Charles F. Smith, Commentary on Thucydides Book 7

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Hermocrates advises the Syracusans to wall off all the roads leading into the interior, and occupy them with troops. But the next day being a festival of Hercules, they are indisposed to make new efforts. Hermocrates, thereupon, warns the Athenians through messengers whom they suppose friendly not to set out in the night, saying that they will find the roads guarded by troops.

2. εἰ...βουλήσεται...τὸν πόλεμον ποιεῖσθαι : cf. c. 51. 5.

ἐσηγεῖται: represents. Cf. iii.20.7; iv.76.8; vi.99.7.—τοῖς ἐν τέλει οὖσι: cf. i.90.29; vi.88.61. For the dat. with ἐλθών, see on i.13.12.

ἀποχωρῆσαι αὐτοὺς περιιδεῖν: to let them quietly withdraw. Kr. and Cl. think that περιιδεῖν with the inf. represents the possibility of anything taking place, with the partic. the fact. Kr. Spr. 56, 6, 3. But in GMT. 24, N. 2, the inf. and partic. are shown to refer to exactly the same thing. Cf. ii.18.21, περιιδεῖν τμηθεῖσαν; ii.20.6, περιιδεῖν τμηθῆναι. See also Kühn. 484, 24.—λέγων ταῦτα ἃ καὶ αὐτῷ ἐδόκει: so Vat. and most of the Mss. The sense seems to be, “saying just what he actually (καί) thought.” Cl. explains, “saying that which seemed to him from his own conjecture (καὶ αὐτῷ) probable.” Certain intelligence he did not claim to have. The reference is to ὑπονοήσας αὐτῶν τὴν διάνοιαν and the consideration connected therewith, καὶ νομίσας . . . τὸν πόλεμον ποιεῖσθαι. ἐσηγεῖται expresses the advice, λέγων the ground for it. Neither explanation, though perhaps as good as can be given, is entirely satisfactory, and St. may be right in bracketing the words.

ἀλλὰ ἐξελθόντας...ἀποικοδομῆσαι...φυλάσσειν : supply χρέων ἐστί from above.—ἤδη: immediately.

τὰς ὁδοὺς ἀποικοδομῆσαι: Schol. ἀποφράξαι διά τινος οἰκοδομῆς. Cf. i.134.12.

διαλαβόντας: Cl. and Bm. follow Bk. in adopting this reading from Vat. for προφθάσαντας of the remaining Mss. and editt. διαλαβεῖν, which occurs only here in Thuc., is warranted and explained by the imitation of Polyb. i. 18, οἱ στρατηγοὶ τῶν Ῥωμαίων τὰ μεταξὺ τῶν τάφρων καὶ τῶν στρατοπέδων διαστήματα φυλακαῖς διέλαβον; iv. 67, ὁ Φίλιππος κλείσας τὰς πύλας τοῦ Κορίνθου καὶ διαλαβὼν τὰς ὁδοὺς φυλακαῖς. Cf. Diod. xiv. 75, καὶ Διονύσιος τὰς ὁδοὺς διαλαβὼν φυλακαῖς. Suidas, citing our passage, explains: διαλαβών, προκατασχών. See App.— οἱ δέ: sc. ἐν τέλει ὄντες.

10. ξυνεγίγνωσκον: were of the same opinion; ξυν- with adv. force. Cf. ii.60.15.

ἄρτι...ἀναπεπαυμένους : “the men having just gladly taken a little repose after the great sea-fight.” On account of ἀσμένους and the prep. ἀπό, ἀναπεπαυμένους is to be preferred to πεπαυμένους of Vat. For the simple partic. and gen. abs. co-ord., see Kr. Spr. 56, 14, 2.— 14. οὐ δοκεῖν: depends loosely on ἐγίγνωσκον (or ἔλεγον) to be supplied from ξυνεγίγνωσκον above.—ἄν: belongs with ἐθελῆσαι.

ὑπὸ τοῦ περιχαροῦς : “by reason of their great joy.” ὑπό as in c. 72. 5. τὸ περιχαρές occurs also in ii.51.28.

σφῶν: the gen. with πείθεσθαι not elsewhere found in Att. prose. Kühn. 417, note 6; Kr. Spr. 48, 7, 8. Kr. compares Eur. I. A. 726, πείθεσθαι γὰρ εἴθισμαι σέθεν. The gen. is common in Hdt. Cf. i.59.13, and Stein's note. The gen. σφῶν is here partly induced by the preceding πάντα: “anything else from them they would be more ready to listen to than an order to take up arms,” etc.

19. οὐκέτι ἔπειθεν αὐτούς: i.e. when his arguments no longer produced any effect.

ἐπὶ τούτοις: under these circumstances. See on c. 62. 14. —τάδε μηχανᾶται: he contrived the following plan, which is set forth without connective (γάρ) after τάδε, as often after τοιόνδε. See on i.89.2.— 24. ξυνεσκόταζεν: as in i.51.7.

ἐξ ὅσου: i.e. ἐς τοσοῦτον ἐξ ὅσου. Kr. Spr. 51, 13, 9.—τις: i.e. in the camp of the Athenians, for ἀκούσεσθαι is act.—ἀνακαλεσάμενοι: (mid.) calling forth by name (to themselves). See on c. 69. 10; 70. 49. By this very act they made themselves appear to be, as they claimed, ἐπιτήδειοι.

διάγγελοι τῶν ἔνδοθεν : Schol. μηνυταὶ καὶ ἐξαγγέλλοντες τὰ Συρακοσίων. διάγγελος is found elsewhere only in the later writers (e.g. Dio C. xl. 8), but corresponds to the verb διαγγέλλειν in 31. Since it was known on both sides that Nicias had spies in Syracuse (cf. c. 48. § 2), Hermocrates was able without difficulty to get access to the Athenians. But these messengers, of course, did not belong to the spies of Nicias.

καὶ οἱ ἀκούσαντες: Kr.'s proposal καὶ οἵ, opp. to οἱ μέν, would be admissible after the analogy of iv.33.11; 68. 25. But the correlative of οἱ μέν is rather οἱ δέ in c. 74. 1, and καὶ οἱ ἀκούσαντες . . . Ἀθηναίων is logically subord. to the preceding clause, as if the sent. ran, καὶ οἱ μὲν ἀπῆλθον εἰπόντες ταῦτα, ἃ οἱ ἀκούσαντες κτἑ.