E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 3

ξυμμαχικῶν—i.e. the gods by whom the oath to be true to the alliance was taken.

τήν τε δωρεὰν . . πρέπει—‘and (we call on you) to ask in your turn the favour of them—that you do not kill men whom it disgraces you to kill.’ ἀντ-απαιτῆ̣σαι means, in answer to the favour they have asked of you—viz. κτείνειν ἡμᾶς. To this explanation rather than ‘in return for our services,’ εἴ τι ἐπείσθητε and ἀντὶ αἰσχρᾶς (χάριτος) point, and this is the natural force of ἀντι-, as in δρῶν ἀντιπάσχω χρηστά, and so on; cf. ἀντιλαβεῖν presently. The subj. of ἀνταπαιτῆσαι is ὑμᾶς, and αὐτούς means the Thebans. The μή after οὕς is because the rel. clause is subord. to an infin. In this series of four co-ordinate infin. clauses, the second and third have τε, the fourth has καί.

σὠφρονα—from us, in contrast with

αἰσχρᾶς from them.

κακίαν—‘ill-fame,’ character of κακοί, as e.g. in Soph. Ant. 924 quoted on c. 82, 8

κατ᾽ ἀνάγκην—as explained in c. 55, 1.

ὥστε καὶ . . ποιοῦντες . . καὶ προνοοῦντες—this is not clearly expressed, for the first participial clause states what follows from the previous sentence; but καὶ προνοοῦντες κτλ. contains a new point (ἑκόντας . . προισχομένους), and should scarcely have been co-ordinated with ἄδειαν ποιοῦντες.

ποιοῦντες—supply ἡμῖν: it is not clear whether ἡμῶν is similarly to be supplied to προνοοῦντες.

νόμος the unwritten law; cf. cc. 66, 67. Prisoners who had not surrendered voluntarily were often killed. Appeals to the νόμος ἄγραφος, πάτριος νόμος, νόμιμα πάσης Ἐλλάδος are very frequent; and of course the Antigone is full of the άγραπτα κἀσφαλῆ θεῶν νόμιμα. In Xen. Mem. IV. 4, 19 Hippias defines the ἄγραφοι νόμοι as οἱ ἐν πάσῃ χώρᾳ κατὰ ταὐτὰ νομιζόμενοι.

ἐσθήμασι—robes burned as offerings, probably, and not worn by the officials. The plur., joined with νομίμοις and ἀπαρχάς in this connexion, is surely mentioned as part of the ἐναγίσματα. Plutarch in Aristides 21, giving an account of the ceremony as performed in his day, makes no mention of robes among the offerings; but the details may well have been modified by his time. On the contrary, he does say that the Provost wore a purple coat and carried a sword; but the present passage does not lead like a ref. to that. That clothes were burnt as offerings to the dead is well known, e.g. Eur. Hec. 573.

ἐπιφέροντες—specially used of offerings to the dead; II. 34.

ξύμμαχοι . . γενομένοις—the object of the speaker is to emphasize the lasting effect of the old alliance and to say nothing of the alliance with Athens.

ὁμαίχμοις is an oldfashioned word, perhaps intended to recall the old times.

αὐθένταις—as having sided with the Persians. Another old-fashioned word.

ἱερά τε . . ἀφαιρήσεσθε—there are three difficulties here:—(1) ἐρημοῦτε, present, among a series of futures. This can hardly be defended by passages in which a single pres, and fut. are combined, such as II. 44 οὐκ ὀλοφύρομαι μᾶλλον ἢ παραμυθήσομαι. StahI reads ἐρημοῦντες after Goller; Steup proposes to leave the word out If sound we must render ‘you are making desolate.’ (2) What is the constr. of τῶν . . κτισάντων? The natural answer is that it depends on ἀφαιρήσεσθε (‘you will take from’), not on θυσίας. The objection, that the Plataeans will ex hypothesi be dead, is hardly serious, for τῶν . . κτισάντων includes the whole Plataean people of whom no small part was safe at Athens. Neither is there any need to render ἀφαιρήσεσθε ‘you will deprive,’ a sense that ἀφαιροῦμαι no where has when the object is inanimate. (3) Is ἱερά or θυσίας the object of τῶν . . κτισάντων? My reason for preferring θυσίας is that θυσίας τὰς πατρίους must refer to commemorative sacrifices to the gods founded after the victory of Plataea: otherwise the Lac. could have no interest in them, and the speaker could not seek to influence them by such an argument. These sacrifices are to the gods, and they were offered on behalf of Greece—ὑπὲρ τῆς Ἑλλάδος (Plut. Arist. 20, 21): hence the last sentence duly accords with ἠλευθερώθησαν οἱ Ἕλληνες and ἐκράτησαν (οὶ Ἐλληνες). (The νόμιμα τῶν Ἑλλήνων are not in question here.)

ἑσσαμένων—this archaic form in place of ἑσαμένων has by far the best MS. authority, and perhaps is meant to accord with ὁμαίχμοις and αὐθένταις.