Charles F. Smith, Commentary on Thucydides Book 7

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After fruitless attacks on the cross-wall from the southern side, Demosthenes undertakes with the whole of the army, provided with all that was necessary, an attack from the north on Epipolae and the fortifications of the Syracusans situated there. They ascend the heights, and take the first fortifications. Even after Gylippus takes upon himself the defence, the Athenians continue to drive back the Syracusans before their impetuous assault, until they are checked by the stubborn resistance of the Boeotians, fall into confusion, and finally are forced to give way.

1. πρῶτον μὲν οὖν...Ὀλυμπιείου : with this sent., which is usually included in the preceding chap., c. 43 begins more appropriately.—ἐξελθόντες: sc. ἐκ τοῦ στρατοπέδου.

ἐπεκράτουν : sc. τῆς γῆς. See on c. 42. 30.—ὥσπερ τὸ πρῶτον: i.e. after the fleet had united with the land army in the great harbour, vi. 103. § 1, 2. Later, it is true, Nicias declared in his letter to Athens (c. 11. 18), οὐδὲ τῆς χώρας ἐπὶ πολὺ διὰ τοὺς ἱππέας ἐξερχόμεθα.

οὐδὲ καθ̓ ἕτερα : i.e. neither by land nor sea = κατ᾽ οὐδέτερα. Cf. ii.67.34, μηδὲ μεθ᾽ ἑτέρων. See on c. 41. 15.

ὅτι μή: nisi, as in iv.26.5; 94. 9. Kr. Spr. 65, 5, 11.

τοῦ παρατειχίσματος: the cross-wall (τὸ ἐγκάρσιον τεῖχος) begun by Gylippus c. 4. § 1, carried on c. 5, § 1, and finished c. 7. § 1, by which the completion of the Athenian wall of circumvallation was rendered impossible. Nicias calls it in his letter likewise παρατείχισμα (c. 11. 15), and points already at that time to the present undertaking of Demosthenes, μὴ εἶναι περιτειχίσαι αὐτούς, ἢν μή τις τὸ παρατείχισμα πολλῇ στρατιᾷ ἐπελθὼν ἕλῃ. See map of the siege.

προσαγαγόντι: the first fruitless attempt must have been directed from the south against the more eastern part of the παρατείχισμα. The Athenians found here a strong and watchful garrison. See App.

πολλαχῇ: at different points of the Syracusan cross-wall.

πείσας τὸν Νικίαν: acc. to Plut. Nic. 21, Nicias long opposed the plan.—τοὺς ἄλλους: Eurymedon, Menander, and Euthydemus (c. 16. 5, 9).

ὡς ἐπενόει: only Vat. has ὡς, the rest καί after ἐπενόει, which was prob. added after ὡς dropped out.

13. ἀδύνατα: the neut. pl. accords with the usage of Thuc. Cf. i.1.11; 125. 5; iv.1.13. See on i.7.2. All the Mss. except Vat. have ἀδύνατον.

πένθ̓ ἡμερῶν σιτία : gen. of measure. See on c. 2. 17.

λιθολόγους καὶ τέκτονας: as in vi.44.4. Cf. τέκτονες καὶ λιθουργοί in v.82.27.

ἄλλην: besides. See on c. 4. 12.—παρασκευὴν τοξευμάτων: hardly appropriate between carpenters and what was necessary for wall-building. Madvig (Advv. I. p. 330) proposed μοχλευμάτων, Meineke λαξευμάτων (= λαξευτηρίων, implements for hewing stones); but neither is prob. The correct reading is still to be found. σιδήρια λιθουργά (iv.4.5) would suit the sense.

ἀπὸ πρώτου ὕπνου: = περὶ πρῶτον ὕπνον (ii.2.10). Cf. ἀφ᾽ ἑσπέρας εὐθύς in iii.112.8; viii.27.27.

ἀναλαβὼν...ἐχώρει : unusual sing. after several preceding nouns, agreeing with the main subj. Cf. iv.112.9. The sing. at the beginning before several subjs. is common. Cf. i.29.6; iii.70.7; 72. 4. Kr. Spr. 63, 4.—τὴν πᾶσαν στρατιάν: Diod. says, “10,000 hoplites and as many light troops”; Plut. “the foot force.”— 19. Νικίας δὲ...ὑπελείπετο : with Euthydemus, as it seems. The impf. ὑπελείπετο refers to his task of guarding the camp.

21. ᾗπερ...ἀνέβη : cf. vi.97.11.

