Charles F. Smith, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 3

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But, unfortunately, this is not the case with us. Besides, your inordinate propensity to reject proposals, through suspicion of self-interest on the part of the orators that urge them, makes it difficult to put through good measures. Still, in such important matters, we orators must look further into the future than you, espeeially since we alone are held responsible.

ὧν: see on c. 39. 1. For gen. after τἀναντία, see G. 1146; H. 754 f; Kr. Spr. 48, 13, 4. The reference is to c. 42. 24 τῷ τε πλ:εῖστα . . . ἀτιμάζειν.—ἤν τις καὶ . . . λέγειν: ὑποπτεύηται belongs strietly only to κέρδους ἕνεκα, some such word as δοκῇ being understood with τὰ βέλτιστα λέγειν. The reverse would be the natural order of the clauses in English. “Even though one seem to say what is best, if he be suspected of speaking for money.” On the correlation, see Kr. Spr. 69, 16, 1.—3.

τῆς οὐ βεβαίου δοκήσεως τῶν κερδῶν: beeause of the unproved suspicion of gain, i.e. begrudging him the gain which we suspect he has got, although the suspicion is unproved. Cf. ii. 35. 9 ἐν ᾧ μόλις: καὶ ἡ δόκησις τῆς ἀληθείας βεβαιοῦται. δόκησις, as in c. 45. 6; ii. 35. 9; 84. 4; iv. 18. 21; 55. 16; 87. 2; 126. 17; vi. 64. 15; vii. 67. 3; Hdt. vii. 185. 3. ‘Often in Tragedy and late writers, but avoided in simple Attic prose.’ (Kr.) Cf. Soph. Trach. 426, 427; O. T. 681; Ant. 324; Eur. Hel. 36, 121; Heracl. 395.— 4.

τὴν φανερὰν ὠφελίαν τῆς πόλεως ἀφαιρούμεθα: antithesis to the foregoing. We deprive the city of an undeniable advantage. ἀφαιρεῖσθαί τί τινος as in c. 58. 29; vii. 13. 18; viii. 46. 33. G. 1118; H. 748 a.

καθέστηκε: it has come to pass, with dependent inf., as i. 76. 11; iv. 97. 11.—5.

ἀπὸ τοῦ εὐθέος λεγόμενα: said right out. Cf. ἐκ τοῦ προφανοῦς, See on ἐκ τοῦ εὐθέος, i. 34. 10.—7.

τὰ δεινότατα: the worst measures. Cf. c. 59. 17; 82. 59; 93. 5.—

ἀπάτῃ, (8)

ψευσάμενον, (10)

μὴ ἐξαπατήσαντα: cf. Cleon's words, c. 38. 12 κέρδει ἐπαιρόμενος τὸ εὐπρεπὲς τοῦ λόγου ἐκπονήσας παράγειν πειράσεται. —8. ψευσάμενον πιστὸν γενέσθαι: obtain credence by false representations.

μόνην τε πόλιν . . . ἀδύνατον: the conclusion drawn from the foregoing. And ours is the only city which it is impossible, on account of this overshrewdness, to benefit openly without deceiving it. μόνην πόλιν is pred. to ἡμᾶς, or τὴν ἡμετέραν πόλιν, understood. Kr., Cl., and St. take μόνην alone as pred. to πόλιν, which would make πόλιν, a state, the antithesis to individuals. But, as Jow. says, Diodotus cannot mean to say this of every state, nor is there any reason for, or hint in the context of, any greater liability to such suspicions on the part of the state than on the part of the individual. περίνοια, in this sense, is not found elsewhere, but acc. to analogy of περιουσία, περιεργία, περιτέχνησις (c. 82. 22), means an excess of cleverness which will not be content with a simple view of things. Cf. Ar. Ran. 958 ἅπαντα περινοεῖν. The pl. because of its manifestations everywhere apparent. The positive and negative modifiers, ἐκ τοῦ προφανοῦς and μὴ ἐξαπατήσαντα, without connective, as in c. 59. 4.—11.

