Charles F. Smith, Commentary on Thucydides Book 7

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At the beginning of spring, Attica is invaded and Decelea occupied and fortified. At the same time, the Lacedaemonians, Boeotians, Corinthians, and Sicyonians send fresh troops to the Syracusans. The transports which convey these depart unmolested on their voyage, being protected by the 25 triremes of the Corinthians, which hold in check the Attie ships at Naupactus.

1. τοῦ ἐπιγιγνομένου ἦρος εὐθὺς ἀρχομένου πρῴτατα: see App.

ἐς τὴν Ἀττικὴν ἐσέβαλον: on the significance of this invasion in determining the periods of the Peloponnesian War, see App. to v.25.10.

τὰ περὶ τὸ πεδίον: περί of a geographical designation without defined limits. See on i.5.17. The level country is meant which stretches from the western border of Attica up toward the Parnes mountain range, called also πεδιάς and μεσόγαια. See Bursian, Geogr. von Griechenland, I. p. 263. Where the road to Boeotia cuts through the eastern Parnes, almost due north from Athens, at the highest point of the pass (now called Κληδί) on the site of the present village of Tatói, lies Decelea, where the Lacedaemonians built the Epiteichismos. See Bursian, I. p. 335.

κατὰ πόλεις διελόμενοι τὸ ἔργον; as in ii.78.4, διελόμενοι κατὰ πόλεις τὸ χωριόν. Cf. ii.75.11; iv.69.10; v.75.22; 114. 3.

8. παραπλήσιον: often joined with more or less similar expressions, as ὁμοῖα καὶ παραπλήσια, i.140.5; ἴσον καὶ παραπλήσιον, c. 42. 10; τοιαῦτα καὶ παραπλήσια, c. 78. 4; i.22.18; παραπλήσιαι καὶ ἔτι πλείους, iii.17.3. Hence the addition καὶ οὐ πολλῷ πλέον is not objectionable here. The geographical designation, however, causes some difficulty, for the nearest border of Bocotia is by no means 120 stadia distant. The measurement was prob. taken on the road most used by the Athenians, that to Oropus, which was then in their possession.

ἐπὶ τῷ πεδίῳ...ᾠκοδομεῖτο τὸ τεῖχος : ἐπί with the dat. in the hostile sense of ἐπιτειχίζειν, c. 47. 15, and ἐπιτειχισμός, c. 18. 29; 28. 13, and of τῇ χώρᾳ ἐπῳκεῖτο, c. 27. 11. ἐς τὸ κακουργεῖν is added to explain the object still more clearly. Cf. vi.12.11, ἐς τὸ ἄρχειν. St. and Kr. strike out ἐς τὸ κακουργεῖν.

τῆς χώρας τοῖς κρατίστοις : the most fruitful parts of the Mesogaia, between Thria, Acharnae, Cephissia, and Oenoë, which on this very account were liable ἐς τὸ κακουργεῖν.

ἐπιφανές : visible. See on vi.96.10. Cf. Xen.Hell. i.1.35, Ἄγις δὲ ἐκ τῆς Δεκελείας ἰδὼν πλοῖα πολλὰ σίτου εἰς Ηειραιᾶ καταθέοντα.

13. ἀπέστελλον: were dispatching. Cf. c. 20. 7; ii.85.10.—ταῖς ὁλκάσι: without the ἐν of c. 7. 12; 17. 10; 18. 30; 50. 6. The dat. indicates here, as in 29 below, the unusual means of transportation.

τοὺς ὁπλίτας: those mentioned in c. 17. 4.

τῶν Εἱλώτων...τοὺς βελτίστους : this use of Helots for foreign wars seems to have become customary after it had been introduced by Brasidas (iv. 80. § 2).

νεοδαμώδων: the class of new citizens formed of Helots emancipated for service in war. Cf. c. 58. 12; viii.5.7. They are first mentioned in v.34.6. See Schoemann, Griech. Alterthümer, I. p. 205 ff. The accent is acc. to Herod. I. 428, 13.

19. ἐν τοῖς πρῶτοι: so Bk. and the later editt., against the Mss., following the constant usage of Thuc. The phrase means inter primos, and occurs nine times in Thuc. H. 652 a; Kühn. 349^{b}, 7. See on i.6.6. Acc. to c. 17. 13, 25, ships had already been dispatched, though not to Sicily. See below, 26.—ὁρμήσαντες:=ὁρμηθέντες, though less freq. Cf. iii.24.1; iv.36.6; 90. 15.

ἀφῆκαν: sc. τὰς ναῦς; in Thuc. only here, and likewise once in Hdt. (vii.193.13). ἀφιέναι seems to have been used on account of the bolder voyage through the open sea (ἐς τὸ πέλαγος) without touching at Corcyra and the Italian coast, as ships coming out of the Corinthian Gulf usually did. Further particulars about these vessels are given in c. 50. On the form of the aor., see App.

ἄρχοντα...προστάξαντες : the expression occurs in four other places in Thuc., viz.: iii.26.3; vi.93.8; viii.23.21; 39. 13. See App. on iii.26.3.

Σικυώνιοι: but ἀναγκαστοὶ στρατεύοντες (c. 58. 17), since the Lacedaemonians had forced an oligarchical constitution on them (v. 81. § 2).

26. αἱ δὲ...ἀνθώρμουν : cf. c. 17. § 4; 31. § 4.

ταῖς εἴκοσιν Ἀττικαῖς: the squadron regularly stationed at Naupactus, not the 20 triremes (c. 17. § 2) which were to watch the whole coast of the Peloponnese.— 29. αὐτοῖς: dat. of interest in loose relation, as in i.6.8; 48. 9; iii.98.9. G. 184, 3, N. 4; H. 771.

καὶ τὸ πρῶτον: from the very beginning they had been intended for this duty.

ὅπως μὴ...τὸν νοῦν ἔχωσι : the same const. also in viii.8.16. Cf. iii.22.29.