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

CHAPTER XXVI

ὅτι μή—also written ὅ τι μή, ‘except’: ch. 94, 10, οὐ παρεγένοντο ὄτι μὴ ὀλίγοι: cf. ch. 16, 15, ὅσα μή.

διαμώμενοι τὸν κάχληκα—‘scraping away the shingle’; see Arnold's note. Eur. Bacch. 709, describes the Bacchae as finding milk, ἄκροισι δακτύλοισι διαμῶσαι χθόνα. οἷον εἰκός—sc. πίνειν αὐτούς, such water as could be thus procured.

στενοχωρία—cf. ch. 8, 35—9. The Athenians held only Pylos itself, the mainland and the island being occupied by their enemies. There was therefore no anchorage or harbour (ὄρμος) where the ships could lie, nor could the men land with safety except under the walls of the fort. The trireme was plainly a vessel for fighting only, with but little accommodation for the crew.

σῖτον ᾑροῦντο—‘took their food’, αἱ μέν in this clause implying the crews. Cobet (Var. Lect. p. 451) would read οἱ μέν: but cf. i. 110, where τριήρεις is followed by οὐκ εἰδότες. κατὰ μέρος—‘in turn, in divisions’: iii. 49, οἱ μὲν ὕπνον ᾑροῦντο κατὰ μέρος οἱ δὲ ἤλαυνον.

παρὰ λόγον—‘contrary to reasonable expectation or reckoning’: vi. 33, τοῦ Μηδου παρὰ λόγον πολλὰ σφαλέντος. ἐπιγιγνόμενος—lit. ‘coming after, or coming upon them’, i. e. lasting longer than they had calculated: i. 126, χρὁνου ἐπιγιγνομἑνου, of a siege: iii. 77, ἐπιγενέσθαι, of a reserve force which was to fall on the enemy when already engaged.

οὓς ᾤοντο—‘for they thought they should reduce them’. οὕς means the enemy, as the sense shows, though the antecedent is not expressed. Such a sentence is elliptical, and would be completed by inserting ‘as they were besieging men, whom’ etc. So ii. 44, χαλεπὸν οἶδα πείθειν ὄν, ὧν καὶ πολλάκις ἕξετε ὑπομνήματα, ‘I know it is hard to persuade you, when you will often be reminded of them’, i.e. of the sons slain in war, of whom Pericles is speaking.

ἡμερῶν ὀλίγων-‘within a few days’: Ar. Vesp. 260, οὐκ ἔσθ᾽ ὅπως οὐχ ἡμερῶν τεττάρων ὕδωρ ἀναγκαίως ἔχει τὸν θεὸν ποιῆσαι, ‘it can not be but rain must needs fall within four days’: cf. note on θέρους, ch. 1, 1.

αἴτιον δὲ ἦν οἱ—‘the cause was the Lacedaemonians having given notice’, i.e. the fact that they had done so: so viii. 9, αἴτιον δ᾽ ἐγένετο οἱ μὲν πολλοὶ οὐκ εἰδότες κ.τ.λ.

τὸν βουλόμενον—‘any who wished’, subj. to ἐσάγειν: i. 26, οἰκήτορα τὸν βουλόμενον ἰέναι κελεύοντες, ‘directing that all who chose should go as settlers’, ὸ βουλόμενος is the usual phrase employed when a duty or privilege is open to all: Dem. Tim. 720 (quoting a law), κατηγορεῖν Ἀθηναίων τὸν βουλόμενον οἶς ἔξεστι, ‘any duly qualified Athenian may be accuser’.

ἀληλεσμένον—‘ground’: Hdt. vii. 23, σῖτος πολλὸς ἐφοίτα ἐκ τῆς Ἀσίης ἀληλεσμένος. For the form see Veitch's Greek Verbs. Cobet would read ἀληλεμένον. εἴ τι—‘any’, lit. ‘if (they could send in) any’: i. 14, Ἀθηναῖοι καὶ εἴ τινες ἄλλοι.

