E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 6

Ἑρμοκράτης—leader of the aristocratie party, and ranked by later writers with Timoleon. His chief doctrine, compared by Freeman to the Monroe doctrine, was Sicily for the Siceliots. He had persuaded the Greek cities of Sieily to make peacc in 424, and thus had already dealt a heavy blow to Athenian designs in the island. Dionysius I. married his daughter.

ὥσπερ καὶ ἄλλοι τινες—referring to others who had spoken before him.

τοῦ ἐπίπλου τῆς ἀ—Thuc. often places the objective gen. first when it is specially emphatic. In other authors, except Herod, and Hippocrates, it is rarely found. Andoc. 1, 15 περὶ τῶν Ἑρμῶν τῆς περικοπῆς.

λέγοντες—i.e. what they judge to be the case, as distinct from the information they have received. καταφοβηθεὶς ἐπισχήσω—ἐπέχω is often used absolutely. In VII. 33 ἐπέσχον τὸ ἐπιχειρεῖν = ‘refrained from attacking.’ πείθων γε—γε gives a causal sense to a partic. Cf. Andoc. 1, 70 ὥς γ᾽ ἐμαυτὸν πείθω. The phrase occurs several times in Plato and the orators.

ἑτέρου—often used with a compar. of an exceptional case. Cf. the common phrase μᾶλλον ἑτέρων. Here ἑτέρων would have applied rather to those who had already spoken.

πάνυ—gives a superlative force to θαυμάζετε = δ θαῦμα μέγιστον ἐμποιεῖ.

πρόφασιν—the accus. also in III. 111. The dat. is also used. ξυμμαχίᾳ . . κατοικίσει—ξ. is dat. of cause, κ. of purpose.

εἰ σχοῖεν . . ἕξειν—as this follows a principal tense, it must represent εἰ σχοῖμεν . . ἕξομεν of the O.R., as e.g. in Antiphon Γα 4 εἰ τοὺς ἀναιτίους διώκοιμεν, δεινοὺς ἀλιτηρίους ἕξομεν. (This passage is wrongly explained by F. Roth, Oratio Obliqua bei Thuk. p. 16.) Cf. M.T. § 499.

ἀπὸ τῶν ὑπαρχόντων—with άμυνεῖσθε, ‘with the means at hand.’

ἄφαρκτοι—not ἄοπλοι (Schol.), but ‘insufficiently protected.’

ληφθήσεσθε = ‘be caught.’

πιστά—refers to ἀπιστήσαντες: ‘monet ne ex summa incuria in extremum terrorem irruant’ (Oehler, In Herm. Orationem). Sc. αὐτά ἐστι.

ἢ πάσχειν—‘they will not be in a position to inflict more on us than they suffer.’

ἀνωφελές—‘is it disadvantageous.’ See crit. note.

ἢν ἄρα—‘if in the issue’ (Wilkins).

δὴ . . γε—these particles, as Herbst shows, are added to οὐ γάρ or μὴ γάρ to increase their force.

κάλλιστον ἔργον—II. 42 κινδύνων κάλλιστος, VII. 68 κινσπανιὠτατοι.

κάλλιστον δὴ ἔργον ἡμῖν—the same number of syllables follows ξυμβήσεται καί: this is called παρίσωσις.

ὀλίγοι γὰρ δή—e.g. the expedition of Cimon to the Thracian coast in 469, and to Egypt in 460.

πάντα γάρ—i.e. not only ἐνοικοῦντες but ἀστυγείτονες as well. The whole of this passage is general down to καταλείπουσιν. Hence it is wrong to explain ἐπιβουλευθεῖσιν = ἡμῖν, as Classen does.

κἂν περὶ σφίσιν αὐτοῖς—I. 69 τὸν βάρβαρον αὐτὸν περὶ αὐτῷ τὰ πλείω σφαλέντα. Soph. Ajax 828 πεπτῶτα τῷδε περὶ νεορράντῳ ξίφει. Herod. 9, 101 μὴ περὶ Μαρδονίῳ. Aristoph. Pax 905 περὶ ταῖσι καμπαῖς . . πεπτωκότες. The other ordinary prose use of περί with dat. is after verbs of fearing, as usually in Thuc. (cf. Aristoph. Eq. 27 περὶ τῷ δέρματι δέδοικα). ‘As examples of a striking deviation from his usual construction may be mentioned III. 102 δείσας περἰ αὐτῆς . . VIII. 93 ἐφοβεῖτο περὶ τοῦ πολιτικοῦ, for elsewhere Thuc. has περί with dat, after verbs of fearing, according to the usual Attic construction (cf. Phrynichus in B.A.G. p. 37 δέδοικα περὶ τῷδε, κατὰ δοτικὴν ὠς ἐπὶ τὸ πολὺ οἱ Ἀττικοί）’ (Prof. C. F Smith). But Phrynichus speaks too strongly: the construction occurs but once in Aristoph., never in the orators, unless in Antiphon, Fr. 77 we should alter δεῖσθαι περὶ τοῦ. But it is wrong to pronounce περί with dat. ‘poetical and Ionic’ with Du Mesml. (There is great variety in the use of prepositions in Attic, and in the dictum of the Alexandrine grammarians there is some truth: παρὰ Θουκυδίδῃ ἐνηλλαγμένως πάσας εὑρήσεις τὰς προθέσεις κειμένας.)

ὅπερ . . ηὐξήθησαν = ἥνπερ αὔξησιν ηὐξήθησαν (Poppo).