T. G. Tucker, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 8

---

---

τάς τε τῶν Κορινθίων πέντε, ‘the Corinthian ships, which were five in number.’ These form part of the ten ships of c. 31, § 1.

Λακωνικὰς i.e. three of the four ships which had come with him from Cenchreae (c. 23, § 1) were Laconian. The other may have been the Hermionian.

πρὸς τὴν ναυαρχίαν to take up his position as Lord High Admiral at the chief seat of action.

---

Κωρύκῳ, v. c. 14, § 1.

οἱ ἀπὸ τῆς Σάμου c. 30 (ad fin.)

καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐκ τοῦ ἐπὶ θάτερα λόφου διείργοντο καὶ καθωρμίσαντο So the MSS. with no variation. Jowett says ‘two disparate ideas are here united by καὶ before καθωρμίσαντο. “The Athenians were only separated from the Peloponnesians by being on the other side of the hill, and” (or as we should say “when”) “they put in, and neither had been observed by the other.”’ With ἑκ τοῦ ἐπὶ θάτερα λόφου he understands ὄντες. This does not, however, seem the most natural view. The text may be analysed thus: καὶ αὐτοὶ is put as if the sense ἐκεῖσε προσβαλόντες ἐκ τοῦ ἐπὶ θ. λ. ἐνηυλίσαντο were to follow; and that sense does follow in a different form, διείργοντο καὶ καθωρμίσαντο. ‘They too . . .’ then, instead of ‘put in there,’ Thucydides, antieipating the fact of the reciprocal ignoranee of the parties, writes ‘were separated by the intervening ridge, and (so separated) came to anchor there.’ διείργοντο, ‘were separated (and invisible while approaching from the east),’ καὶ καθωρμίσαντο, ‘and (so) came to anchor.’ In ἐκ τοῦ ἐπὶ θάτερα λόφου, ‘on the opposite side of the ridge,’ the article belongs to λόφου, which word is not dependent on ἐπὶ θάτερα: otherwise τοῦ λόφου would be required. The nearer side of a λόφος is ὁ ἐπὶ τάδε λόφος (cf. summus mons, adversum pectus, etc.), the far side is ὁ ἐπ᾽ ἐκεῖνα (or ἐπὶ θάτερα) λόφος. The words ἐκ τοῦ ἐπὶ θάτερα λόφου are to be combined with the compound διείργοντο - καὶ - καθωρμίσαντο, ‘were separated and came to anchor on (lit. ‘from the direction of’) the opposite side of the ridge.’ The sense stated by Dukas, καθωρμίσαντο καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ Κωρύκῳ ἐκ τοῦ ἐπὶ θάτερα ὑπὸ παρεμπίπτοντος διειργόμενοι λόφου, is that of the text, though the grammatical construction is different.

---

παρὰ τοσοῦτον . . . μὴ περιπεσεῖν. The μὴ is not essential. Cf. Isoc. 388 E, παρὰ μικρὸν ἦλθεν ἀποθανεῖν. Yet as compared with c. 76, § 4, παρ᾽ ἐλάχιστον ἦλθε . . . ἀφελέσθαι, it may be noted that in the present place the subject desires not to do the thing which he comes very near doing, while there the subject desires to do the thing.

περιπεσεῖν not περιτσχεῖν. The Athenians had thirty ships and a force of hoplites, and were at an advantage.

---

διαπλεύσας . . . ἀναζητήσαντες, a reversal of the usual order of the σχῆμα καθ᾽ ὅλον καὶ μέρος.

ἅπαν . . . προφασισθέν ‘finding the whole matter had been a piece of trickery in order to get the men's deliverance from Samos,’ i.e. they had pretended to be ready to act as traitors and had thus managed to get let off. Join σωτηρίᾳ ἐκ τῆς Σάμου, as in vii. 70, τῆς ἐς τὴν πατρίδα σωτηρίας (P-S).