E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 2

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Ἀφύλακτος—yet in c. 24 Thuc. said φυλακὰς κατε- στήσαντο κατὰ θάλασσαν; from which Pp concludes that the vessels there mentioned were not armed. Thuc. however seems to imply that the guard-ships had been withdrawn, or at least were not always on the spot. Probably Pericles would have disapproved of this.

ἄκλῃστος—see c. 94, 4. Probably Brasidas planned this attack.

εἰκότως—cf. c. 8, 1.

ἐπικρατεῖν—sc. τοὺς Ἀθηναίους. πολὺ—ἐπικρατεῖν takes the place of the usual comparative.

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Τροπωτῆρα—from τροπός, leather, and so a thong which attached the oar to the σκαλμός, thole-pin. The ancients did not use rowlocks like ours.

ἀφικομένους ... καθελκύσαντας—see c. 15, 2.

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Ἦν ... προφυλάσσον—cf. c. 67, 1.

προσδοκία ... μὴ ἄν—after the analogy of φόβος, cf. c. 13, 1. If the time were pres., the sentence would be προσδοκία ἐστι μὴ ἂν ἐπιπλεύσειαν. There are very few cases of this construction, and no others in Thuc.

ἐξαπιναίως—see c. 3, 1.

ἀπὸ τοῦ προφανοῦς—a regular formula: cf. ἀπὸ τοῦ εὐθέος III. 43, 5; but ἀπὸ in such phrases is less common than ἐκ. ἀπὸ τοῦ ἴσου however is often found in Thuc. This use of ἀπὸ is not found iu the orators.

τολμῆσαι ἄν—depends on the idea of thinking implied in προσδοκία ἦν. Sc. ἐπιπλεῦσαι. καθ᾽ ἡσυχίαν —sc. ἐπιπλεῦσαι, ‘to make an attack without meeting with opposition.’ Intr. p. xliv. Cf. Arist. Eccles. 288 κατὰ σκότον = clam.

μὴ οὐκ—cf. I. 141 τὸ οὐ βἐβαιον ἔχοντες μὴ οὐ προαναλώσειν. M. T. 817.

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Καὶ ἐχώρουν—καὶ marks the carrying out of the plan they had formed. In this idiom the rel. sense of ὡς, ‘as,’ is hardly distinguished from the temporal. Cf. c. 2, 4.

οὐκέτι—again there is irony in the narrative. Cf. c. 80, 1.

Σαλαμῖνος—first for emphasis. Cf. c. 7, 2, 11, 2.

ὁρῶν— cf. c. 55, 1.

νεῶν τ. φυλακή—cf. c. 69, 1. ἐπ᾽ αὐτοῦ has a slightly different meaning with φυλακή, as though it were περὶ αὐτό. With φρούριον ἐπὶ τοῦ ἀκρωτηρίου contrast τροπαῖον ἐπὶ τῇ ἄκρᾳ VIII. 106. See c. 80, 2.