CHAPTER LVIII
The history now returns to affairs in Sicily, of which nothing has been recorded since the conclusion of the operations related in ch. 25.
Καμαριναίοις—Camarina, though Dorian, was opposed to Syracuse (
iii. 86), while the neighbouring town of Gela, like the other Dorian colonies, took the Syracusan side.
πρῶτον πρὸς ἀλλήλους—note the order. The force of the sentence is that the pacification of Sicily began with Camarina and Gela, that the first step was a cessation of hostilities, and that this was first concluded between the two states in question.
πρέσβεις—in apposition to
οἱ ἄλλοι Σικελιῶται: so ch. 49, 6,
οἰκήτορες ἀπὸ πάντων. ἐς λόγους κατέστησαν—so
iii. 8:
iii. 70,
ἐς λόγους καταστάντων:
i. 23,
ἐς τὸν πόλεμον κατέστησαν, etc.
ἐπ᾽ ἀμφότερα—ch. 17, 19; here it refers to counterarguments and claims, as is shown by
ὡς ἕκαστοι κ.τ.λ. διαφερομένων καὶ ἀξιούντων—‘(the envoys) disputing and urging their respective claims’; gen. abs. without subject expressed.
ἐλασσοῦσθαι—‘to be at a disadvantage’, with cognate accus.: cf. ch. 59, 12.
Ἑρμοκράτης—the most eminent Syracusan of this time, and a man of singular energy and intelligence. His courage and wisdom undoubtedly saved his country from the Athenian invaders. The speeches which Thucydides puts in his mouth are marked by outspoken frankness and an unusual breadth of view. Their language is also striking in style, close and antithetical, and abounding in rhetorical mannerisms.
ὅσπερ καὶ ἔπεισε—this refers to the effect of Hermocrates's counsel, ch. 65.
ἐς τὸ κοινόν—according to Classen ‘for the general interest’, as opposed to the private claims of individual states: so
i. 91,
ἐς τὸ κοινὸν βουλεύεσθαι: cf. Lat. in medium. Poppo considers
τὸ κοινόν to mean ‘concilium legatorum ab omnibus Siciliensibus missorum’; so Krüger.
τοιούτους δή—a variation from
τοιάδε, with which speeches are commonly introduced, as in ch. 10 and 16. On the other hand, in
vii. 78,
τοιάδε παρακελευόμενος refers to a speech which has just been made.
