C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 4

CHAPTER XIV

τὰς μὲν πλείους—to this is opposed αἱ δὲ καὶ πληρούμεναι ἔτι, line 8; ταῖς δὲ λοιπαῖς, line 7, being ‘the rest’ of the ships that were μετέωροι.

μετεώρους ἤδη—‘already under way’: μετέωρος, lit. ‘raised from the ground’, when applied to a ship means ‘separated from the shore,’ i.e. at sea.

ἐπιδιώκοντες—‘pursuing them hotly, following them up closely’: so ii. 79: in. 33 etc. ὡς διὰ βραχέος—‘as (they could) being but a short way off’. διὰ βραχέος, ‘separated by a short interval’: so iii. 94, διὰ πολλοῦ, ‘far apart’ etc. The short distance between the Athenians and their foes enabled them to follow up the Lacedaemonians with effect; so Krüger and Classen. Poppo and others however take ὡς διὰ βραχέος to mean ‘as (well as they could) considering the short distance from the land’. The meaning would then be that the Lacedaemonians would have suffered still more had not the shore with the protection of its friendly troops been close at hand. (For such uses of ὡς see note on ch. 84, 10.) ἔτρωσαν—‘damaged’: so Hdt. viii. 18, τετρωμέναι, of ships. Thucydides also uses κατατραυματίζω of ships, vii. 41: viii. 10, 42.

ἐν τῇ γῇ καταπεφευγυίαις—‘which had taken refuge on the land’, i.e. by running themselves ashore. The present καταφεύγω ‘to fly for refuge’ would require ἐς, implying motion to; while the perfect, implying arrival and rest in the place of refuge, may be constructed with ἐν. So iii. 71, οἱ ἐκεῖ καταπεφευγότες, ‘those who were in a place of refuge there’: Plat. Sophist. 260 C, ἐν τούτῳ τῷ τόπῳ καταπεφευγέναι: cf. Rep. 519 C, ἐν μακάρων νήσοις ζῶντες ἔτι ἀπῳκίσθαι. Thus βέβηκα, ‘I have gone’ sometimes = ‘I stand’, e.g. Soph. Ant. 67, οἱ ἐν τέλει βεβῶτες, ‘those who stand in authority’.

Other instances of perfect participles so constructed in Thucydides are vii. 71, οἱ ἐν τῇ νήσῳ διαβεβηκότες: ib. 87, ἐν τῷ τοιούτῳ χωρίῳ ἐμπεπτωκότας.

It is possible of course in the present instance, to take ἐν τῇ γῇ with ἐνέβαλλον only, or to understand ἐς τὴν γῆν with καταπεφευγυίαις, and the other passages quoted might be similarly explained: there is however no need for this expedient.

ἐνέβαλλον—‘dashed into’, often used of ships: so in the account of a sea fight in vii. 36 ἐμβολή is used of the act of ramming or charging the enemy's ship, while ἔμβολος means the actual beak or ram. In the present chapter the different tenses give a vivid picture of the scene. First we have the instantaneous rush of the Athenians and flight of the enemy— ὥρμησαν..., κατέστησαν..., ἔτρωσαν... Then the changes of a protracted struggle are represented by the imperfects, ἐνέβαλλον...ἐκόπτοντο, etc. which depict not only the progress of the fight, but the details which occurred again and again at different points (see note on ch. 3, 1). Finally the description closes with the aorist διεκρίθησαν.

καὶ πληρούμεναι ἔτι—‘still getting their crews on board’. ἐκόπτοντο—so viii. 105, ἔκοπτον: ib. 13, νῆες κοπεῖσαι, ‘shattered, crippled’.

ἀναδούμενοι—‘taking in tow’: so ii. 90, τῶν νεῶν τινὰς ἀναδούμενοι εἷλκον κενάς. The expression occurs commonly in accounts of naval actions; as does κενός, ‘without the crew’, opposed to αύτοῖς ἀνδράσι, ‘men and all’.

περιαλγοῦντες—‘sore distressed’: so vi. 54, περιαλγήσας: cf. περιδές (iii. 28), περιδείδω, περιοργής (ch. 130, 19), περιαλγής, περιχαρής etc.

ὅτι περ—‘because as a matter of fact’: like ὅπερ καὶ ἐγένετο, ‘which in fact came to pass’: viii. 92, διόπερ (δι᾽ ὅ περ), ‘for which reason in truth’: περ thus used emphasizing the word with which it is connected. Classen says that the combination of ὅτι and περ is not elsewhere found in Attic Greek.

αὐτῶν—from its prominent position, the gen. has an emphatic force, like that of the ethical dative = ‘they saw they should lose their men’: so i. 30, ἐπεὶ σφῶν οἱ ξύμμαχοι ἐπόνουν: cf. Buttmann on Dem. Meid. 520, τοὺς στεφάνους τοὺς χρυσοῦς ἐπεβούλευσε διαφθεῖραί μου. ἀπελαμβάνοντο—lit. ‘were being cut off’, i.e. this was evidently a necessary concomitant of the success of the Athenians.

