T. G. Tucker, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 8

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δὲ answering to μὲν in the last sentence of bk. vii. The subject of ἠγγέλθη is τὰ γενόμενα (ibid.) Thucydides did not divide the books. The order ἐς δὲ . . . ἐπειδὴ . . . instead of ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἐς . . . brings out the opposition between the disaster περὶ Σικελίαν and its effect on the Athenians at home.

ἠπίστουι Plut. Nic. 30 has it that a stranger landed at Peiraeus and mentioned the matter in a barber's shop as a thing which he supposed to be known. The barber ran to the Archons, but met with no credit, being regarded as a λογοποιός. According to Athenaeus (ix. 72) the Athenians were in the theatre when they received the news, but sat the performance out, concealing their grief from the foreigners present.

καὶ τοῖς πάνυ . . . διαπεφευγόσι is usually rendered ‘even the most respectable of the soldiers . . . though they had escaped.’ With this use of πάνυ are compared Xen. Mem. iii. 5, τῷ τοῦ πάνυ Περικλέους υἱῷ; Luc. Philops. 5, παρὰ Εὐκράτους ἥκω σοι τοῦ πάνυ; inf. c. 89, § 2, ἔχοντες ἡγεμόνας τῶν πάνυ στρατηγῶν τῶν ἐν τῇ ὀλιγαρχίᾳ (q.v.) An indefinite adjective varying with the context is to be supplied (e.g. πιστοῖς here). But Jowett, with good reason, objects that the present use is not sufficiently parallel with those quoted. He joins πάνυ διαπεφευγόσι, ‘the very soldiers who had escaped.’ With this we may cf. iii. 44, ἢν γὰρ ἀποφήνω πάνυ ἀδικοῦντας αὐτούς. The sense with the participle is ‘no matter how much they had escaped.’ We require not ‘the élite,’ but those who had ‘actually’ been engaged. Had τῶν στρατιωτῶν followed διαπεφευγόσι this rendering would have been certain. Classen, accepting the usual rendering of οἱ πάνυ, prefers the rather strained construction ‘διαπεφευγόσι, attributive; ἀγγέλλουσι, predicative; and καὶ before σαφῶς, epitatic.’

μὴ redundant after ἠπίστουν. Cf. i. 10, ἀπιστοίη ἂν μὴ γενέσθαι.

οὕτω γε ἄγαν ‘so utterly.’ Cf. i. 75, μὴ οὕτως ἄγαν ἐπιφθόνως.

ξυμπροθυμηθεῖσι, i.e. who had encouraged the zeal of the people in the same direction. For the accus. cf. inf. c. 90, § 1, τὴν ὁμολογίαν προὐθυμοῦντο; v. 17, προὐθυμήθη τὴν ξύμβασιν. The neuter pron. accus. v. 39, προθυμουμένων τὰ ἐς Βοιωτούς, and Xen. Cyr. vi. 1, 19, ταῦτα συμπροθυμεῖσθαι, is easier. The present use partakes, on the one hand, of the accus. with verbs of emotion or feeling, e.g. θαρρεῖν, and, on the other, of the accus. with verbs of desiring or contriving, e.g. σπουδάζω.

χρησμολόγοις τε καὶ μάντεσι The μάντεις were the publicly recognised seers (Cl.) ‘μάντις is the more general term, including divination of all kinds’ (Jowett). Cf. Paus. i. 34, 3, μάντεών γ᾽ οὐδεὶς χρησμολόγος ἦν, ἀγαθοὶ δὲ ὀνείρατα ἐξηγήσασθαι καὶ διαγνῶναι πτήσεις ὀρνίθων καὶ σπλάγχνα ἱερείων, i.e. χρησμολόγοι collect and repeat oracles, μάντεις may include χρ. but are also diviners by dreams, auspices, etc. Haruspices, augures, harioli,vates, coniectores, are all stated by Cicero (N.D. i. 20, 55) to be concerned with μαντική. Cf. ii. 8, πολλὰ μὲν λόγια ἐλέγοντο, πολλὰ δὲ χρησμολόγοι ᾖδον; and ii. 21, χρησμολόγοι ᾖδον χρησμοὺς παντοίους. See the passage Ar. Eq. 961 sqq.

