CHAPTER LIII
καὶ ἀγαγόντες—for this use of the participle see note on ch. 48, 18,
παραιρήματα ποιοῦντες.
ἐπίκειται τῇ Λακωνικῇ—‘it lies off the coast of Laconia’: ch. 44, 28,
ἐς τὰς ἐπικειμένας νήσους:
ii. 27, with dat.
τῇ Πελοποννήσῳ ἐπίκειται. κατά—‘opposite to’:
i. 46,
ἡ κατὰ Κέρκυραν ἤπειρος.
Λακεδαιμόνιοι δ᾽ εἰσί—sc.
οἱ Κυθήριοι, ‘the people are Lacedaemonians of the class of Perioeci’ (ch. 8, 3):
Λακεδαιμόνιοι is pred. the subject being understood from
Κύθηρα: cf. note on ch. 1, 4. For the gen. denoting a class see Madv. § 51 c.
Κυθηροδίκης ἀρχή—an ‘authority’ or official with this title: so
i. 96,
Ἑλληνοταμίαι ἀρχή, a ‘board’ so called: see note on
τὰ τέλη, ch. 15, 2. In both passages Cobet proposes to omit
ἀρχή as being an explanatory gloss.
προσβολή—cf. ch. 1, 7: here it means a port or landing-place. Merchantmen from Egypt are mentioned again in
viii. 35: they probably imported corn.
πᾶσα γὰρ ἀνέχει—sc. either (1)
ἡ Λακωνική, meaning that the Laconian coast lay open to attack from the sea on the S.W. and S.E.; or (2)
ἠ νῆσος, meaning that Cythera commanded the coast on both sides, and therefore protected the country.
ἀνέχει—‘juts out, extends’:
i. 46,
ἡ ἀκρα ἀνέχει: so
viii. 35,
ἄκρα τῆς Κνιδίας προὔχουσα. Grote (vol. iv. ch. 53) renders it, ‘the whole Laconian coast is high projecting cliff where it fronts the Sicilian and Cretan seas’, being therefore only assailable at Malea. This agrees with the fact of the want of harbours on the Laconian coast, but the use of
ἀνέχω is against it. For
πέλαγος cf. ch. 24, 22.