παρεβοήθουν—this compound is especially used of the movements of troops along the shore: so i. 47: ii. 90 etc. Here it refers to the land army of the Lacedaemonians, which came to save the ships. In ii. 90 the Peloponnesians are described in nearly the same words as rushing into the sea with their arms and rescuing some triremes which the victorious Athenians were already dragging off.

καὶ ἐν τούτῳ κεκωλῦσθαι—‘and in this struggle each man thought things at a standstill, wherever he himself was not on the spot’. This shows at once the spirit and alacrity of the Lacedaemonians, and their confusion and want of order. In similar words Thucydides describes the enthusiasm with which the Lacedaemonian allies were animated at the beginning of the war, ii. 8, ἐν τούτῳ τε κεκωλῦσθαι ἐδόκει ἐκάστῳτὰ πράγματα ᾦ μή τις αὐτός παρέσται. ἐν τούτῳ—‘meanwhile, while this was going on’. κεκωλῦσθαι—perf. = ‘to be stopped’, with ἔργον as subject, or perhaps impersonal. ᾦ μή τινι ..παρῆν—lit. ‘at whatsoever struggle he himself also (besides any others) was not present’. In the general conflict the fight at each point and for each particular ship was itself an ἔργον or ‘action’.

θόρυβος—also in i. 49 and viii. 10 of the ‘confusion and tumult’ of a hotly contested sea fight.

ἀντηλλαγμένος—‘a complete reversal of’ lit. ‘interchanged for’, agreeing with θόρυβος and governing τρόπου: cf. iii. 82, τοῖς εἴδεσι διηλλαγμένα, ‘varying in their phenomena’ (Arn.). Classen reads ἁντηλλαγμένου, gen. abs. with τρόπου, ‘the fashion of the two sides being counterchanged’; on the ground that it is not easy to speak of θόρυβος as being itself ‘taken in exchange’ for the combatants' usual way of fighting. περὶ τὰς ναῦς—either with τρόπου, ‘in respect of their ships’, i.e. in naval contests generally, or with ἐγένετο ὁ θόρυβος, for the possession of these particular ships.

οἴ τε γὰρ. οἵ τε—‘on the one hand......on the other’ etc. τε—τε comparing and contrasting the two sides.

ἐκπλήξεως—‘dismay’; here it means the excitement of the Lacedaemonians in their alarm at the prospect of losing their men.

ὡς εἰπεῖν—like ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν, used to modify a statement which is too general or extensive, especially with πᾶς or οὐδείς. Here it modifies οὐδὲν ἄλλο, ‘nothing else, so to put it’: cf. vi. 30, ὁ ἄλλος ὄμιλος ἅπας, ὡς εἰπεῖν, ‘the general multitude without exception, we may say’. The infinitive with ὡς in such expressions is one of limitation, denoting a certain manner of regarding the thing in question; in this case = so far as making a statement goes: Plat. Rep. 475 D, ὡς γ᾽ ἐν φιλοσόφοις τιθἐναι = ‘so far as the classing them among philosophers is to be considered’: id. Euthyph. 3 B, ὥς γ᾽ οὑτωσὶ ἀκοῦσαι, ‘just to listen to’ (Madv. § 151). ἄλλο οὐδὲν ἤ— ‘simply, absolutely’: ii. 16: so iii. 39, τί ἄλλο ἢ ἐπεβούλευσαν;

ἐναυμάχουν ἐπεζομάχουν—the Lacedaemonian soldiers were rushing into the water, grappling the ships, and fighting against the crews of vessels which were actually afloat, while the Athenian sailors were pushing their advantage and assailing their enemies hand to hand on the shore.

τῇ παρούσῃ τύχῃ ἐπεξελθεῖν—‘to prosecute their present good fortune’: so Krüger, Poppo, etc. When however this verb governs the dat. it is used of a person, meaning to proceed against, e.g. iii 38, τῷ δράσαντι ἐπεξέρχεται, ‘retaliates on the wrongdoer’. When it means to go through with a thing, it either takes the accus., as v. 100, πᾶν ἐπεξελθεῖν, or more commonly is used without governing a case, as i. 62, ἐπεξῆλθον διώκοντες, ‘they pushed the pursuit’. Classen therefore seems right in taking <*>ῇ παρούσῃ τύχῃ separately, and rendering ἐπεξελθεῖν, ‘to carry out (their success), follow up (their victory)’. The clause thus means ‘wishing, with their present fortune, to pursue their advantage as far as possible’: v. 14, 1 confirms this view.

πολύν τε—‘so after etc.’, summing up and concluding the account of the battle.

καὶ ἀπὸ πάντων—‘who were now present in full force’: καί goes with πάντων, i.e. besides those from Sparta and its neighbourhood; see ch. 8, 3. κατὰ χώραν—‘in their place’, i.e. making no further movement: very common literally and metaphorically: Dem. Tim. 701, κατὰ χώραν δὲ μένειν τοὺς ἄλλους (νόμους) ἐᾶν. ἐπὶ τῇ Πύλῳ—‘over against, watching’: v. 7, ἐπὶ τῇ Θρᾳκῃ, ‘commanding Thrace’.