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

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ὅσοις τ᾽. This implies a following καὶ which shall continue the idea of stealth in their approach. ‘They both arrested all those they met, and also . . . (adopted other means of concealment).’ The other means are stated in καὶ προσβ. Κωρύκῳ κ.τ.λ. (instead of sailing direct to Chios).

τοῦ μὴ Cf. i. 4, τὸ ληστικὸν καθήρει ἐκ τῆς θαλάσσης τοῦ τὰς προσόδους μᾶλλον ἰέναι αὐτῷ, v. 27, etc. The gen. is causal. The construction is not of the commonest in classical Greek. Cf. Latin conservandae libertatis, etc.

Κωρύκῳ τῆς ἠπείρου the emphatic word is ἠπείρου (instead of making straight to the island of Chios). There were several places called Corycus. This one was the most southern point of the Erythraean peninsula, about 40 miles from Chios. Corycus is properly the name of the mountain range, which ends in a promontory called Κωρύκειον (Pliny, H. N. v. 31). Livy (xxx vii. 12) has ‘Corycum Teiorum promonturium tenuit.’

αὐτοὶ μὲν . . . The δὲ-clause is not easy to supply. αὐτοὶ μὲν is not opposed to the action of the discharged prisoners, but apparently to the action of the startled Chians.

κελευόντων not on the same lines with ξυμπρασσόντων, but gen. abs. Sub. τούτων.

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ὥστε βουλήν τε κ.τ.λ. There should be little doubt that Thucydides is responsible for all the particles in the text. The original unformulated thought was ὥστε βουλὴν τυχεῖν ξυλλεγομένην, καὶ ἐν αὐτῇ ὁ Χαλκ. καὶ ὁ Ἀλκ. τοιαῦτα εἶρον ὥστε ἀπέστησαν Χῖοι. Having begun this and reached βουλὴν, Thucydides anticipates the consequences, for which he prepares the reader with τε. The sentence should then run ὥστε βουλήν τε τ. ξ. καὶ τοιαῦτα εἰρεῖν τὸν Χ. καὶ τὸν Ἀ. ὥστε ἀφίστασθαι Χίους. The latter part of this sentence is put in the form καὶ γενομένων λόγων ἀπό τε κ.τ.λ., with an expected ending ἀφίστασθαι Χίους [i.e. ὥστε βουλήν τε τ. ξ. καὶ (γενομένων λόγων . . .) ἀφίστασθαι Χίους]. The change of construction from an infinitive depending on ὥστε to a simple indicative assertion is in the manner of Thucydides. The τε after ἄλλαι is the result of a similar confusion. The λόγοι are to the effect that other ships will come. The writer anticipates (by τε) another assertion, as if some positive sentence were to follow; but that clause turns out to be, not something further they assert, but something further they conceal. The correspondence of τε with καὶ οὐ δηλωσάντων is one of sound rather than sense.

ξυλλεγομένην Note the tense. They had arranged so that the council should be meeting in the natural course at the time when the Athenians should arrive.

ἀπό τε τοῦ Χ. καὶ Ἀλκ. i.e. ἀρό τε τοῦ Χ. καὶ ἀρὸ τοῦ Ἀ. or ἀρὸ τοῦ τε Χ. καὶ Ἀ. (a frequent combination as regards the single article). It is especially after prepositions that a trajection of τε occurs (in all writers). Cf. Herod. i. 69, ἄνευ τε δόλου καὶ ἀπάτης.

καὶ αὖθις ‘and then in turn.’ αὖθις=deinde, as often.

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Κλαζομενὰς. According to Pausanias (vii. 3, 9) the Clazomenians had removed their abode to the island for fear of the Persians. οἰκοῦσι shows that at the time Thuc. writes they still lived on it. Cf. Xen. Hell. v. 1, 31. Alexander seems to have connected it with the mainland by a causeway.

τὴν Πολίχναν It is questioned whether this is a proper or common noun. If common, the article is anticipative, as in τὸ νησίδιον, c. 11, § 1. But as a common noun the word is only late, and the termination -να_ is un-Attic. There were several places named Πολίχνα; cf. ii. 85, Πολιχνῖται, Hdt. vi. 26, etc.

εἴ τι δέοι κ.τ.λ. Cf. vi. 100, πρὸς τὴν πόλιν, εἰ ἐπιβοηθοῖεν, ἐχώρουν. Goodwin, M. and T., § 490. The suppressed apodosis is ‘so that they might use it . . . (in case . . .).’ P-S, Cl., etc., prefer to punctuate ἐτείχιζον, εἴ τι δέοι, σφίσιν αὐτοῖς κ.τ.λ. According to this view σφίσιν αὐτοῖς follows ἀναχώρησιν. In any case the construction of the passage is somewhat lax. With the punctuation of the text σφίσιν αὐτοῖς (which is not so emphatic as at first sight appears, but=ἑαυτοῖς, cf. vi. 63, i. 128, etc.) depends on δέοι, the const. being εἴ τι δέοι αὐτοῖς πρὸς ἀναχώρησιν ἐκ τῆς νησῖδος. Cf. Antiphon, 769 (142), εἴ τι δέοι τῷ χορῷ. Eur. Suppl. 594, ἓν δεῖ μόνον μοι. The laxity lies in the position of the words ἐκ τῆς νησῖδος. [Stahl would seek to ease (as he thinks) the construction by reading προαναχώρησιν in apposition to Πολίχναν and dependent on ἐτείχιζον. He compares i. 90, τὴν Πελορόννησον . . . ἱκανὴν . . . ἀναχώπησίν τε καὶ ἀφοπμήν. Far easier would be a conjecture προαναχωπῆσαι. The const. δεῖ τινι with infin. is rare, but certainly Greek. Cf. Xen. Anab. iii. 4, 35, δεῖ ἐπισἀξαι τὸν ἵππον Πέρσῃ ἀνδρί; Eur. Hipp. 941, etc. No such change, however, is needed.]