CHAPTER LXX
Βρασίδας ὁ Τέλλιδος—Brasidas was spoken of in chapter 11 without any description; while here we have his country and father named, as in
ii. 25. So Cleon is twice described in similar words, ch. 21, 10 note.
στρατείαν—so Poppo, etc. for
στρατιάν, cf. ch. 74, 10. The two words are frequently confused in the manuscripts; see Krüger on
i. 3, and Poppo and Classen on
i. 9. Aristophanes undoubtedly uses
στρατιά for an expedition, e.g. Vesp. 354, but the usage is very doubtful in prose. In
vii. 17 and
viii. 108 στρατιὰν ἐπαγγέλλειν is ‘to require a military force’.
ἔς τε τούς—corresponds to
καὶ αὐτός, line 10, showing what Brasidas and the Boeotians were to do respectively.
τε is slightly out of place: cf. ch. 52, 6.
ὄνομα τοῦτο—see note on
οὗτος, ch. 41, 7.
ἐξελθών—‘having marched out’, sc. to relieve Megara:
v. 8,
καθαρὸν ἐξῆλθε, of Cleon's expedition:
v. 54,
ἐξελθόντες: Classen however takes it to mean coming out from the mountain pass.
ἕτυχε γάρ—showing why he could act without discovery.
πρὶν ἔκπυστος γενέσθαι—so
iii. 30,
πρὶν ἐκπύστους γενέσθαι.
τῷ λόγῳ—his professed object was the recovery of Nisaea, and he might possibly really attempt it, but his main purpose was to enter the city and secure Megara itself against the democratical party. The definite article with
λόγῳ shows that this motive was actually put forward, while it is absent with the merely hypothetical
ἔργῳ. τὸ μέγιστον is a frequent appositional construction:
ii. 65,
τὸ δὲ μέγιστον πόλεμον άντ᾽ εἰρήνης ἔχοντες.
σφᾶς—himself and his men: ch. 9, 21.
ἐν ἐλπίδι εἶναι—so
vii. 25,
έν ἐλπἰσιν εἰσίν. The aor. inf. follows in accordance with the general construction of such phrases; in
vii. 46 however we have
ἐν ἐλπίδι εἶναι...αἱρήσειν, denoting a result not immediately looked for.