ἀνθυποπτεύεται: coined for the occasion, as is freq. the case with Thuc.'s compounds. Cf. c. 12. 12, 13 ἀντεπιβουλεῦσαι, ἀντιμελλῆσαι, c. 40. 9 ἀντοικτιοῦντας, c. 44. 11 ἀντισχυριζόμενος, c. 61. 16 ἀντιπάσχειν. For forty such ἅπαξ εἰρημένα compounds with ἀντι-, see App. on iv. 80. 4.—

ἀφανῶς τῃ πλέον ἕξειν: that in some underhand manner he will reap some advantage. Arn. compares Arist. Rhet. iii. 16. 9 ἀπιστοῦσι γὰρ ἄλλο τι πράττειν ἐκόντα πλὴν τὸ ξυμφέρον.

χρὴ δὲ . . . σκοπούντων: “still, with reference to the highest interests and under such circumstances as the present, we must deem it our duty to base our counsels on a somewhat wider forecast than your offhand deliberations allow.”—

πρὸς τὰ μέγιστα: cf. πρὸς τὸ παρὸν αὐτίκα, c. 40. 35.—

καί: = atque. Steup follows Haase (Lucubr. p. 42) in taking it as = etiam.—

ἐν τῷ τοιῷδε: as in c. 42. 19; ii. 36. 2; v. 88. 1. Cf. ἐν τῷ τοιούτῳ, c. 81. 23; iv. 56. 4.— 13.

ἀξιοῦν τι: Reiske's conjecture (in Abresch, Dilucc. Thuc. p. 319) for ἀξιοῦντι of the Mss. See Haase, Lucubr. p. 36 sqq., who rightly remarks that an adj. cannot be joined to such a partic. The emendation has been adopted also by Kr., St., and Bm. The subj. is ἡμᾶς, we orators. Cf. c. 37. 27. But Steup follows Bm., who understands ὑμᾶς as subj. and renders ἀξιοῦν, grant (annehmen). τι belongs to περαιτέρω.— προνοοῦντας: cf. c. 38. 28.—14.

δἰ ὀλίγου: temporal, as in i. 77. 22; ii. 85. 9.—

ὑπεύθυνον τὴν παραίνεσιν: they were liable to the γραφὴ παρανόμων. For παραίνεσιν, cf. παραινεῖν, c. 37. 28.—15.

πρός: as against, as in c. 56. 16; 112. 21; ii. 87. 23; 91. 18; 100. 21; v. 80. 15.—

ἀνεύθυνον: as in Hdt. iii. 80. 11; Arist. Polit. ii. 9. Hence v. H.'s conjecture ἀνυπεύθυνον is unnecessary.—

ἀκρόασιν: not simply hearing, but hearkening to, as the context shows. Cf. ii. 37. 16.

σωφρονέστερον: i.e. with greater circumspection and moderation.—

πρὸς ὀργὴν ἥντινα τύχητε: “according to the passion of the moment.” πρὸς ὀργήν, as in ii. 65. 36; Soph. El. 369. Cf. c. 44. 14. ἥντινα without prep. repeated, as in c. 17. 1; 18. 1; and with subjv. without ἄν, as in iv. 17. 6; 18. 13. GMT. 540; Kr. Spr. 54, 15, 3. St. writes ἥντιν̓ ἄν. As to the elliptieal use of τύλητε, cf. viii. 48. 37, and see on i. 142. 25. A grammatical supplement is doubtless to be assumed as original, but is not present to the mind of the speaker. Kr., Jow., Bm., and others supply ζημιοῦντες with τύχητε, while Arn. construes it with σφαλέντες.—18. ἔστιν ὅτε: belongs to σφαλέντες, as well as to ζημιοῦτε.—19. εἰ . . . ξυνεξήμαρτον: a fact expressed in hypothetical form. See on c. 32. 6.