CHAPTER CIII
ἐξ Ἀρνῶν—unknown. ‘Bromiscus is the traditional scene of the death of Euripides. The Arethusa convallis et statio, in qua visitur Euripidis sepulcrum, of Ammianus Marcellinus is evidently the Aulon and Bromiscus of Thucydides; the very name Aulon being descriptive of the place, a valley through which the lake Bolbe discharges itself into the sea (Arnold).
ἐξίησιν—trans. ‘discharges’ sc. its waters: so
ii. 102,
ἐς θάλασσαν ἐξιείς: in
i. 46 ἔξεισι is the better supported reading, though some manuscripts have
ἐξίησι.
χειμών—stormy weather, as in ch. 6, 7.
ᾗ καὶ μᾶλλον —cf. ch. 1, 17.
ὑπένειφεν—cf.
iii. 23,
ἡ νὺξ ὑπονειφομένη. In both passages Classen, on Cobet's authority, reads
ὑπονιφ. though
ὑπονειφ. is the reading of the best manuscripts.
Ἀργίλιοι—Argilus was a short way S. E. of Amphipolis.
πειθόμενοι—‘instigated by’ (Jowett).
ἀεί ποτε—ch. 57, 26.
ὕποπτοι with dat. implies a footing of mutual suspicion, as in ch. 104, 5.
ἐπειδὴ...ἦλθεν—it is possible to understand these words of the arrival of Brasidas in Thrace, but I think that they rather refer to his actual appearance near Amphipolis, and are closely connected with the following
καὶ τότε δεξάμενοι. The next clause
ἔπραξάν τε is then parenthetical in sense, ‘as they had from the first intrigued...so now’: cf. ch. 32, 27,
τό τε πρῶτον...ἐπενόει καὶ ἐν τῷ ἔργῳ ἔταξεν: so
vii. 55,
τά τε πρὸ αὐτῶν ἠπόρουν καὶ ἐπειδή γε κ.τ.λ.
In all these sentences the clause with
τε refers to a time before that with which the main part of the sentence deals. We have a somewhat similar construction with
μέν at the beginning of ch. 7, 2.
ἐκ πλείονος—‘for some (longer) time back’ (ch. 42, 17), i e. since the first arrival of Brasidas in Thrace.
ἐμπολιτεύοντας—ch. 106, 3.
τῇ πόλει—in (lit. with) their city; dative of the instrument:
vi. 44,
οὐ δεχομένων αὐτοὺς ἀγορᾷ οὐδὲ ἄστει, ὕδατι δὲ καὶ ὅρμῳ. Poppo compares the Latin recipere urbe, tecto, etc.
κατέστησαν—ch. 78, 40.
πρόσω—‘far on its way’. Bekker and Classen read
πρὸ ἕω, but on very slight authority.
ἀπέχει...πλέον—probably ‘is some distance from the crossing’,
πλέον being a general comparison like
ἐκ πλείονος in line 15, and
διαβάσεως being governed by
ἀπέχει. Arnold however makes it depend on
πλέον, ‘the city is further off than the crossing’, i.e. when you had crossed the river you had not yet reached the city.
οὐ καθεῖτο τείχη—‘there were no walls extending down’ to connect the bridge with the city. For
βραχεῖα see note on ch. 98, 9.
ἀπροσδόκητος—passive; as in
viii. 23,
ἀπροσδόκητοι κατασχόντες. Possibly
ἀπροσδοκήτοις should be read in both passages, since the word is more commonly active when used of a person, as in ch. 72, 14.
τὰ ἔξω—cf.
ii. 5,
ἐπεβούλευον τοῖς ἔξω τῆς πόλεως τῶν Πλαταιῶν. χωρίον here means the district belonging to the city, as opposed to the
πόλισμα or
πόλις itself.