οἶον ἀν...ξυμφέρῃ—‘of whatever kind might (lit, may) be useful for a siege’, i.e. for besieged men. The rel. with ἄν is commonly used in thus defining quality or character. The subj. construction is not unusual after a past tense, e.g. ii. 74, ἐβουλεύσαντο...ἀνέχεσθαι...ὄ τι ἂν ξυμβαίνῃ.

οἷον ἂν ξυμφέροι is also read, and gives a good but different sense, ‘such as might be likely to prove serviceable’, ἄν being then connected with the verb and not with οἷος: cf. vi. 36, ἐξ ὦν ἂν ἄνθρωποι δράσειαν, ‘from what men would be likely to do’: so vii. 48, ἐξ ὦν ἄν τις εὖ λέγων διαβάλλοι. This construction is common, and requires notice. It is often liable to be misunderstood, from ἄν standing next the relative, though not belonging to it.

τάξαντες ἀργυρίου—‘having rated’ the service or the provisions ‘at a high price’: so line 30, τετιμημένα χρημάτων, gen. of price.

ἀπαίροντες—‘putting off’: ch. 46, 2, ἐκ τῆς Πύλου ἀπῆραν. The converse of this is καταίρω, ‘to put in’: viii. 39, ἐς Καῦνον κατῆραν: cf. κατάρσεις, ‘landing-places’, line 31. ὁπόθεν τύχοιεν—‘from any point they chanced’, opt. of indefinite frequency: cf. ch. 25, 7, ὡς ἕκαστοι ἔτυχον, ‘as each happened’. ἔτι νυκτός—‘while it was still night’: so ch. 31, 2, νυκτός, lit. at a time of or within the night.

ἐτήρουν. καταφέρεσθαι—‘looked out for (a chance of) making the land’; usually with subst. as ch. 27, 11: i. 65, ἄνεμον τηρήσασι, etc.; or partic. i. 134, ἔνδον ὄντα τηρήσαντες αὐτόν, etc. For καταφέρω see note on ch. 3, 9: in the present chapter we have various compounds with κατά in the sense of coming to the coast.

τοῖς δὲ ἀφειδής—lit. ‘the landing was made unsparing’, i e. they ran to shore at the risk of wrecking their boats. ἀφειδής—‘unsparing, reckless’: Eur. Iph. T. 1354, ἡμεῖς δ᾽ ἀφειδήσαντες, ‘made reckless’. καθεστήκει—‘was made or established’ the word implies a more or less permanent state of things; i.e. this reckless landing was secured by the Lacedaemonian arrangements: cf. ch. 78, 14: ch. 34, 21, καθίστατο.

ἐπώκελλον—cf. note on ὀκείλαντας ch. 11, 26. This sentence gives the two reasons for risking the landing—the government paid for the boats, and the troops on the island were watching (ἑφύλασσον) to save the provisions. κάταρσις— a rare word, except in late Greek.

γαλήνῃ—‘in calm weather’: most probably a dat. of the point of time: ii. 20, ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἐσβολῇ καταβῆναι, ‘to descend in that invasion’, where see Poppo's note: cf. Dem. Meid. 570, ὀχεῖσθαι διὰ τῆς ἀγόρας ταῖς πομπαῖς οὐ δυνάμενον. Rutherford inserts ἐν. κινδυνεύσειαν, ἡλίσκοντο—indefinite frequency.

κατὰ τὸν λιμένα—as opposed to πρὸς τὸ πέλαγος: cf. ch. 25, 32, κατὰ τὸν Ἀκεσίνην.

μήκωνα μεμελιτωμένην—‘poppy seed mixed with honey and pounded linseed’. Krüger quotes a scholiast to the effect that poppy seed mixed with honey was a preventive of hunger, while linseed kept off thirst. The commentators cite Athenaeus and other authorities to show that such substances were sometimes smeared on bread or mixed with it.

ὧν λανθανόντων—objective gen. after φυλακαί. οἱ δὲ μὴ λανθάνειν σφᾶς—‘and the others to detect them’, μὴ λανθάνειν after ἐτεχνῶντο, lit. ‘that it should not escape them’.