E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 3

νόσου—during 430 and 429 B.C.

ἄρτι καθισταμένου—‘just becoming established’ (i.e. settled, chronic). Cf. I. 1 ἀρξάμενος (ξυγγράψαι) εὐθὺς καθισταμένου. If we render thus, it makes no difference whether Thuc. means the ten years' or the twenty-seven years' war. In either case, ἀκμάζοντος shows that ‘in its infancy’ is wrong. But Classen's ‘in the middle period’ seems impossible: for it is inconceivable that καθισταμένου τοῦ πολέμοι should mean either ‘just beginning,’ as he understands I 1, or ‘in the middle’ at will. In V. 25 εὐθὺς ἄλλη ταραχὴ καθίστατο the verb means not merely ‘arose,’ but ‘tended to become permanent,’ applying to a period, not to a moment. ἀκμάζοντος—ἄρτι does not extend to this. A period of ἀκμή is of course meant. Athens was now beginning to feel the strain on her finances (see c. 19); and her position in Chalcidice was very precarious. (Vollgraff proposes to add ἤδη before ἀκμάζοντος, but this is not necessary.)

μεῖζον μέρος νέμοντες—‘attaching greater importance to their wish that it was not true’ (than to the allegations). For ἀληθῆ cf. I. 8 πλωιμώτερα ἐγένετο νἐμειν μέρος or μοῖραν several times in tragedy: Aesch. PV. 294, Soph. Trachin. 1238, Eur. Supp. 241; cf. τὸ ἴσον νέμειν I. 71, ἔλασσον νἐμειν VI. 88, πλέον ν. Eur. Hec. 868, c. 48, 1.

παρασκευήν refers of course to the preparations of c. 2, 2 (cf. c. 2, 3).

δείσαντες—ingressive.

ἐξαπιναίως—like ἐξαπίνης, found only in Thuc. and Xen. among Attic prose writers (for ἐξαίφνης or αἰφνιδίως).

περὶ Πελοπόννησον πλεῖν—both in 431 and 430 B.C. when the Pel. invaded Attica (II. 23, 56), a fleet had been sent out to make descents on the coast of the Peloponnese, as a counter-move. For the operations of this year see c. 16, 1; for those of 426 B.C. see cc. 91, 94.

Μαλόεις was a local name of Apollo in Lesbos; its origin is unknown.

πανδημεί—the whole people together, not by families or clans.

ἐλπίδα εἶναι like εἰκός ἐστι, is commonly followed by pres. or aor. infin.

ἐπειχθέντας is conditional.

ἢν μὲν ξυμβῇ . . εἰ δὲ μή—a common idiom, found already in Homer; cf. e.g. Plato, Prot. 325B ἐὰν μὲν ἑκὼν πείθηται: εἰ δὲ μή.

εἰπεῖν—this depends on the sense of ‘order’ implied in the passage; cf. Andoc. de Myst. 20 ὁ γὰρ νόμος οὕτως εἷχεν: εἰ μὲν τἀληθῆ μηνύσειέ τις, εἶναι τὴν ἄδειαν, εἰ δὲ τὰ ψευδῆ, τεθνάναι. Of course εἰπεῖν = κελεῦσαι. (This passage is brief and peremptory in tone: its dramatic manner is quite characteristic, and there is no ground for suspecting the text.)

παρὰ σφᾶς—put briefly for παρὰ σφᾶς παραγενόμεναι καὶ παροῦσαι: similarly παρεῖναι is often found with εἰς or ἐπί with accus.; but there is no precise parallel to the present case.

ἐς φυλακὴν ἐποιήσαντο—so VIII. 1 ἐς άσφάλειαν ποιεῖσθαι. Cf. Andoc. de Myst. 117 θυγατέρες αἳ ἐγίγνοντο ἔς τε ἐμέ καὶ Λέαγρον.

διαβάς.—the sentence, containing five participles, is an example of what Dionysius calls τὸ πυκνόν of Thucydides; Cicero speaks of him as pressus, Quintilian as densus. The participles that denote closely connected parts of the same action are joined by καί.

ἐπιτυχών = ὡς ἐπέτυχε.

πλῷ χρησάμενος—‘after a good passage.’ πλῷ = εὐπλοίᾳ, as in I. 137. (Some make πλῷ χρησάμενος merely = πλεύσας, but Antiphon V. 24 πλοῦς ἡμῖν ἐγίγνετο καὶ ἀνήγετο πλοῖα ἄπαντα seems decisive.)

οὔτε . . τε—a common idiom (cf. neque . . que or et), by which emphasis is thrown on the second clause.

τά τε ἄλλα . . ἐφύλασσον—‘and besides (τὰ ἄλλα, adverbial) having protected with rapidly constructed defences all round the half-finished (works) of the walls and docks they guarded them.’ This is the best way of taking this puzzling sentence. None of the changes in the text that have been proposed is an improvement.

περί is an adverb = πέριξ, as in Homer (Wilamowitz on Eur. HF. 1035).