment, tbey resolved to trust to themselves’: i.e. the future must be left to τύχη (Providence); the present required γνώμη. ἐν αὐτῷ—what can this be but the act just described, i.e. ἐν τῷ ... σφίσιν αὐτοῖς πεποιθέναι? The sense is ‘in carrying out their resolution,’ i.e. in the struggle itself.

τὸ ἀμύνεσθαι καὶ παθεῖν—cf. Isocr. 2, 36 ἢν δ᾽ ἀναγκασθῆ̣ς κινδυνεύειν, αἱροῦ τεθνάναι καλῶς μᾶλλον ἢ ζῆν αἰσχρῶς. 4, 95 τοῖς καλοῖς κἀγαθοῖς αἱρετώτερόν ἐστι καλῶς ἀποθανεῖν ἢ ζῆν αἰσχρῶς. Intr. p. xl.

τὸ αἰσχρὸν τοῦ λόγου—i.e. τὸ ὀνειδίζεσθαι ὡς δειλοί (Schol.).

ἔφυγον—antithesis to ὑπέμειναν, as very often, e.g. Lys. 13, 27 and 63.

τὸ ἔργον—=τὸν κίνδυνον. δι᾽ ἐλαχίστου καιροῦ τύχης—human γνώμη is often crossed by divine τύχη, and in this case was so modified that their highest hopes were not realised. The edd. quote Horace Sat. I. 1, 7 horae momento cita mors venit aut victoria laeta, but horae momento denotes a far greater length of time, and does not take in τύχης. But this sentence, the close of the ἔπαινος τῶν ἀποθανόντων, in its intense solemnity, resembles (mutatis mutandis) the words of St. Paul (1 Cor. 15, 52, 54) ‘We shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. ... O grave, wbere is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?’ So here Pericles refers to the rapidity and sud denness with which τύχη acts. Hence ‘in a moment ordained by Fate, at the crisis not of fear but of glory—they passed.’ (Behrendt rightly objects to Steup's proposal.)

ἀπηλλάγησαν—absolute, a poetical use. Dr. Kennedy (Cam. Phil. Proceedings 1882, p. 20 fol.) well says that the speaker's voice ‘sinks to the sad and solemn cadence of ἀπηλλάγησαν.’ Supply τοῦ βίου.