CHAPTER XXIX
καὶ πάντα διαπραξάμενος—‘having had all arrangements made’. Note the construction; the gen. abs. is placed between two participles in agreement with the nom. to the verb: see Goodwin, § 111.
ψηφισαμένων—so
vi. 25,
ἤντινα αὐτῷ παρασκευὴν ψηφίσωνται, ‘what force they are to vote him’.
ἀναγωγήν—‘putting to sea’, a reading adopted by Krüger, Classen, etc., here and in
vi. 29 for
ἀγωγήν, which has the better manuscript authority.
ἀγωγή means ‘bringing’, as
v. 85,
ἡ ἐς τοὺς ὀλίγους ἀγωγή, and might possibly mean the conveyance of Cleon's forces and supplies, and therefore his voyage in general: so
Xen. Cyr. vi. 1, 24,
ἐν ταῖς ἀγωγαῖς, ‘on marches’.
τὴν ἀπόβασιν διανοεῖσθαι—‘to contemplate the descent’. This is the only instance in Thuc. of
διανοείσθαι being followed by a substantive. Usually it takes the infinitive, or an adverb, as
ὥσπερ διενοοῦντο. We have however, ch. 22, 10,
εἴ τι ὐγιὲς διανοοῦνται, and
iii. 75,
οὐδὲν ὐγιὲς διανοουμἐνων: cf. 13, 19,
ἃ διενοήθησαν. It does not therefore seem necessary to adopt Cobet's view that
ποιεῖσθαι has been accidentally omitted.
It has been suggested that some secret communications had already passed between Demosthenes and Cleon, which made the latter ready to undertake the expedition. It is at any rate clear that he did not take a leap in the dark, but had full information as to the state of things at Pylos. Thus he took with him a force of suitable character, and secured the help of Demosthenes, a brave and competent officer.
ῥώμην—‘confidence’:
vii. 18,
τοῖς Λακεδαιμονίοις ἐγεγένητο ῥώμη: so
ii. 8,
ἔρρωντο ἐς τὸν πόλεμον, ‘were confident and eager for the war’.
ἡ νήσος ἐμπρησθεῖσα—‘the island having caught fire’: cf. ch. 26, 16,
οἱ Λακεδαιμόνιοι προειπόντες: so
iii. 20,
τῷ σίτῳ ἐπιλιπόντι ἐπιέζοντο, etc.
πρότερον μέν—corresponding to this is
τῶν δὲ στρατιωτῶν, ch. 30, 3, a long parenthetical passage being inserted, which gives the reasons of the previous hesitation on the part of Demosthenes. The island is described in similar words in ch. 8.
πολλῷ γὰρ ἄν—either ‘if he landed with a large army’, or
στρατοπέδῳ agreeing with
ἀποβάντι. προσβάλλοντας—‘they could fall on him from an unseen position and do him injury’;
ἄν goes with
βλάπτειν. The acc. and inf. depend on
ἐνόμιζε, or the sense supplied from it, the same construction lasting to the end of the chapter.
τάς—note one article with two nouns of different number: so
i. 143,
τὴν μὲν γῆν καὶ οἰκίας ἀφεῖναι. Note also neut. plural
δῆλα in agreement with the general idea of ‘the enemy's situation’.
ᾗ βούλοιντο—‘wherever they chose’, represents after a past tense
ᾗ ἂν βούλωνται; ‘wherever they may choose’.
ἐπ᾽ ἐκείνοις γάρ—‘for the initiative would rest with them’:
ii. 84,
τὴν ἐπιχείρησιν ἐφ᾽ ἑαυτῷ ἐνόμιζεν εἶναι.
λανθάνειν τε—‘and so their force though numerous would get cut to pieces unawares’, lit. ‘would find itself being cut to pieces’: so
i. 141,
ὥστε λανθάνειν τὸ κοινὸν φθειρόμενον.
οὐκ οὔσης—‘it being impossible to see at what point they ought to help each other’: so
ii. 89,
μὴ ἔχων τὴν πρόσοψιν τῶν πολεμίων ἐκ πολλοῦ, ‘not being able to sight the enemy at any distance’. Some editors in both passages write
πρόοψις in the sense of ‘seeing in front’: the word occurs
v. 8, where it means ‘seeing beforehand’.
χρῆν—the general sense of the passage deals with what Demosthenes had been thinking up to the time of the fire, the imperfect infinitives with
ἄν throughout the passage representing what in his view would have been happening if the attack had been made. We have therefore the imperf.
χρῆν corresponding to
ἐνόμιζε in line 23: so
ii. 51,
ἓν δ᾽ οὐδὲ ἓν κατέστη ἵαμα ὅ τι χρῆν προσφέροντας ὠφελεῖν, ‘there was no one single remedy, the application of which could be serviceable’:
v. 35,
χρόνους δὲ προὔθεντο ἐν οἶς χρῆν (The present
χρή is often used in a similar way. as in ch. 34, 28.)
