E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 7

---

---

αὖθις—referring to the previous sea-fight.

ἄλλῃ—as well. cf. c. 4.3.

παρασκευῇ—force.

τοῦ πεζοῦ—what is called the gen. of material. Rutherford Syn. § 106.

πρὶν ἐλθεῖν—depends on φθάσαι. πρὶν regularly takes aor. infin. unless continuance or attempt is implied.

ξυνέλεγον—equivalent to pluperf. in a rel. clause. It is like the historic pres. for aor.

---

ὡς—in such a manner as would give them the advantage according to what they had learned from the former battle. 8-9.

τι πλέον . . . σχήσοντες—cf. πλέον τί ἐστι with dat., and πλέον τι ποιεῖν. Cf. on § 5,

ἐνεῖδον=to learn by experience in action.

ξυντεμόντες ἐς ἔλασσον—shortening.

ἀντήριδας ἀπ᾽ αὐτῶν—stays of timber which extended from the cat-heads through the sides of the ship, and projected nine feet both ways, inside and outside.

τοῖχος—wall of a building: τεῖχος wall of a town. For a similar distinction cf τέμαχος slice of fish: τόμος slice of meat.

πρῴραθεν—with ἐπισκευασάμενοι, strengthening them at the prow.

---

διὰ τὸ μὴ—because they rowed round and struck the enemy broadside, and did not meet him prow to prow.

οὐκ ἐν πολλῷ—for ἐν οὐ πολλῷ: cf. II. 102, and μὴ ἐπ᾽ ἀγαθῷ II. 17.2.

πρὸς ἑαυτῶν—so πρὸς τῶν πολεμίων c. 49.2. Not a common use.

πρὸς κοῖλα—sc. τὰ ἔμβολα.

---

σφῶν—with περίπλουν οὔτε δ. For the order cf. II. 5.5 σφῶν πειραθέντες καταλαβεῖν τὴν πόλιν. It is put in contrast with Ἀθηναίοις

περίπλουν—the manœuvre of rowing round and ‘boring’ the enemy's vessels into a small space, so as to throw them into confusion.

διέκπλουν—the manœuvre of ‘rowing through the intervals of the adversary's line, and thus getting in their rear, . . . and before the ship of the adversary could change its position, of striking it either in the stern, or in some weak part.’ Grote. It is first heard of in Herod. VI. 12.

ᾦπερ τῆς τέχνης—which were the very manœuvres on which they depended most.

αὐτοὶ γὰρ κ.τ.λ.—for they themselves as far as possible would not, on the one hand, give them a chance of breaking their line, while the want of pace, on the other hand, would prevent them from boring them in.

τὸ μὲν . . . τὸ δὲ—adverbial, as τὰ μὲν . . . τὰ δέ, τοῦτο μὲν . . . τοῦτο δέ.

οὐ δώσειν διέκπλουν—so II. 83.5 οὐ διδόντες διέκπλουν.

κωλύσειν ὥστε—in Thuc. verbs of advising, preventing, and agreeing—as πείθειν, εἴργειν, ξυμβαίνειν—most commonly take ὥστε among verbs that can take the simple infin.

---

τῇ τε πρότερον—they would purposely employ the system of charging prow to prow, which was before considered want of skill in their pilots. τὸ ἀντίπ ρῳρον ξυγκροῦσαι is put as the supposed definition of ἀμαθία τῶν κυβερνητῶν, and the form of the sentence is an example of the effect which Thuc. produces by emphasising single words—here ἀμαθίᾳ. Thuc. much prefers giving definitions to giving examples; whereas in later oratory examples, παραδείγματα, are commoner. For the example, cf. II. 42.2, δοκεῖ δέ μοι δηλοῦν ἀνδρος ᾶρετὴν (‘virtue in a man,’ as ἀμαθίᾳ κυβερνητοῦ here) . . . ἡ νῦν τῶνδε καταστροφή.

ἀντίπρῳρον—agreeing with the indef. subject of ξυγκροῦσαι.

ξυγκροῦσαι—probably trans., as elsewhere in classical Greek. It is easy to supply τὴν ναῦν.

πλεῖστον . . . σχήσειν—as there is no other case of the superl with ἔχειν, Kruger wishes to read πλέον for πλεῖστον, Stahl περισχήσειν for σχήσειν. But πλεῖστον σχήσειν does not mean they would be very superior to, but rather ‘they would find very great (advantage)’ The phrase may be compared with Aristoph. Acharn. 474 ἐν ᾧπέρ ἐστι πάντα μοι τὰ πράγματα. Thuc. rather affects ἔχω in place of ἐστι, as in II. 4 ἐμπείρους ἔχοντες τοὺς διώκοντας instead of ἔμπειροι ἧσαν αὐτοῖς οἱ δ.; and here the other construction immediately follows. So too the phrases πλέον ἔχω and πλέον ἐστι are the same. Aristoph. Plut. 531 τί πλέον πλουτεῖν ἐστιν;

τὴν γὰρ ἀνάκρουσιν—for if driven back the A. would not be able to back in any direction except on to the shore, and that only through a short distance and to a small part, namely in the coast-line of their own camp. άνάκρουσις means backing for a new attack.

ἐξωθουμένοις—technical word for being thrust back or ashore in a sea fight, and driven back in a land battle.

ταύτην—sc. τὴν γῆν. Both the distance to the land and the stretch of coast in their power would be small.

---

ξυμφερομένους . . . ἐς ὀλίγον—forced to meet in a small space.

ταράξεσθαι—passive in sense, ταραχθήσομαι not being used until late Greek.

περιπλεῦσαι δὲ—the enemy would not be able to sail round them into the open water, since they had power to charge from the open sea and to retire.

εὐρυχωρίαν—outside the harbour, =τὸ πέλαγος.

τὴν ἐπίπλευσιν . . . τε καὶ ἀνάκρουσιν—first to charge, and then, when the enemy attempted to sail round them, to retire with the intention of charging again. The two words need not be part of the same movement, although the art. is not repeated.

πολεμίου—even if by quick sailing the A. had it in their power to sail round the Syr., yet they would be caught between the retiring Syr. and the hostile posts at the mouth.

οὐ μεγάλου—thus Plem. and Ortygia controlled the whole width of the mouth.