CHAPTER XXXIV
ἠκροβολίσαντο—‘skirmished’:
iii. 73, etc. The aor. implies that this skirmishing is now to be considered at an end.
ἐπεκθεῖν—‘to run out against’: used in
v. 9 of a sally from Amphipolis. The variety of words used in these chapters for attacking an enemy is worthy of notice.
γνόντες αὐτούς—a long sentence loosely strung together, consisting chiefly of participial clauses in agreement with
οἱ ψιλοί. The verb does not come till line 12.
τῷ ἀμύνασθαι—with
βραδυτέρους, either ‘from defending themselves’, i.e. from keeping up the struggle so long; or, with var. lect.
ἀμύνεσθαι, in defending themselves. The latter view gives the better sense in a similar passage,
vii. 43,
ὅπως τῇ παρούσῃ ὁρμῇ μὴ βραδεῖς γένωνται.
καὶ αὐτοὶ εἰληφότες ‘and having themselves derived the greatest confidence’.
τῇ ὄψει—lit. ‘from their seeing’, i.e. the sight of their overwhelming superiority in numbers:
iii. 38,
οὑ τὸ δρασθὲν πιστότερον ὄψει λαβόντες, ‘from having seen it’.
ξυνειθισμένοι—lit. ‘having become more habituated to the enemy's no longer appearing equally formidable to them’, i.e. having learned by now to dread their enemy less.
ἄξια τῆς προσδοκίας—‘corresponding to their expectation’:
v. 60,
οὐδὲν ἄξιον τῆς παρασκευῆς; so
vi. 21,
ἄξιον τῆς διανοίας.
δεδουλωμένοι—‘cowed’, like slaves before their masters (Arnold):
ii. 61,
δουλοῖ τὸ φρόνημα. ὡς ἐπὶ Λακεδαιμονίους —‘considering that they were going against Lacedaemonians’: cf. note on ch. 2, 1.
ἀθρόοι—with
ἐμβοήσαντες: ch. 112, 3,
στρατὸν ἐμβοήσαντα ἀθρόον:
ii. 92,
ἀπὸ ἐνὸς κελεύσματος ἐμβοήσαντες.
ἐχώρει πολὺς ἄνω—‘rose up in clouds’.
τὸ πρὸ αὑτοῦ— ‘what was before one's self’,
τινὶ or
τινὰ being implied: ch. 62. 12,
τὴν αὐτοῦ τινὰ σωτηρίαν προϊδεῖν.
φερομένων—‘pouring on them’:
Plat. Rep. 496 D,
ἐν χειμῶνι κονιορτοῦ καὶ ζάλης ὐπὸ πνεύματος φερομένου. φέρεσθαι often = to move, as of the heavenly bodies, ib.
529 D: Cic. Acad.
ii. 26. 82, sol tanta incitatione fertur: so
ἠ φορά, motion, Ar. Eth. Nic. x. 3 (4). 3.
τό τε ἔργον χαλεπόν—‘so now the struggle began to go hard with the Lacedaemonians’: cf. ch. 25, 42,
χαλεπῶς ἀπεχώρησαν. καθίστατο—stronger than
ἐγίγνετο, as implying a more fixed result: cf. ch. 26, 29,
καθεστήκει.
οὔτε—the next
τε corresponds to this.
οἱ πῖλοι—‘felt cuirasses’, or according to others ‘felt helmets’.
ἔστεγον— ‘were proof against’;
στέγω in this sense = ‘to keep out’:
ii. 94,
νῆες οὐδὲν στέγουσαι, of leaky vessels.
ἐναποκέκλαστο—the broken spears were sticking in their cuirasses and shields, and impeding their movements.
βαλλομένων—gen. abs. ‘as they got hit’.
εἶχόν τε—‘and they could do nothing with themselves’, not knowing which way to turn, or how to act. Subordinate to this sentence and explanatory of it are the three following clauses introduced by
μέν, δέ, and
τε.
τῇ ὄψει—lit. ‘in respect of seeing’, as in line 6:
iii. 112,
οὐ καθορωμένους τῇ ὄψει.
παραγγελλόμενα—‘orders’: so
ii. 11, etc.:
v. 71,
παρήγγελλεν, ‘passed the word’, or gave orders.
κινδύνου...περιεστῶτος—‘being surrounded by danger on every side’: cf. note on
περιεστός, ch. 10, 4.
καθ᾽ ὅ τι—‘as to how’, with
ἀμυνομένους σωθῆναι.
