Charles F. Smith, Commentary on Thucydides Book 6

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We rule both because we are worthy of it and for the sake of security against the Peloponnesians, and we make, in order to justify our supremacy, no fine speeches about our conduct in the Persian wars. In Sicily, too, we appear in the interest of our security, and our sole object is together with our friends so to order things that we shall be freed of all danger.

ἀνθ̓ ὧν ἄξιοί τε ὄντες ἅμα ἄρχομεν...ὀρεγόμενοι : Athenian rule (ἄρχομεν) is based on the one hand upon worth (ἄξιοί τε ὄντες ἅμα), on the other, upon the desire for strength against the Peloponnesians (ἅμα δὲ κτἑ.). Again the claim of worth (ἄξιοι ὄντες) is based on two grounds (ὅτι τε . . . καὶ διότι . . . ἔβλαπτον).—ἄξιοι ὄντες ἄρχομεν: cf. 1. 75. § 1.—ναυτικὸν πλεῖστόν τε καὶ προθυμίαν...ἐς τοὺς Ἕλληνας : cf. 1. 74. § 1, 2. τε is placed after ναυτικὸν πλεῖστον as if it were a single word.

ἀπροφάσιστον: without pretexts or excuses, answering to the adv. in 72. 25.

καὶ τῷ Μήδῳ ἑτοίμως τοῦτο δρῶντες: even for the Mede doing this willingly. The reproach is sharpened by καί as well as by ἑτοίμως. For τοῦτο δρῶντες, standing for ναυτικὸν παρεχόμενοι, see on 1. 5. 11. For the dat. with δρῶντες, cf. Plato, Legg. 713 D οἷον δρῶμεν τοῖς ποιμνίοις. Kr. Spr. 46, 12, 3.

οὐ καλλιεπούμεθα κτἑ.: we do not say in fine phrases that etc. For a similar frank admission of the policy of expediency, cf. 5. 89.—τὸν βάρβαρον μόνοι καθελόντες: such a claim would have been correct at most for Marathon (cf. 1. 73. § 4). καθελόντες, having overthrown, as 1. 77. 20; 3. 13. 32; 4. 85. 7.

εἰκότως ἄρχομεν: cf. 82. 3.— ἐπ̓ ἐλευθερίᾳ...κινδυνεύσαντες : referring to 76. § 4.

τῶνδε: i.e. τῶν τε Ἰώνων καὶ τῶν νησιωτῶν.

πᾶσι δὲ ἀνεπίφθονον...ἐκπορίζεσθαι : no one however is to be blamed for providing for his own safety, as we have done by the subjugation of the Ionians and islanders. Cf. 1. 75. § 5.

καὶ νῦν: as 86. 4, 14; 89. 10.— 11. ὁρῶμεν καὶ ὑμῖν ταὐτὰ ξυμφέροντα: Cl. rightly follows Haacke in adopting ταὐτά of E for ταῦτα of the other Mss. ταῦτα（τὸ ἡμᾶς παρεῖναι) is hardly satisfactory, because the presence of the Athenians in Sicily could not yet be represented as of itself advantageous to the Camarinaeans; that depended entirely on the motive of their coming. But the assertion of a mutual interest in hindering Syracusan supremacy over all Sicily was from the standpoint of the Athenians quite appropriate.

ἀποφαίνομεν δέ: (sc. τοῦτο) and this we prove to you.—ἐξ ὧν οἵδε τε διαβάλλουσι κτἑ.: referring to the objects of the Athenians in their Sicilian enterprise, which were discredited by the Syracusans and suspected in the highest degree by the Camarinaeans (cf. 88. § 1), but if correctly conceived, acc. to the orator, must lead the Camarinaeans to recognize that their interests were the same as those of the Athenians.

οἵδε διαβάλλουσι: cf. 76. § 2; 77. § 1, 2.—ἐπὶ τὸ φοβερώτερον: with exaggerated fear. Cf. ἐπὶ τὸ φοβερώτερον ἀγγέλλεσθαι Dion. H. Arch. 1. 57; Dio C. 47. 24. 1. See on ἐπὶ τὸ πλεῖον 34. 43.

λόγου ἡδονῇ : cf. ἡδονῇ λόγων 3. 40. 7; ἀκοῆς ἡδονῇ 3. 38. 31.

τὸ παραυτίκα τερπομένους : of the seductive effect of speech, as 2. 41. 14 τὸ αὐτίκα τέρπειν of poetry.—τῇ δ᾽ ἐγχειρήσει: (temporal) when it comes to action.

γάρ: refers to ἀποφαίνομεν (11). —εἰρήκαμεν: cf. 82. § 2.

καὶ τὰ ἐνθάδε...καταστησόμενοι : (sc. λέγομεν) and (we say) that we are come for the same reason, with our friends to place matters here on a safe footing, i.e. to secure the Siceliotes against the lust for rule on the part of the Syracusans. Cl. put a semicolon after πράσσοντας and explained the γάρ clause as taking up ἀποφαίνομεν (“now then, as we have often said . . . , so we declare”). But it seems hardly to be doubted that Thuc., if he had come to revise his work, would have inserted λέγομεν or φαμέν, and therefore it is unnecessary, with St., to change ἥκειν to ἥκομεν.

διὰ τὸ αὐτό : i.e. διὰ δέος, not anxious fear, but well-grounded apprehension.— μετὰ τῶν φίλων: the real kernel of the argument: “we wish only common action.”

καὶ οὐ δουλωσόμενοι: sc. τὰ ἐνθάδε.

μὴ παθεῖν τοῦτο : sc. ὑπὸ Συρακοσίων. τοῦτο, i.e. τὸ δουλωθῆναι.