αὐτοὺς . . . ἐπήλπισαν. ἐπὶ- gives a causative sense to certain neuter verbs, e.g. ἐπαληθεύω, ‘verify,’ inf. 52, τὸν τοῦ Ἀλκιβιάδου λόγον . . . ἐπηλήθευσεν ὁ Λίχας; iv. 85, τὴν αἰτίαν ἐπαληθεύουσα. So ἐπιλήθω=‘make to forget.’ See Rutherford, New Phryn. p. 216. Arnold cft. Appian, Mithr. 68, περὶ τῆς Ἀσίας αὐτὸν ἐπελπίζοντες.

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ἐλύπει τε the so-called trajective τε, the subject of ἐλύπει not being the same as that of περιειστήκει. ‘The writer did not wish to say πάντα δέ τε’ (P-S). The writer scarcely possessed such consciousness: rather he was thinking of ‘both grieved and alarmed them,’ but substitutes a differently turned phrase for κατέπλησσε.

στεπόμενοι Several MSS. have στερούμενοι, a form also given in Xen. Anab. i. 9, 13, while στεροῖτο appears ibid. vii. 6, 16. The rule seems to be that στέρομαι, στερίσκομαι form the pres. and imperf., and στερέομαι the rest. Yet ἐστερούμην, Antiph. ii. 2, 9. The signification of στέρομαι is frequently that of a perfect.

ἰδίᾳ ἕκαστος τῶν οἰκείων is to be supplied from ὁπλιτῶν by a zeugma.

ἐν τῷ κοινῷ So vi. 6. In i. 80 and 141 without the article. The cases are different. Thus i. 80, οὔτε ἐν κοινῷ ἔχομεν (χρήματα) οὔτε ἑτοίμως ἐκ τῶν ἰδίων φέρομεν, and 141, οὔτε ἰδίᾳ οὔτε ἐν κοινῷ χρήματά ἐστιν αὐτοῖς, the meaning is ‘in (any) public stock,’ not ‘in the public treasury.’ Contrast vi. 6, σκεψομένους εἰ ὑπάρχει (χρήματα) ἐν τῷ κοινῷ καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἱεροῖς.

ὑπηρεσίας Cf. the concrete use of Lat. servitium, remigium, etc. Lucian and late writers have ἡ οἰκετεία = οἱ οἰκέται. Some understand the term as = ‘crew’ (rowers and sailors) as opposed to the ἐπιβάται, or ‘marines’; but Dobree, Arnold (vi. 31), and Shilleto (i. 143) are much more probably right in rendering ‘petty officers.’ In i. 143 a point is made of the possession of κυβερνήτας πολίτας καὶ τὴν ἄλλην ὑπηρεσίαν πλείους καὶ ἀμείνους ἢ πᾶσα ἡ ἄλλη Ἑλλάς. See also Lys. 162, 10; Isoc. Paneg. § 142, and context. The skill of the officers is of special importance. In vi. 31 the ὑπηρεσίαι are opposed to the θρανῖται. A petty officer might well be called a ὑπηρετής (cf. ‘mate’) of the captain.

πλεύσεσθαι MSS. give πλευσεῖσθαι. The ‘Doric’ futures πλευσοῦμαι, πνευσοῦμαι, κλαυσοῦμαι, ῥευσεῖται, etc., are scarcely to be retained in Attic writers of the best period. φευξοῦμαι, however, is warranted by the metre in Euripides, and even in Aristophanes, along with φεύξομαι: v. Rutherford, N. P. Art. xxiii.; G. Meyer, Gk. Gr. p. 473 (ed. 2). It is scarcely an accident that υ appears in the diphthong of the root-syllable of each of the above verbs.

καὶ διπλασίως i.e. by the accession of the Siceliot contingents.