ἄνδρας τῶν φυλάκων: τινας, which Vat. inserts after ἄνδρας, is not in accord with the usage of Thuc. Cf. ii.33.13; iv.132.16; v.115.11; viii.71.18. ἄνδρας has itself in these passages almost the force of τινας.

26. ἐν προτειχίσμασιν: rightly added from Vat., referring to the defensive outworks out of which Gylippus sallies (39). They were situated at some distance from one another, and abutted on the northern side of the παρατείχισμα. See the map.

τῶν ξυμμάχων: i.e. those from Greece proper.

τοῖς ἑξακοσίοις: this corps of the λογάδες τῶν ὁπλιτῶν (vi.96.16) which had suffered great loss (vi.97.20), had been restored prob. to its former strength, and stood here too, again, at the most dangerous post.

ἔφραζον: informed them more clearly (impf.).

31. οἱ δ̓ ἐβοήθουν τε...καὶ αὐτοῖς ὁ Δημοσθένης κτἑ.: paratactic const. for more vivid representation: “as they hastened to lend aid, the Athenians met them and put them to flight.” See on c. 4. 5.

τοῦ περαίνεσθαι: pass., not mid. as most editt. take it; for of the mid. of the simple verb there seems to be no example, though Plat. has διαπεραίνεσθαι (Phaedr. 263 e; Prot. 314 c; Legg. 673 c, etc.). It can therefore be taken only with βραδεῖς γένωνται (not with ὁρμῇ), which the Schol. correctly explains, τὸ μὴ βραδεῖς γένωνται ἀντὶ τοῦ μὴ ὑστερήσωσι κεῖται; “in order that they, in the impulse of the moment, might not be slow about the accomplishment of that for which they had come.” G. 175, 2; H. 749. Quite different is the causal dat. βραδυτέρους τῷ ἀμύνεσθαι in iv.34.4, to which Kr. refers.

ἄλλοι: as contrasted with αὐτοί (Demosthenes and the main body of the Athenians), Eurymedon and Menander with the rest of the Athenian forces. After the former had driven back the foremost Syracusans, the latter turned immediately to the attack on the crosswall (παρατείχισμα).—ἀπὸ τῆς πρώτης τὸ παρατείχισμα: the Mss. read τὸ ἀπὸ τῆς πρώτης παρατείχισμα, which is impossible. Goeller transposed the art. as in our text. ἀπὸ τῆς πρώτης means at the very beginning. This formula, as well as ἀπὸ πρώτης (i.77.11), ἀπὸ τῆς πρώτης εὐθύς (Luc. de Conscrib. Hist. i. 1), refers only to time. Matth. Gr. 282, 3.

ᾕρουν τε καὶ...ἀπέσυρον : inchoative impfs.

38. ὁ Γύλιππος καὶ οἱ μετ᾽ αὐτοῦ: Cl., referring to 27, thinks that Gylippus perhaps had taken com mand esp. of the more independent Siceliotes, most of whom were in action now for the first time; Hermocrates of the main army of the Syracusans and the dependent allies. But Diod. XIII. 11 says that Hermocrates commanded the Six Hundred (29). It is more likely, perhaps, that οἱ μετὰ Γυλίππου refers to τῶν ξυμμάχων in 28 (the allies from the rest of Greece), οἱ ξύμμαχοι here to τῶν ἄλλων Σικελιωτῶν, in 27.

ἐκπεπληγμένοι: i.e. from the very beginning, βιασθέντες (aor.) in the course of the battle.—ὑπ᾽ αὐτῶν: sc. τῶν Ἀθηναίων.

43. ὡς κεκρατηκότων: the pf. partic. indicates the fatal illusion: “feeling that the victory had already been fully decided for them.”

διὰ παντὸς τοῦ μήπω μεμαχημένου: the common use of the neut. partic. in a collective sense, as in c. 85. 12, 14; iv.96.17; vi.89.16. Kr. Spr. 43, 4, 17. So it is used in an abstract sense in i.36.3; ii.87.9, 10.

διελθεῖν: to get through with them, as in iii.45.9, διεξεληλύθασι διὰ πασῶν τῶν ζημιῶν οἱ ἄνθρωποι. But St. understands διελθεῖν in lit. sense, pervadere per hostes eosque dissipare. So Valla.—τῆς ἐφόδου: with ἀνέντων, as in v.32.13, ἀνεῖσαν τῆς φιλονικίας. Kühn. 421, 3.

οἱ Βοιωτοί: cf. c. 19. 17; 25. 13. The merit of the Boeotians is mentioned esp. by Plut. Nic. 21.

ἐς φυγὴν κατέστησαν: cf. iii.108.5; iv.14.4, etc.