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

---

---

εὐθὺς, not with ἐπειγομένων (which would mean ‘immediately that they pressed them’), but with the sentence. ἐπειγομένων, ἐπειγόντων Schol. The middle in the sense of ‘getting’ the matter urged on. The active does not appear to be used with the infinitive in this way. ἐπείγεσθαί τι (iii. 2, etc.) is ‘to press a thing on in one's own interest’; so ἐπείγεσθαι (ὥστε) ὰποστεῖλαι αὐτοὺς τὰς ναῦς. Cf. Hom. Od. xiii. 29— πολλὰ πρὸς ἠέλιον κεφαλὴν τρέπε παμφανόωντα, δῦναι ἐπειγόμενος (‘eager that it should set’).

τὰς ναῦς viz. the forty of c. 6, § 4.

πάντες ‘all the parties,’ viz. (i.) the Chians, Erythraeans, and Tissaphernes' envoy; (ii.) Calligeitus and Timagoras, the envoys of Pharnabazus.

Σπαρτιάτας i.e. of the best stock.

ὑπερενεγκόντες With the feat and the double acc. (traicere naves Isthmum) cf. iv. 8, ὑπερενεχθεῖσαι τὸν Κευκαδίων ἰσθμόν. Inf. c. 8, § 3, διαφέρειν τὸν Ἰ. τὰς ἡμισείας.

πάσας emphatic. Lesbos is to be passed over.

τῶν ξυμμαχικῶν ‘the total number of ships belonging to the allied contingents.’ Kruger compares Xen. Cyr. iii. 3, 12, ἐδίδασκεν ᾖ ἕκαστον ἰσχυρὸν ἦν τῶν συμμαχικῶν. τὰ ξυμμαχικὰ are the collective ξυμμαχικὸν (cf. τὸ ναυτικόν, τὸ πεζόν, etc.) looked at in its several components. Classen accepts the reading ξυμμαχίδων, understanding πόλεων. This ellipse requires support and there is plainly none in e.g. ii. 2, § 1. Why should not Thuc. rather have written αἱ ξύμπασαι ξυμμαχίδες νῆες?