E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 7

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λαμπρᾶς — cf. II. 7.1 λελυμένων λαμπρῶς τῶν σπονδῶν.

καὶ—the A. army having been defeated already in the nightattack.

μὲν—there is no δὲ to answer this, but the antithesis is obvious.

ἐν παντὶ δὴ ἀθυμίας—??f. on c. 2.4 6

ὁ παράλογος—see Iutr. p. xxxiii. The A. were as much astonished at their own failure as the rest of Greece had been at their undertaking the expedition. Cf. c. 28.3.

τῆς στρατείας ὁ μ.—regret about the expedition.

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ὁμοιοτρόποις—a remarkable tribute to the advanced state of institutions in the Greek cities of Sicily when we remember Pericles' panegyric of Athenian τρόποι.

ναῦς—this consideration had rendered the acquisition of influence in Sicily very important at the beginning of the Pel. war. Sparta made great efforts to obtain a large fleet there.

ἵππους—the Sicilian horses were of proverbial excellence.

μεγέθη—the plur. is often found, though not in Thuc. elsewhere; cf. Herod. II. 10; VII. 103.

ἐκ πολιτείας . . . μεταβολῆς—but Alcibiades had urged before the expedition that the cities of Sicily, being populated by motley crowds, ῥᾳδίας ἔχουσι τῶν πολιτειῶν τὰς μεταβολάς, VI. 17.2. It was the invasion that united the various classes sufficiently to prevent revolutions.

τι—Classen makes this adverbial; Stahl makes it object of ἐπενεγκεῖν. Then Classen makes τὸ διάφορον object of ἐπενεγκεῖν; whereas Stahl places comma after μεταβολῆς and makes τὸ δ. object of προσήγοντο. Translate, with Classen's construction, ‘seeing that of the cities which they had attacked these were the only ones then having institutions similar to their own, governed by democracy and possessing fleets and horses and importance, and as they were unable either through a change in their constitution in any respect, or by a greatly superior force to make them feel the difference, by which they might have gained power over them, and as they failed oftener than they succeeded, they had before this been in difficulties, and now that they had been defeated by sea as well—which would never have occurred to them—they were in much greater despair.’

τὸ διάφορον — variously explained as ‘internal discord’ (Heilmann), ‘change of attitude’ (Classen), ‘the opposite party’ (Stahl). But the context is decidedly in favour of ‘the difference between the two sides,’ which in this case the A. had no means of bringing home to the enemy, either by causing a revolution in favour of demoeracy or by coercing them with superior force. For the sense cf. c. 75.7. (If τὸ διάφορον is separated from ἐπενεγκεῖν with Stahl, ἐπενεγκεῖν τι becomes decidedly obscure, nor is its bearing on ἠπόρουν clear. One of the reasons of the ἀπορία was that the A found they could not make the cities see a difference — or balance — in favour of Athens.)

αὐτοῖς—after ἐπενεγκεῖν, though πόλεσι precedes, the inhabitants being substituted for the cities. Stahl takes it with τὸ διάφορον.

ᾧ προσήγοντο ἄν—sc. τὰς πόλεις. Cf the advice of Nicias at the beginning of the expedition τῶν ἄλλων τινα πόλεων προσαγαγέσθαι, VI. 47. (Freeman says ‘the reference must be mainly or wholly to Syracuse.’ There is no ground for this assumption)

ἐκ παρασκευῆς πολλῷ κ—just as ἐκ πολιτείας μεταβολῆς refers to something which the A. had not been able to do, so ἐκ π. πολλῷ κ. refers to something which they had not possessed for, besides being under democracies, the cities had ‘fleets and horses and greatness’ Hence δημοκρατουμέναις corresponds with ἐκ πολιτείας μεταβολῆς, and καὶ ναῦς etc. with ἐκ π πολλῷ κρείσσονος. Thuc. is referring to the whole course of the expedition from the start For the facts alluded to, compare (a) what Hermocrates is made to say before the A. landed—οὐ πλείους τῶν ἐνοικούντων καὶ ἀστυγειτόνων ἔρχονται, πάντα γὰρ ὑπὸ δέους ξυνίσταται, VI 33, (b) what Athenagoras is made to say—ἡγοῦμαι . . . τὴν ἠμετέραν πόλιν αὐτην τῆς νῦν στρατιᾶς . . καὶ εἰ δὶς τοσαύτη ἔλθοι, πολὺ κρείσσω εἶναι, VI. 37, (c) what Thuc. says above in c. 28 of the relative size of Syracuse and Athens.

σφαλλόμενοι δὲ τὰ πλείω—cf. II. 65.12 σφαλέντες ἐν Σικελίᾳ ἄλλῃ παρασκευῇ. He is thinking of the turn which the siege had taken. Cf. I. 69.5.

τά τε πρὸ αὐτῶν—i.e. before the sea-fight,—the sense of αὐτὰ being as often supplied from the context. (The brevity of this passage renders it very obscure. The sense of κρείσσονος and πλείω is, I believe, uncertain. κρείσσονος might mean larger than that brought by Demosthenes and Eurymedon; πλείω might imply ‘since the arrival of Demosth. and Eur.’ The above explanation is only offered as an approximation to the probable meaning.)

μᾶλλον—sc. ἠπόρουν.