Charles F. Smith, Commentary on Thucydides Book 6

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During the preparations for the procession, the two leaders, suspecting that their plot had been betrayed to the tyrant and without waiting for their accomplices, attack Hipparchus, who was some distance from his brother, and kill him. Harmodius is cut down immediately by Hipparchus' attendants; Aristogeiton escapes for the time, but later is captured and put to death.— 1. καὶ ὡς: and when, vividly introducing the execution of the plan.

ἔξω ἐν τῷ Κεραμεικῷ καλουμένῳ: see App. —ἔξω: outside the city, as 49. 12; 2. 15. 21, 18. 17; 3. 81. 7; 4. 84. 6, 106. 4.— διεκόσμει, (5) προῇσαν: the two impfs. in paratactic relation to each other: while the one was occupied, the others proceeded to the execution of the plot. προῇσαν perhaps intentionally repeated after προιέναι: there ἕκαστα τῆς πομπῆς, here ἐς τὸ ἔργον.

τῶν ξυνωμοτῶν σφίσι: = τῶν σφίσι ξυνομοσάντων. The const. of personal verbal substs. with the dat. is rarer than that of neuters (see Kr. Spr. 48, 12, 5; Kühner-Gerth H, 1, 426 f.), but not on that account to be rejected in Thuc. Cl. conjectures τῶν ξυνομωμοκότων σφίσι, comparing 56. 12.

οἰκείως: Schol. φιλικῶς.

εὐπρόσοδος : as personal characteristic also Xen. Ages. 9. 2. Cf. δυσπρόσοδος 1. 130. 10.—ὁ Ἱππίας: repeated perhaps to make clear that τις (5) is not subject. Van H. brackets.

ἔδεισαν: became frightened (aor.).—μεμηνῦσθαι: with pers. subj. as 53. 5 μεμηνυμένων.

ὅσον οὐκ : all but. See on 2. 94. 6. With ἤδη also 8. 96. 13.

τὸν λυπήσαντα σφᾶς: i.e. Hipparchus.

πρότερον προτιμωρήσασθαι: for similar pleonasms, see on 1. 23. 21. πρὶν ξυλληφθῆναι is to be supplied in thought (cf. 1. 20. 12). For the aor., adopted by St., Hude, Bm., see on 6. 3. All the Mss. except M read προτιμωρής εσθαι, which Cl. (followed by Steup) would justify on the ground that through the intervening πρότερον, εἰ δύναιντο (if in any way they could, before Hippias should seize them), ἐβούλοντο gets the force of ἤλπιζον. προτιμωρεῖν occurs also 1. 74. 16; elsewhere only in late writers.

ὥσπερ εἶχον: just as they were. See on 1. 134. 14.—τῶν πυλῶν: see App. on 2.—περιέτυχον τῷ Ἱππάρχῳ παρὰ τὸ Λεωκόριον καλούμενον κτἑ.: for the Leocorium, see on 1. 20. 13. The statement there, τῷ Ἱππάρχῳ περιτυχόντες περὶ τὸ Λεωκόριον καλούμενον τὴν Παναθηναϊκὴν πομπὴν διακοσμοῦντι ἀπέκτειναν (cf. Arist. Ath. Pol. 18. § 3 τὸν μὲν Ἵππαρχον διακοσμοῦντα τὴν πομπὴν παρὰ τὸ Λεωκόριον ἀπέκτειναν), is prob. best brought into agreement with the opening of the present chapter (καὶ ὡς ἐπῆλθεν ἡ ἑορτή, Ἱππίας μὲν . . . διεκόσμει κτἑ.) by assuming that both brothers were arranging the procession, the one outside in the Ceramicus, the other in the region of the Agora. Aristotle (18. § 3) makes Hippias await the procession on the Acropolis.

<καὶ> εὐθὺς κτἑ.: καί, adopted by nearly all editors without Mss. authority, is necessary unless one accepts Badham's bold conjecture περιτυχόντες. A third καί introducing the account of the actual assault accords well with the haste of Harmodius and Aristogeiton (ὥσπερ εἶχον ὥρμησαν, εὐθὺς ἀπερισκέπτως προσπεσόντες), whereas by an adversative (εὐθὺς δ̓), as Hude and Marchant write, after F. Portus, the separate occurrences, which are all the consequence of ἐβούλοντο πρότερον προτιμωρήσασθαι, are too much torn apart. Since καί occurs several times in quick succession and καλούμενον immediately precedes, it might easily have dropped out.

ἀπερισκέπτως: cf. ἡ ἀλόγιστος τόλμα 59. 2. The word occurs also 65. 4; 4. 10. 4, 108. 23; elsewhere only in late writers.—ὡς ἂν μάλιστα δἰ ὀργῆς: (sc. προσπέσοιεν, cf. 1. 33. 5) in extreme wrath, the cause of which in Aristogeiton is expressed by the adj. ἐρωτικῆς, in Harmodius by the ptc. ὑβρισμένος. See on 59. 1.

ἔτυπτον: the impf. indicating repeated blows, the pres. (ἀποκτείνουσιν) expressing the result.

τὸ αὐτίκα: for the moment. See on 4. 107. 2.—ὁ Ἀριστογείτων: added by way of explanation, as 2. 29. 12; 7. 57. 28.

ξυνδραμόντος τοῦ ὄχλου: not to assist him; but he availed himself of the confusion to escape.—ληφθείς: i.e. by the pursuing δορυφόροι.

οὐ ῥᾳδίως διετέθη : was handled not softly, i.e. cruelly killed (οὐ ῥᾳδίως, κακῶς Hesych. and Phot.). He was tortured for the names of his accomplices, acc. to Arist. 18. § 4 ff., Polyaen. l. 22, Justin. 2. 9, etc.