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

---

---

περιεσταύρωσεν—sc. ὁ βασιλεύς. τοῦ μηδένα—to fetch supplies.

χῶμα ἔχουν—this was not quite close to the wall; but nearly touched it. Cf. c. 77, 3 τὸ μεταξὺ τοῦ τείχους καὶ τῆς προσχώσεως. αὐτῶν—the Plataeans.

---

Κιθαιρῶνος—the town lay at the N. foot of Cithaeron.

ἐκατέρωθεν—sc. τοῦ χώματος, on both sides the mound was strengthened by planks crossing one another at right angles.

ἀντὶ τοίχων—cf. c. 3, 3. The mound did not run all round the town, and its purpose was to support the siege engines.

ὑλὴν—‘loose wood’) (ξύλα, timber.

---

διῃρημένοι—middle, sc. τὸ χοῦν. ἀναπαύλας— ‘relief-parties.’

ξεναγοὶ—the Lacedaemonian commanders of the allies, who were superior to the generals sent by the allies themselves.

ξυνεφεστῶτες—i.e. with the officers of the allies.

---

ξύλινον τεῖχος—a frame-work of timber, in which the bricks were secured. Buildings are sometimes constructed in this way in Germany. τεῖχος is not really ‘a wall’ here, any more than in Pindar, Pyth. III. 38 τείχει θέσαν ἐν ξυλίνῳ σύγγονοι κούραν, σέλας δ᾽ ἀμφέδραμεν λάβρον Ἁφαίστου, of which Thuc. was probably thinking.

---

ξύνδεσμος—sc. τῶν πλίνθων. πυρφόροις—a common expedient in ancient sieges.

---

μέγα—pred. Cf. Demosth. 2, 8.

διελόντες—the wooden face of the Spartan χῶμα sloped towards the wall of Plataea, so as to touch it at the ground; hence προσέπιπτε. ᾔρετο ... καὶ ἀντανῄει—parataxis, expressing well the simultaneous advance of wall and mound.