E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides Book 1

[4] πεποίηκε γάρ—out of a fleet of 1200 ships the poet has described those of the B. as carrying 120 men,¹ and those of Ph. as carrying 50,² specifying the largest and the smallest ἀνδρῶν is gen. of measure, as in τεῖχος ἑπτὰ σταδίων, almost confined to expressions of magnitude. The absence of a second art. with ἐλαχίστας is interesting: Shilleto rightly compares “νικᾷ δ᾽ ὁ πρῶτος καὶ τελευταῖος δραμών” Aesch. Ag. 314, where the reference is to a team, of which every member wins; just as here the two things combined are items of one fleet. As to the numbers, in Thuc.'s time the average complement of a trireme was 200. Therefore a fleet of 1200 would require 240,000 men: but the rationalistic calculation of Thuc gives about 103,000 for the Trojan War. Of course 103,000 is a far larger number than was sent out by any one state in the time of Thuc. The number of men who sailed for Sicily in 415 B C. may be roughly set down as 36,000. But 10.5 shows that Thuc. thinks of the combined forces of all Greek states, and the forces in the field during the Peloponnesian War would exceed his calculation for the Trojan War. (It seems, nevertheless, that Thuc. has not made out a very satisfactory case: τῶν νῦν in 10.3 should have been qualified.)

7. ἄλλων depends on μεγέθους.

8. αὐτερέται— the fighting men served also as rowers. This was quite unusual in Thuc.'s day. See Il. 719 quoted above.

9. ἐν—as ἐν ... παραδόσει c. 9. 4, and ἐν νεῶν καταλόγῳ above.

11. περίνεως—the only passengers would be the kings and those immediately under them.

13. μέλλοντας ... ἔχοντας—though these agree with περίνεως, they apply in sense equally to all the Greeks. We should expect gen. abs.

14. μετὰ σκευῶν—the want of space is what Thuc. alludes to. The room not taken up by the rowers would be filled with materials.

15. κατάφαρκτα—i.e. the boats had no gangways projecting along them. These gangways (πάροδοι) were used only in ships with a deep draught, and Thuc means that, as there were none in ‘Homeric’ ships, those ships can have had only a small draught, and therefore there was not much room in them. At intervals along the πάροδοι were upright posts, and the open spaces between could be closed with curtains (παραρρύματα) in battle or rough weather, and thus served in a trireme to protect the bodies of the thranitae (top set of rowers). The word is generally explained ‘decked’, but so far as one can judge, the only connexion between κατάστρωμα, the deck from end to end, and κατάφαρκτος is that only ships that were κατάφαρκτοι had καταστρώματα. The Homeric ships, it is true, had no καταστρώματα, but this is not the point here.

16. λῃστικώτερον—more like pirate craft than warships.