CHAPTER XCVIII
τοῦ μὲν ἱεροῦ—‘as regards the temple’; the first point in the Athenian reply; the second and third are
τὸν δὲ νόμον, line 8, and
ὔδωρ τε, line 18. In construction
τοῦ ἱεροῦ depends on
οὐδέν.
ἀδικῆσαι...βλάψειν—‘wrong...harm’. Poppo considers that the contrast is rather between the force of the tenses than the meaning of the words: there seems however this distinction, that
ἀδικῶ implies damage which could be justly complained of; cf. ch. 68, 23.
τοῦ λοιποῦ—‘for the future’; partitive gen.: ch. 1, 1.
οὐδὲ γάρ—‘neither had they to begin with entered it with this object’;
οὐδέ = ‘also not’, its more common meaning.
τὴν ἀρχήν, a well-known adverbial accusative, occurs
ii. 74 and
vi. 56. It is only used in negative sentences.
μᾶλλον—i. e. if there was any wrong-doing in the case it was on the other side.
βραχυτέρας—Thucydides often uses
βραχύς in the general sense of small: e.g.
i. 14,
βραχέα (
ναυτικὰ)
ἐκέκτηντο, opp. to
ἀξιόλογα:
i. 130,
ἔργοις βραχέσι, ‘by small actions’, opp. to
μειζόνως.
τρόποις θεραπευόμενα...δύνωνται—the sense is clear, that the victorious invader satisfies the demands of Grecian law if he maintains to the best of his power the usual religious observances of the temple which he has seized. There seems however a difficulty in the words
πρὸς τοῖς εἰωθόσι. πρός means ‘in addition to’, and we should rather expect some expression implying shortcoming or variation, such as
παρὰ τὰ εἰωθότα. πρὸ τοῦ εἰωθόσι, ‘hitherto usual’, Stahl.
καὶ δύνωνται—Poppo and Classen take
ἱερά as nom. to
δύνωνται, sc.
θεραπεύεσθαι, and Classen adds that the plural verb, implying different occasions, is rightly used with
ἱερά after the words
ἀεί γίγνεσθαι. Such a phrase however as
ἱερὸν δύναται θεραπεύεσθαι is decidedly strange; and a nom. to
δύνωνται (
θεραπεύειν) is easily supplied from
τούτων in line 10.
καὶ γὰρ Βοιωτούς—cf.
i. 12, ‘sixty years after the taking of Troy the present Boeotians settled in the country which is now called Boeotia but was formerly called the Cadmean land’.
οἰκεῖα—pred., ‘as their own’.
εἰ...δυνηθῆναι— =
εἰ ἐδυνήθησαν: cf.
i. 91,
ὅσα...βουλεύεσθαι:
ii. 102,
ὅτε δὴ ἁλᾶσθαι αὐτόν. With
εἰ this construction is a peculiarity of Herodotus; see Madvig, § 169 b: Goodwin, § 92. 2.
τοῦτ᾽ ἂν ἔχειν—lit. ‘this they would (now) be holding’.
ἑκόντες εἶναι—a much stronger expression than
ἑκόντες:
ἑκὼν εἶναι, lit. ‘so far as will goes’, i. e. (not) if I can avoid it.
ἣν...προσθέσθαι—‘which they had not brought on themselves by insolent pride’: cf.
i. 78,
μὴ ἀλλοτρίαις γνώμαις καὶ έγκλήμασι πεισθέντες οἰκεῖον πόνον προσθῆσθε:
i. 144,
κινδυνους αὐθαιρέτους προστίθεσθαι. In the following clause
βιάζεσθαι is passive, and the accusatives are governed by
ἀμυνόμενοι. ἐπι τὴν σφετέραν—Delium is meant, as in line 32,
ἐν ᾐ δορὶ έκτήσαντο.
πᾶν κατειργόμενον—‘everything (i. e. anything) when (if) done under stress of the war may reasonably claim some indulgence even from the god’. For this predicative use of the participle cf. Plat. Phaedr. 328 B,
λεχθὲν...πᾶν...σαφέστερον, ‘every proposition is clearer when stated’; and for the meaning ‘done under constraint’ cf. ch. 63, 7,
εἰρχθῆναι. There seems no need for the alteration
πᾶν τὸ πολέμῳ, nor for the reading adopted by Classen,
τῷ...κατειργομένῳ (masc.).
ξύγγνωμον—‘admitting of excuse or indulgence’:
iii. 40,
ξύγγνωμον δ᾽ ἐστὶ τὸ ἀκούσιον. This passive meaning of the neuter is in accordance with the principle noted on ch. 32, 22. When applied to a person
ξυγγνώμων has the active force of ‘regarding with indulgence, making allowance’ etc.
καὶ πρὸς τοῦ θεοῦ—Apollo, whose temple Delium was. For
πρὁς cf.
i. 71,
ἄδικον οὐδὲν οὔτε πρὸς θεῶν οὔτε πρὸς ἀνθρώπων, ‘regarded as unjust by’.
παρανομίαν ὀνομασθῆναι—‘lawlessness is a term applied’ etc.
τούς τε νεκρούς—‘as regards the dead’, grammatically dependent on
ἀποδιδόναι: cf. line 3. The form
μειζόνως occurs ch. 19, 19 and
i. 130.
ἱεροῖς...κομίζεσθαι—‘to get back by the medium of sacred things what it is not seemly (so to recover)’; to barter a temple for corpses was profanation and gross impiety. In construction
ἱεροῖς is the instrumental dative.
σαφῶς τε—to be taken with
εἰπεῖν; the Athenians demand a plain proffer of what was just and usual, viz. that they might remove their dead not ‘on condition of evacuating Boeotian territory’, but under the usual terms of truce. In construction
μή goes with
εἰπεῖν and
ἀπιοῦσιν and
σπένδουσιν are in agreement with
σφίσιν.
ἐν τῇ ἐκείνων—see note on ch. 37. 10.
δορὶ ἐκτήσαντο—so
i. 128,
δορὶ ἑλών, in a letter from Pausanias to the Persian king.
σπένδουσιν—if the reading is right the active of
σπένδω seems here used in the sense of ‘making a truce’, for which the middle is elsewhere used. Poppo suggests
σπεύδουσιν, which however has little or no meaning. Others explain
σπένδουσιν as used in its proper meaning of ‘making libations’, i.e. doing their part in the joint act which would be denoted by
σπένδεσθαι (see B. and C. and Rutherford).
