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

εἰ . . πεπόνθασι is the ἐπερώτημα.

τὸν ἄλλον χρόνον—‘all along.’

δῆθεν—always ironical, signifying that this is not the true reason.

μετὰ τὸν Μῆδον—usually μετὰ τὰ Μηδικά.

καὶ (

ἠξίουν)

ὅτε . . οὐκ ἐδέξαντο—it is impossible to make grammar of the sentence with ὅτε . . ἃ . . ὡς in. Each word has been altered: the removal of ἃ seems most likely; ‘and particularly, when afterwards the offer that they made of remaining neutral according to that convention was refused.’

ἡγούμενοι—this gives the reason for νομιζοντες . . ἐδέξαντο.

τῇ . . βουλήσει—‘by their own just intention,’ i.e. they had tried their best to conform to the σπονδαί: it was the fault of the Plat. that the Lac. have fair grounds for regarding the σπονδαί at an end.

τὸ αὐτό—obj. of ἐρωτῶντες, so that παραγαγόντες καί breaks the constr.; cf. Soph Antig. 1279 τὰ δ᾽ ἐν δόμοις | ἔοικας ἤκειν καὶ τάχ᾽ ὄψεσθαι κακά, where τὰ δ᾽ ἐν δ. is governed by ὅψεσθαι.

ἠνδραπόδισαν—‘sold as slaves.’ From II. 78 we know that 110 women were among the besieged Plat. (all the others had found refuge at Athens) and that these were all slaves already.

Θηβαῖοι—removed by Classen, who maintained that the true subj. of ἔδοσαν is the Lac.; but cf. c. 58, 5 εί . . χώραν τὴν Πλαταιίδα Θηβαΐδα ποιήσετε. τὰ σφέτερα certainly seems to refer to the Thebans (cf. II. 2). (Herbst and Busolt defend the MS. reading.)

κατὰ στάσιν—the circumstances are unknown.

ἐκ τῶν θεμελίων—take with ᾠκοδόμησαν.

πρὸς τῷ Ἡραίῳ—the site of the Heraeum and remains of the νεὼς λίθινος have in all probability been discovered (Am. J. of Archacol. 1891). It is likely that the temple previously existing was pulled down and replaced by the new one mentioned here.

καταγώγιον—for those who came to worship at the temple: otherwise they would have had no shelter after the destruction of the city.

πανταχῇ is put with διακοσίων ποδῶν (200 ft. square) by some edd., but more prob. belongs to κύκλῳ=‘all round,’ as in VII. 79.

οἰκήματα—for sleeping: they were in two stories.

τοῖς ἄλλοις—instrumental, with κατασκευάσαντες.

τείχει—i.e. inside the city. The sacred precinct lay ‘before the city’ (Herod. IX. 61).

καί—intensive.

ἄρτι τότε καθιστάμενον refers to the fall of Plat., not to the beginning of the siege. Cf. c. 3, 1.

τρίτῳ καὶ ἐνενηκοστῷ—519-427 B.C. But Grote showed that 509 B C. was the probable year of the alliance; hence it has been suggested that ἐνενηκοστῷ is due to an early error in an uncial MS., and that Thuc. wrote the uncial signs for ὀγδοηκοστῷ.

ἐπειδή—cf. I. 6 οὐ πολλα ἔτη ἐπειδὴ πέπαυται.