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ὡς ἐκ τῶν ὑπαρχόντων. The ‘still they determined under any circumstances’ of Jowett is wrong. Rather ‘to hold out as far as circumstances (or resources) permitted.’ μὴ ἐνδιδόναι=ἀντέχειν. Cf. vii. 76, ἐπιπαριὼν ὡς ἐκ τῶν ὑπαρχόντων ἐθάρσυνε; Xen. An. vi. 4, 9, ἔθαψαν ἐκ τῶν ὑπαρχόντων ὡς ἐδύναντο κάλλιστα.

καὶ ναυτικόν answering to καὶ τὰ τῶν ξ. ἐς ἀσφ. ποεῖσθαι. Classen thinks e.g. στρατιάν τε ὡς πλείστην has fallen out before these words. Rather Thucyd. began with an undeveloped thought, e.g. παρασκευάζεσθαι καὶ ναυτικὸν καὶ τοιαῦτα ἃ τὰ τῶν ξυμμάχων ἐς ἀσφάλειαν καταστήσει. There is no ‘trajection’ of καὶ, but Thucydides inserted the participial clause parenthetically, and this diverted the construction. Otherwise καὶ ναυτικόν might mean ‘even a navy,’ i.e. not merely preparing to defend themselves against blockade, but making ready for operations of their own.

ἐς ἀσφάλειαν ποεῖσθαι ‘to secure.’ Cf. ἐς φυλακὴν ποεῖσθαι (iii. 3), ἐς τὸ συμμαχικὸν ποιεῖσθαι, Hdt. ix. 106. ἀσφαλίζεσθαι is not a classical word, but ἐς ἀσφ. ποεῖσθαι stands to that verb as ἐν ὀργῇ ποεῖσθαι to ὀργίζεσθαι.

τῶν κατὰ τὴν πόλιν in festivals, processions, etc. τι= ‘here and there,’ ‘a certain economy in.’

ἐς εὐτέλειαν Cf. c. 4, ξυστελλόμενοι ἐς εὐτέλειαν; c. 86, § 6, εἰ δε ἐς εὐτέλειάν τι ξυντέτμηται. σωφρονίσαι has something of the sense redigere (in). The present instance is different from the purely adverbial use of ἐς εὐτέλειαν=‘cheaply’ in Ar. Av. 805, εἰς εὐτέλειαν χηνὶ συγγεγραμμένῳ.

προβουλεύσουσι i.e. draw up προβουλεύματα and submit them to the assembly. Cf. Aristot. Pol. iv. 11, 9,ἀπχεῖον, οἷον ἐν ἐνίαις πολιτείαις ἐστὶν, οὓς καλοῦσι προβούλους . . . καὶ περὶ τούτων χρηματίζειν, περὶ ὧν οὗτοι προβουλεύσωσι. See Grote, vol. vii. ch. lxi. (note), who says ‘the Board was doubtless merged in the Oligarchy of the 400, like all the other magistracies of the state, and was not reconstituted after their deposition.’ This would mean that it lasted a year and a half. A πρόβουλος is a character in the Lysistrata of Aristophanes. In Arist. Rhet. iii. 18, 6, Σοφοκλῆς (not the poet) ἐρωτώμενος ὑπὸ Πεισάνδρου εἰ ἔδοξεν αὐτῷ ὥσπερ καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις προβούλοις, καταστῆσαι τοὺς τετρακοσίους, ἔφη. The same action of the πρόβουλοι is stated in Lys. 126, 10 (Eratosth.） Thucyd. does not say that the committee consisted of ten (as is generally assumed), and the ten ξυγγραφῆς of c. 67, § 1, are quite a different body.

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δῆμος ‘a democracy.’

καὶ ὡς ἔδοξεν αὐτοῖς, καὶ ἐποίουν ταῦτα lit. ‘and when they had so decided, they also (or accordingly) proceeded to carry it out.’ ὅμως δὲ . . . προβουλεύσουσι gives the policy they thought best; but acting upon a resolve does not necessarily follow. Cf. ii. 93, ὡς δὲ ἔδοξεν αὐτοῖς, καὶ ἐχώρουν εὐθύς. So Hdt. viii. 64, ὡς δέ σφι ἔδοξε, καὶ ἐποίευν ταῦτα.