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

ἐπανάστασις τοῖς δυνατοῖς the verbal noun with the case of the verb. Cf. i. 73, ἀντιλογίαν τοῖς ὑμετέροις ξυμμάχοις; Plat. Rep. 444 B, ἐπανάστασιν μέρους τινὸς τῷ ὅλῳ.

τοῦ δήμου The ὑπὸ of most MSS. is hardly defensible. The verbal noun seems naturally enough to be joined to ὑπὸ in other cases only where the sense of the noun is passive. This is true, as P-S remarks, of all the instances quoted by Classen (i. 130, ἀξίωμα ὑπὸ . . .; ii. 65, ἀρχὴ ὑπὸ . . .; viii. 64. φυγὴ ὑπὸ . . .). Thus ἀνάστασις τῶν δυνατῶν ὑπὸ τοῦ δήμου, ‘removal of the oligarchs by the commons,’ is normal Greek, but ἐπανάστασις τοῖς δυνατοῖς ὑπὸ τοῦ δήμου, ‘a rising against the oligarchs on the part of the people,’ is very questionable. See the passage quoted in last note from Plato. ὑπὸ could only be argued for on the ground that ἡ ἐν Σάμῳ ἐπανάστασις τοῖς δυνατοῖς ἐγένετο ὑπὸ τοῦ δήμου μετ᾽ Ἀθηναίων = ‘the well-known revolt against the oligarchs was brought about by the commons working with the assistance of the Athenians,’ ὑπὸ being inserted because the agency is to be emphasised and distributed, and the commons being put as the agents of revolt rather than the revolters. But the order of the words is against this, nor does it improve the sense.

τοῖς δυνατοῖς Cf. i. 115, ξυνθέμενοι τῶν ἐν τῇ πόλει (sc. τῇ Σάμῳ) τοῖς δυνατωτάτοις, where Shilleto renders ‘the most aristocratical’; i. 24, ὁ δῆμος ἐξεδίωξε τοὺς δυνατούς; iii. 27, etc. Grote, c. lxi. (note), argues strongly that the government of Samos was at this time under an exelnsive aristocracy of Geômori (‘landed proprietors’). Else why such a strong word as ἐπανάστασις? Athens had apparently not interfered since B.C. 439, and the oligarchy may have developed itself gradually. Lysander restored the oligarchy after the war was over.

ἐν τρισὶ ναυσὶ. ἐν has its point: ‘to the number of three ships'-crews’—‘filling three ships.’

ἐς διακοσίους . . . τινας Cf. iii. 111. τινας is a qualification like French quelques, our ‘some two hundred.’ ἐς is itself qualificatory. Without ές vii. 87, ἑβδομήκοντά τινας.

τοὺς πάντας τῶν δυνατωτάτων These words should be joined, the genitive being partitive; cf. inf. c. 75, § 3, Σαμίων πάντες. The superlative is correct; the most powerful were all slain, others who were less so were banished. If δυνατῶν is read, τοὺς πάντας will go with the preceding words, ‘about some two hundred in all,’ which would have little purpose, unless either a larger or a smaller number would naturally have been expected.

Ἀθηναίων τε a new and distinct point, and therefore introduced by τε rather than καὶ: ‘when too the Athenians had subsequently voted them autonomy.’

σφίσιν logically αὐτοῖς, but in the clause coming between the subject and its verb διῴκουν, and giving a reason for the action of the subject, the reflexive pronoun is not an unnatural laxity.

αὐτονομίαν which they had lost in i. 117. Part of this ψήφισμα has been discovered in an inscription on the acropolis.

τοῖς γεωμόροις ‘the landowners,’ i.e. in a local (not the Athenian) class sense. Cf. Hdt. vii. 155, τοὺς γεωμόρους καλεομένους τῶν Συρηκοσίων ἐκπεσόντας ὑπὸ τοῦ δήμου; Xen. Hell. ii. 2, 6 (of the Samians), σφαγὰς τῶν γνωρίμων ποήσαντες κατεῖχον τὴν πόλιν.

ἐκδοῦναι sc. τὰς θυγατέρας. Cf. Plat. Rep. 362 B, γαμεῖν ὁπόθεν ἂν βούληται καὶ ἐκδιδόναι εἰς οὓς ἂν βούληται; Polit. 310 C, κατὰ δύναμιν γαμοῦσί τε παρὰ τούτων καὶ τὰς ἐκδιδομένας παρ᾽ αὑτῶν εἰς τούτους ἐκπέμπουσι πάλιν. ἀγαγέσθαι is here substituted for γῆμαι.

ἐς ἐκείνους with ἐκδοῦναι, the order being a chiasmus. Cf. Plat. Rep. 360 E, τά τε ἀδύνατα καὶ τὰ δυνατὰ διαισθάνεται καὶ τοῖς μὲν (sc. τοῖς δυνατοῖς) ἐπιχειρεῖ, τὰ δὲ (sc. τὰ άδύνατα) ἐᾷ.