Charles F. Smith, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 3

αὐτοῖς ἦλθε: cf. c. 5. 12; 39. 22; 70. 2, and see on i. 13. 12.—2.

ἐς Ἀγραίους: cf. c. 111. 18.—3.

τῶν νεκρῶν οὓς ἀπέκτειναν: “the corpses of those whom they killed.” Cf. c. 111. 17. v. H. (Stud. Thuc. p. 49) unnecessarily objects to the pleonasm.—4.

τῆς πρώτης μάχης: near Olpae, c. 108; not προτέρας, because it is the first of the three battles, c. 108, 111, and 112.—

τῶν ὑποσπόνδων: = οἶς ἔσπειστο, c. 111. 2. The part joined to the whole, as in c. 111. 2, 14. Kr. Spr. 69, 32, 2. Cf. c. 109. § 2.—5.

ξυνεξῇσαν: attempted to depart with. Steup thinks the impf. is used with reference to the continuance of the occurrence, as in c. 34. 5; 68. 12; 96. 11. Regarding the matter, cf. c. 111. § 1.

τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς πόλεως: cf. c. 112. l. —7.

τὸ πάθος: i.e. the fatal nightbattle of Idomene.—

τῶν μετὰ σφῶν: i.e. τῶν ἐς Ἀγραίους καταφυγόντων, the messenger representing those by whom he was sent. Cf. τῶν μεθ̓ ἡμῶν μαχομένων, —8.

εἶναι: sc. τὰ ὅπλα.

θαυμάζοι καὶ . . . τεθνᾶσιν: change of mood, as in ii. 80. 9. GMT. 670 a. Cf. c. 22. 38; vi. 96. 18.—9.

αὖ: in turn. The emphasizing of this antithesis causes the repetition of the subj. ὁ ἐρωτῶν.—10. τῶν ἐν Ἰδομεναῖς: as ii. 34. 14 τοὺς ἐν Μαραθῶνι. For the pl. alternating with the sing. (l. 14; 112. 2), see on c. 105. 5.—

διακοσίους μάλιστα: cf. c. 111. 17. The statement of the number answers indirectly also the first question of the Acarnanian (ὅ τι θαυμάζοι). For μάλιστα, see on c. 21. 4.

οὐκ οὖν τὰ ὅπλα ταυτὶ . . . χιλίων: you see, then, that these here are not the arms of two hundred, but of more than a thousand. Cl. adopted into his text, and Steup retains, διακοσίων, on Kr.'s conjecture that ς´ had dropped out. But this seems unnecessary. St. renders, apparet vero haec non esse arma eorum, etc. The Schol. says, λείπει τὸ διακοσίων εἶναι μόνων. οὐκ οὖν, as οὐκ ἄρα (13), draws an inference from what lies before the eye. Kalinka, Diss. Phil. Vindobon. ii. p. 184 would understand οὐκ οὖν = οὐδαμῶς.—13. μαχομένων: partic. impf., which tense follows in The aor. might have been expected; but in Thuc. ἐμαχόμην is used also in an aoristic sense, ἐμαχεσάμην occurring only in v. 34. 4. See Steup, Thuk. Stud. ii. p. 44.—14.

εἴπερ γε: sc. ἔστι μέντοι before these words.— 15.

πρῴην: day before yesterday, as appears from c. 112. § 2 f. and c. 113. § 1. Cf. Plato Prot. 309 a, and the formula χθὲς καὶ πρῴην.—16. καὶ μὲν δή: at vero, in strong asseveration, as often καὶ μήν. Kr. Spr. 69, 35, 1; Kühn. 503, 3 f.

διέφθαρται: pf. ind., expressing hopeless certainty.—20.

ἄπρακτος: without doing his errand. With ἀπελθεῖν also iv. 61. 28; 99. 10; v. 38. 21; 56. 19; 85. 15; 86. 23.—21.

οὐκέτι ἀπῄτει: in the desperation of grief, just as in the case of the Athenians, vii. 72. § 2.

