CHAPTER XXXVIII
παρῆκαν—‘dropped’, or ‘lowered’, shewing that they ceased to resist: so
Hdt. iii. 128,
μετῆκαν τὰς αἰχμάς, ‘dropped their spears’, or ‘lowered their spear points’, in token of submission.
οἱ πλεῖστοι—‘for the most part’; partial apposition; see note on ch. 6, 4.
δηλοῦντες προσίεσθαι —
δηλῶ is commonly followed by a participle, but here by the infin., to avoid the concurrence of two participles: so ch. 47, 8,
κατάδηλοι ὄντες...μὴ ἂν βούλεσθαι. προσίεσθαι—‘to accept, approve of’, with acc.: so ch. 108, 26,
ἃ μὴ προσίενται. The literal meaning is ‘to take, draw to oneself’, hence ‘to admit, adopt’. It is also used with nom. of thing and acc. of person, meaning, ‘to bring over, attract’:
Ar. Eq. 359,
ἒν δ̓ οὐ προσίεταί με, ‘one thing pleases me not’:
Hdt. i. 48,
οὐδὲν προσίετό μιν. ‘With this, and the former signf., may be compared the double idiom, I like it not,—it likes me not’ (Lidd. and Scott).
ἐκείνων—‘on the part of the Lacedaemonians’.
τοῦ δὲ μετ̓ αὐτόν—with
ἐφῃρημένου, ‘the officer who had been chosen to succeed after him’. So when the first and second in command had fallen at Olpae the leadership devolved on Menedaeus (
iii. 109).
ἐφηρῃμένου is the pluperfect participle, the appointment having been made beforehand in view of a possible future contingency: for
ἐπί in comp. implying sequence, see note on ch. 36, 14. For the position of the words cf. note on ch. 5, 10.
εἴ τι ἐκεῖνοι πάσχοιεν—‘if anything should befall them’ a frequent euphemism, meaning if they should fall = si quid illis accidisset (Suetonius uses evenio in the same way): cf. Ar. Vesp. 385,
ἤν τι πάθω 'γώ: Eur. Iph. T. 753,
ἤν τι ϝαῦς πάθῃ: Dem. Lept. 472,
ἐάν τι συμβῇ ποτέ. The opt. with
εἰ in orat. obliqua in a sentence referring to past time, often represents
ἤν with subj. in orat. directa in a sentence referring to present time (Madvig, § 132 a).
διακηρυκεύσασθαι—‘to send a message across’: like
διαπλεύσας, line 17:
διεβίβαζον, ch. 8, 46. In such words the mid. voice is used of those who employ the herald or get the message sent.
ἐκείνων μέν—i.e. of the Lacedaemonians; put first in the sentence for emphasis, in construction governed by
οὐδένα. ἀφέντων—sc.
τῶν Ἀθηναίων, ‘the Athenians allowing no Lacedaemonians (to pass over)’.
ὁ τελευταῖος διαπλεύσας...ἀνήρ—‘the messenger who crossed last’. All the words between the article and the substantive form the epithet of
ἀνήρ, while
τελευταῖος especially belongs to and qualifies
διαπλεύσας: so ch. 8, 49,
οἱ τελευταῖοι (sc.
διαβάντες)
καὶ ἐγκαταληφθέντες.
ὅτι—not uncommonly introduces the actual words:
v. 10.
λἐγει ὄτι, οἱ ἄνδρες ἡμᾶς οὐ μένουσι. This is a well-known usage in New Testament Greek.
μηδὲν αἰσχρὸν ποιοῦντας—‘provided you do nothing dishonourable’. Possibly implying, as the scholiast says, that death was more noble than surrender: at any rate thrusting all possible responsibility on their unfortunate countrymen.
διεσκευάζοντο—this verb is only found here in Thucydides, who elsewhere prefers
παρασκευάζομαι. The preposition probably denotes the different arrangements of the Athenians for disposing their force or distributing their prisoners, as in the following
διεδίδοσαν.
διεκομίσαντο—
κομίζομαι is the word commonly used for recovering or obtaining the restoration of the bodies of the slain: compounded with
διά it means ‘conveyed across to themselves’ or ‘got conveyed across’: so in
i. 89 it is used of the bringing back of the women and children to Athens from Salamis, where they had been placed during the Persian invasion.
τοσοίδε—‘the following number’; see note on
τοιάδε, ch. 9, 29.
ὀκτὼ ἀποδέοντες τριακόσιοι—‘three hundred all but eight’, lit. ‘failing, falling short of eight’.
ὀκτώ is genitive:
ii. 13,
τριακοσίων ἀποδέοντα μύρια = 9700.
σταδία—‘standing, hand to hand’:
Hom. Il. xiii. 314,
σταδίη ὐσμίνη, ‘close fight’: so
ἐν σταδίῃ alone, ib.
514, etc.: cf.
vii. 81,
οὐ ξυσταδὸν μάχαις ἐχρῶντο, ‘they did not fight pitched battles’.
