CHAPTER XLVII
ὡς δὲ ἔπεισαν ἐλήφθησαν—the change of subject in this sentence is noticeable: for
μηχανησαμένων, gen. abs. without subject expressed, see ch. 3, 8.
ἐλέλυντο...παρεδέδοντο, for the force of the pluperfect, see Arnold's note quoted on ch. 13, 2: ‘
παρεδέδοντο must be taken with
παραλαβόντες...καθεῖρξαν, a few lines below, as if the sentence ran—you are now to suppose the treaty broken, and the prisoners delivered up to the Corcyreans. Upon their having been so delivered, the Corcyreans took them, etc.’
ξυνελάβοντο—parenthetical, ‘helped, contributed to’, with the partitive gen. like
ξυναράμενοι, ch. 10, 1: Hdt.
iii. 49,
συνελάβοντο τοῦ στρατεύματος, ‘took part in’. The subject of this sentence is
οἱ στρατηγοὶ κατάδηλοι ὄντες, κ.τ.λ., ‘the obvious fact that the Athenian commanders would not wish’; the predicate having the same force as in ch. 5, 5,
ὀ στρατὸς ἔτι ἐν ταῖς Ἀθήναις ῶν. Thucydides does not assert that the Athenians were in the plot; though it seems plain that they made no effort to save the captives.
ἀκριβῆ—the strict force of this word is ‘exact, complete in its details’. The meaning is that the
πρόφασις, ‘ground, or reason’ for escaping, urged on the captives was made fully convincing by the known feelings of the Athenians; so Poppo, Krüger, etc., in agreement with the Scholiast. Arnold however takes
πρόφασις as ‘the pretence for killing them’ and
ἀκριβής as ‘going to the very letter of the bond’.
μὴ ἂν βοὐλεσθαι—such phrases as
δῆλός εἰμι usually take a participial construction; and possibly
καταδηλοῦντες should be read: see however note on ch. 38, 3,
δηλοῦντες προσίεσθαι.
προσποιῆσαι—‘to add, attach’: lit.
ii. 2,
τὴν πόλιν Θηβαίοις προσποιῆσαι, ‘to make over the city’: so
i. 55. The word is more common in the middle, meaning to win or claim for one's self.
παραλαβόντες—corresponds to
παρεδέδοντο line 3:
παραλαμβάνω=traditum accipere: cf.
v. 95, where it is used of a traditional policy.
καθεῖρξαν—so in all MSS. Classen however reads
κατεῖρξαν, on the ground that this is the form found elsewhere in Thucydides, aud that he also invariably uses
ἀπείγρω. Buttmann considered that
εἴργω meant to shut out,
εἴργω to shut in. Poppo says the word having here the literal force of ‘shutting in’ is properly written with
θ. It is to be observed that the other instances of
κατείργω in Thuc. are metaphorical in meaning and in the pres. or imp. tense, e.g.
vi. 6,
κατεῖργον αὐτοὺς τῷ πολέμῳ. For
ἐς cf. ch. 57, 10,
ἐς τὸ τεῖχος κατακλῄεσθαι: and note on
αὑτόσε ch. 1, 20. Dem. de Cor. 258, has
ἐν οἰκίσκῳ καθείρξας.
κατὰ εἴκοσιν—ch. 10, 19.
εἴπου...ἴδοι—frequentative, like
εἴ που δέοι ch. 4, 9.
τῆς ὁδοῦ—partitive gen., like
τῆς φυγῆς ch. 33, 15.
προσιόντας—‘coming up’ to receive the blows of the executioners; there is no manuscript authority for the suggested alteration
προιόντας, though such words might easily be confused.