πάθος . . . μέγιστον δὴ kte(.: Thuc. often puts a pronominal subj., as τοῦτο, after a pred. subst. and before a sup. adj. which belongs to it. This posi tion of the subst. gives it a character of generality with nearly the effect of a part. gen. See on i. 1. 8. For similar concluding formulae, cf. vii. 29. 29; 30. 19. Whether this remark of Thuc.'s—in which the restrictive expressions, μιᾷ πόλει Ἑλληνίδι and ἐν ἴσαις ἡμέραις, are to be esp. noted —refers to the ten years', or to the twenty-seven years' war, cannot be determined; for neither here is the number of the total loss of the Ambraciots given, nor in regard to all the great losses of the later periods of the Peloponnesian war are definite numbers for individual states known. L. Herbst (Philol. xxxviii. p. 521 f.) cites vii. 29 f. in favour of understanding κατὰ τὸν πόλεμον τόνδε only of the ten years' war. But since Mycalessus is called in vii. 29. 12 a πόλις οὐ μεγάλη (cf. vii. 30. 20 ὡς ἐπὶ μεγέθει, sc. τῆς πόλεως), the number of Mycalessians, including even women and children, slain by the Thracians, may very well have been less than the number of the Ambraciots that fell in the three days.—22.

ἐν ἴσαις ἡμέραις: i.e. in three days. See on c. 75. 12.—23.

ἀριθμόν: i.e. the sumtotal of the fallen. As this number has not been directly stated, it is not possible to make an approximately accurate estimate of it from c. 108. 15 (πολλοὶ ἀπέθανον), c. 111. 17, and the dialogue here (§ 3, 4). Grote, Hist. of Greece, c. 51, on an arbitrarily assumed ratio between the 300 πανοπλίαι assigned to Demosthenes (c. 114. 5) and those set apart for the Athenian government (namely 1:6), and without taking into consideration the fact that a part of the booty had been taken from the Peloponnesians, reckons the loss of the Ambraciots at about 6000, which is certainly too high.—

τῶν ἀποθανόντων: see on c. 109. 9.—24.

ἄπιστον τὸ πλῆθος: the pred. adj. has the effect of a rel. clause, ἄπιστον τὸ πλῆθός ἐστι, ὃ λέγεται. Cf. c. 30. 4; 57. 3; 63. 16. With the sentiment, cf. Xen. Hier. 2. 16 χαλεπὸν εὑρεῖν, ὅπου οὐχὶ καὶ ἐπιψεύδονται, πλέονας φάσκοντες ἀπεκτονέναι ἢ ὅσοι ἂν τῷ ὄντι ἀποθάνωσιν.— 25. ὡς πρὸς τὸ μέγεθος: in proportion to the size. Cf. vii. 30. 20 ὡς ἐπὶ μεγέθει. ὡς, as in i. 10. 34; 21. 8; ii. 65. 44; iv. 34. 10. Kr. Spr. 69, 63, 4 and 6; Kühn. 581, 5.—

Ἀμπρακίαν: placed first, almost abs. See on c. 15. 4; i. 32. 17.—26.

οἶδα: the confidence of the assertion perhaps justifies the inference that Thuc. made careful inquiry in Ambracia itself. See Köhler, Hermes xxvi. p. 47. How weak Ambracia was even after the return of the remnants of the 3000 hoplites of c. 105. 3 (c. 114. § 2), may be inferred from c. 114. § 4.— 27.

ἐξελεῖν: a stronger term than ἑλεῖν. Cf. iv. 69. 5; 122. 24; v. 43. 16; viii. 100. 12; Dem. ii. 7.—

αὐτοβοεί: see on c. 74. 6.—28.

νῦν δέ: introduces the real state of the case, as in i. 71. 8.—29.

πάροικοι: only here in Thuc., and elsewhere mostly in the poets. Cf. Aesch. Pers. 869; Soph. Ant. 1139. It is used fig. in Hdt. vii. 235. 13, as in Dio C. lxxv. 5; St. Paul Eph. ii. 19.