CHAPTER XXXVI
ἀπέραντον—‘when it proved endless’; sc. the struggle (
το ἔργον) or the matter generally.
ἄλλως ἔφη πονεῖν σφᾶς—‘said they were wearying themselves to no purpose’:
i. 109,
τὰ χρήματα ἄλλως ἀναλοῦτο. πονεῖν more commonly means ‘to be in distress’:
i. 30,
οἱ ξύμμαχοι ἐπόνουν: or ‘to be hard pressed’ in battle: ch. 96, 25,
ἐπόνει τὸ εὐώνυμον.
σφᾶς—see note on ch. 9, 21. The Messenian said
ἄλλως πονοῦμεν, which is thus represented in oratio obliqua. As the subject of
πονεῖν is not identical with the subject of
ἔφη, but much more extensive, the former is naturally put in the accusative; and this is no violation of the principle by which
ἄλλως πονεῖ becomes in orat. obliq.
ἄλλως ἔφη (
αὐτὸς)
πονεῖν: cf. Krüger on
iii. 111,
νομίσας καταπροδίδοσθαι σφᾶς, where he cites a large number of similar instances, e.g.
vi. 49:
vii. 4 and 48:
viii. 32. (See however ch. 114, 31.)
δοκεῖν βιάσασθαι—‘he was resolved to force the approach’.
δοκῶ and
δοκῶ μοι take an aor. or present inf. in the sense ‘I have a mind to, am determined’: Ar. Av. 671,
ἐγὼ μὲν αὐτὴν καὶ φιλῆσαί μοι δοκῶ, ‘I mean to kiss her’: id. Vesp. 177,
τὸν ὄνον ἐξάγειν δοκῶ: cf. Wayte's note on
Plat. Protag. 340 A,
δοκῶ μοι παρακαλεῖν. βιάσεσθαι (Cob.) is tempting.
ἐκ τοῦ ἀφανοῦς—so ch. 96, 24:
i. 51,
ἐπέπλεον ἐκ τοῦ ἀφανοῦς.
ἐκ either means ‘starting from where he could not be seen’, like
ii. 19,
ὁρμήσαντες ἀπ᾽ αὐτῆς, or is used adverbially with
τοῦ ἀφανοῦς, meaning ‘so as not to be seen’: so
ἐκ τοῦ φανεροῦ, ἐκ τοῦ προφανοῦς, etc.
κατὰ τὸ ἀεὶ παρεῖκον—the meaning is that he made his way as he could find a passage from place to place along the cliffs.
κατά—‘along, by way of’, as in ch. 26, 33.
παρεῖκον— ‘affording an opportunity or chance’ of getting along:
iii. 1,
ὅπῃ παρείκοι ‘wherever a chance offered’.
ἀεί—‘from time to time’, i.e. from point to point.
προσβαίνων—‘making his approach’: also in
iii. 22: ch. 129, 24, etc. Some manuscripts have
προβαίνων, ‘advancing’.
ἐπέρρωσεν—‘gave fresh confidence to’: cf. note on
ῥώμη, ch. 29. 10: in pass.
vii. 17,
πολλῷ μᾶλλον ἐπέρρωντο. ἐπί in comp. implies sequence, as in
ἐπισκευάζω, to repair,
ἐπιβιόω, to survive,
ἐπιγαμέω, to marry a new wife: cf. ch. 38. 9.
ἐφῃρημένου.
ξυμπτώματι—a (rare) substantive from
ξυμπίπτω, ‘to fall out, happen’ or ‘to happen together’. It means therefore ‘a chance’ or ‘coincidence of circumstances’. Dem. in Dionys. 1295,
ἀκούσιον σύμπτωμα = an unavoidable mischance:
Ar. Rhet. i. 9. 32 (where see Cope's note),
σύμπτωμα = ‘an accidental coincidence’: as applied to disease it is our symptom. In ch. 68, 10, we have the verb
ξυνέπεσε, ‘it fell out at the same time’.
ἐκεῖνοί τε...οὗτοί τε—taken by the majority of editors as a parenthetical sentence. In some editions, however, there is no stop after
οὗτοί τε, which is taken as nom. to
οὐκέτι ἀντεῖχον. According to this latter view the words
οἱ Λακεδαιμόνιοι κ.τ.λ. are by a change of construction left without a verb.
ἐκεῖνοι—the Lacedaemonians at Thermopylae.
τῇ ἀτραπῷ—‘by the path’, known to all Greeks: see
Hdt. vii. 213, seq.
οὗτοί τε—sc.
διεφθάρησαν, though as a matter of fact they were not all slain but compelled to surrender.
πολλοῖς τε—two reasons for their giving ground, the one expressed by part.
μαχόμενοι, the other by dat.
ἀσθενείᾳ. διὰ τὴν σιτοδείαν gives the reason for
ἀσθενείᾳ.
