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μηνυταῖς—the technical word for an informer who had not full citizen-rights
27. εἰώθασιν—sc. χρῆσθαι.
4. Ἀργίλιος—he was a slave from the Thracian town Argilus.
5. αὐτοῦ ... ἐκείνῳ—applying to the same person; cf. IV. 73. 4; VI. 61. 7 κατέγνωσαν αὐτοῦ καὶ τῶν μετ᾽ εκείνου: Audoc. 1, 64 εἶπον αὐτοῖς ... ἐκείνοις δέ: conversely vii. 14 εἰ προσγενήσεται ... πρὸς ἐκείνους χωρῆσαι, διαπεπολεμήσεται αὐτοῖς: Plat. Rep. p. 343 C εὐδαίμονα ἐκεῖνον ποιοῦσιν ὑπηρετοῦντες αὐτῷ.
μηνυτὴς γίγνεται, δείσας ... καὶ παρασημηνάμενος ... λύει —καί joins δείσας to λύει, which should strictly be λύσας: the constn. is thus changed from partic. to finite verb, as 2.47 λεγόμενον μὲν ... οὐ μέντοι ἐμνημονεύετο: vii. 13 τῶν ναυτῶν μὲν ... ἀπολλυμένων, οἰ δὲ θεράποντες ... αὐτομολοῦσι.
Stem reads δς δείσας, but no change is needed. καί does not join γίγνεται to λύει because the clause with λύει is anterion in time to γ. μηνυτής, and such a hysteron proteron is without example in Thuc.
6. κατὰ ἐνθύμησίν τινα=ἐνθυμηθείς, because he noticed.
8. παρασημηνάμενος—counterfeiting; ‘for Thuc. says παρασημηνάμενος τὴν σφραγῖδα in the sense of παρατυπώσασθαι’ Pollux viii. 27. This reading, restored by Hude, is better than παραποιησάμενος, which is probably a gloss on it.
ἢν ψευσθῇ τῆς δόξης—i.e. if his suspicion about the contents of the letter proved false. He could then replace the seal and go on to Artabazus. Did it not occur to him that even in this case he might ‘never return,’ i.e. be put to death?
9. ἢ καὶ ἐκεῖνος—i.e. in case Pausanias should ask for the letter back before the messenger left, in order to alter something in it. If the messenger's suspicion about the letter proved false, he would say nothing, but seal up the letter. But suppose the man's suspicions proved true, why should be not have contemplated an immediate visit to the ephors, without giving Pausanias time to ask for the letter back? In point of fact this is what the man did. (The text is suspected by some edd.—e.g Herwerden and Stenp—but the confusion of the messenger's motives seems to come from Thuc.)
Commentary on Thucydides Book 1. E. C. Marchant. 1905. London. MacMillan and Company, Ltd.
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