CHAPTER CXXI
προθύμως οἴσειν—‘to bear cheerfully, take part in with alacrity’:
Hdt. ix. 18,
προθύμως φέρετε τὸν πόλεμον τοῦτον: ib.
40,
προθύμως ἔφερον τὸν πόλεμον. For the future cf. ch. 115, 8.
χρυσῷ στεφάνῳ—the special reward of public services:
Dem. Androt. 617,
στέφανοι μέν εἰσιν ἀρετῆς σημεῖον...καὶ στέφανος μὲν ἄπας, κἂν μικρὸς ᾖ, τὴν ἰσην φιλοτιμίαν ἔχει τῷ μεγάλῳ. ἀνέδησαν—
v. 50,
ἀνέδησε τὸν ἡνίοχον.
ἐταινίουν—bound his head with a
ταινία or fillet, as an emblem of victory:
Plat. Symp. 212 E,
ἐστεφανωμένον...καὶ ταινίας ἔχοντα ἐπὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς.
προσήρχοντο—see note on ch. 120, 1,
ἐπήρχοντο. If this word comes from
προσέρχομαι, it means ‘came up to’, i. e. greeted and congratulated. We should however expect
προσῇσαν, which Cobet would restore to the text. Herbst and Classen take it from
προσάρχομαι, ‘to offer’, meaning that they decked Brasidas with flowers and chaplets: cf.
Plat. Theaet. 168C,
προσηρξάμην...σμικρὰ ἀπὸ σμικρῶν.
ὥσπερ ἀθλητῇ—Grote observes that ‘the achievements, the self-relying march, the straightforward politics, and probity of this illustrious man inspired a personal emotion towards him such as rarely found its way into Grecian political life. The sympathy and admiration felt in Greece towards a victorious athlete was not merely an intense sentiment in the Grecian mind, but was perhaps, of all others, the most widespread and Panhellenic. ... Thucydides cannot convey a more lively idea of the enthusiasm and unanimity with which Brasidas was welcomed at Scione than by using this simile’.
The whole passage is imitated by Plutarch,
Peric. 28,
καταβαίνοντα δὲ αὐτὸν...ἐδεξιοῦντο καὶ στεφάνοις ἀνέδουν καὶ ταινιαις ὤσπερ ἀθλητὴν νικηφορον.
ἐπεραίωσε—here ‘took across’: so Plut. and Polyb.: in classical Greek usually ‘to cross’, as in
ii. 67,
τὸν Ἑλλήσποντον περαιώσειν. Compare the twofold use of traicio.
ἀποπειρᾶσαι—ch. 135, 1: mid. ch. 24, 8.
ὡς ἐς νῆσον—the Athenians were especially jealous of their sovereign rights over the islanders, and regarded revolt on their part as inexcusable: cf. Cleon's speech
iii. 39.
καί τι αὐτῷ...ἐς—‘and some negotiations were actually going on between him and these cities’: for construction with the dative and
πρός see note on ch. 80, 11: and for the constructions used with
πράσσω, ch. 76, 6.
