CHAPTER III
ὡς ἐγένοντο πλέοντες—‘when they came in their voyage off the coast of Laconia’. The aorist gives the ‘end-view’ (Clyde) of their arrival off the coast, regarded as a single concluded fact, the imperfect
ἐπυνθάνοντο denotes the information which they went on to receive; it is followed by
εὶσί, more graphic than
εἶεν: see note on ch. 1, 13. For the somewhat uncommon combination of verb and participle
ἐγένοντο πλέοντες, cf.
viii. 86, 9: Ar, Ran. 36,
ἤδη βαδίζων εἰμί:
Hdt. ix. 2, 1.
ἠπείγοντο—‘were for pushing on’, the proper course considering the news which they received. For the imperf. see Goodwin, § 11, n. 2.
ὁ δὲ Δημοσθένης—‘but Demosthenes urged them to put in first at Pylos and carry out what was needful before continuing their voyage’: cf. ch. 17, 10,
τὸ δέον πράσσειν. σχόντας—so ch. 25, 44,
σχοῦσαι: cf.
iii. 34,
ἔσχε καὶ ἐς Νότιον: also with dative,
iii. 33,
γῇ σχήσων: so
iii. 32,
προσσχὼν Μυοννήσῳ.
ἀντιλεγόντων δέ—sc.
τῶν στρατηγῶν, genitive absolute with subject not expressed: so
ἐλθόντων δέ, ch. 16, 22: 21, 14. This construction is not uncommon when the subject is easily supplied from the context.
κατήνεγκε—‘drove the ships into Pylos’. The passive is more common; e.g. ch. 26, 26,
ἀνέμῳ καταφέρεσθαι:
i. 137,
καταφέρεται χειμῶνι:
κατά thus used in composition implies an approach to the coast from the sea or from inland; so
iii. 49,
ἐπικατάγεται, ‘comes into port after’.
τειχίζεσθαι—probably mid.: so (aor.)
i. 11:
iii. 105.
ἐπὶ τοῦτο γὰρ ξυνέπλευσε—‘for he had joined the expedition for this purpose’, a statement on the part of the historian.
ἐπὶ τοῦτο is the reading of the best manuscripts, and the accusative is supported by
ἐφ᾽ ἃ ἀφιγμένοι, ch. 18, 5:
ἐφ᾽ ἃ ἐξῆλθον,
iii. 111:
ἐπὶ τοῦτο,
v. 87.
ἐπὶ τούτῳ, ‘with this object’, is however read by many. Most editors adopt the reading
ξυνεκπλεῦσαι, making the clause a statement by Demosthenes, expressed in oratio obliqua,
ἔφη or a similar word being supplied from
ἠξίου: such a construction is common and presents no difficulty;
ξυνέπλευσε however has the best manuscript authority, and gives an excellent sense.
καὶ ἀπέφαινε—‘and pointed out (the existence of) good store both of timber and of stone, and (the fact) that the place was strong and uninhabited, as was also a great extent of the district’, lit. ‘both itself and (to) a great extent’.
ἀποφαίνω is found in this sense with a participle in
vi. 54.
ἐπὶ πολύ is constructed as if it formed one word, and is followed by the genitive: cf.
i. 50, (
νεῶν)
ἐπὶ πολὺ τῆς θαλάσσης ἐπεχουσῶν, ‘covering a great extent of the sea’:
ii. 76,
τοῦ οἰκοδομήματος ἐπὶ μέγα κατέσεισε, ‘it (a military engine) shattered a large portion of the work’: ch. 100, 14,
ἐσεσιδήρωτο ἐπὶ μέγα τοῦ ξύλου, ‘a great part of the wood was plated with iron’.
ἀπέχει γάρ—the ancient territory of Messenia had been subdued by the Lacedaemonians, and the people driven from their country or reduced to serfdom. On the suppression of the final struggle for freedom in 455, the Athenians gave the Messenians a settlement at Naupactus on the Corinthian Gulf (
i. 101—3). Demosthenes had acted with the Messenians of Naupactus in his last year's campaign (
iii. 94, etc.). He proposed now to employ them in the occupation of some post in Peloponnesus, where their hatred of the Spartans, and knowledge of the country and the dialect might best be turned to account. For such a purpose Pylos seemed especially fit. It was far from Sparta, the district was uninhabited, the position was easy to defend, and it commanded an excellent harbour. The harbour of Pylos is identified with the modern Bay of Navarino; but the description given by Thucydides in ch. 8 of the narrowness of the two entrances is not in accordance with their present state. The southern channel is now some 1400 yards in width, and the northern not less than 150. See Grote, vol. iv. ch. 52, and Arnold: also Jowett on the present passage.
Κορυφάσιον—diminutive of
κορυφή = a little top or headland.
οἱ δὲ ἔφασαν—‘they said that there were many desert capes in Peloponnesus, if he should wish to waste the city's resources by occupying them’.
ἢν βούληται represents in oratio obliqua
ἢν βούλῃ, ‘if you (shall) wish’; not
εἰ βούλει, which would become
εἰ βούλεται, as in ch. 2, 11: so ch. 2, 18. The generals wished Demosthenes not to insist on occupying Pylos, as he would find plenty of places equally useless. Their object was to reach Corcyra, without being delayed by Demosthenes' schemes.
δαπανᾶν—commonly taken as governing
τὴν πόλιν, in the sense ‘to use up, impoverish by expenditure’. In favour of this rendering a passage is quoted from
Antiphon, de caede Her. 719,
ἄνδρα ὃν ἐδαπάνησαν, ‘whom they had exhausted with torture’ (where however
ἐβασάνισαν is also read), and the meaning is said to be common in late Greek. On the other hand it is simpler to retain the usual sense of
δαπανᾶν, ‘to spend’, and to make
τὴν πόλιν the subject before the infinitive,
καταλαμβάνων, by a slight irregularity, being taken closely with
βούληται. The sense will then be, ‘if he wished, by occupying them, that the city should incur expense’. This view is supported by the fact that Thucydides uses
δαπανᾶν in other passages without an accusative following;
i. 141,
ἀπὸ τῶν αὐτῶν δαπανῶντες:
iii. 46,
πῶς οὐ βλάβη δαπανᾶν;
vii. 29,
οὐ βουλόμενοι δαπανᾶν. Rutherford rejects
τὴν πολίν. The suggested construction has some support from Ar. Vesp. 720,
βόσκειν ἐθέλων καὶ μὴ τούτους ἐγχάσκειν σοι.
διάφορόν τι—strengthened by the addition of
ἑτέρου μᾶλλον, ‘more than (any) other’: so
i. 138,
διαφερόντως τι μᾶλλον ἑτέρου. τι is accusative ‘of respect’.
καὶ τοὺς Μεσσηνίους—‘while the Messenians (he thought) would, etc.’ The construction is slightly altered in the course of the sentence. After the genitive absolute
λιμένος τε προσόντος, which gives one reason for the importance of Pylos to Demosthenes, the next reason would be given regularly in a corresponding clause with
καί. Instead of this we have the accusative with the infinitive, dependent on the sense supplied from
ἐδόκει αὐτῷ, as if ‘he considered’ or a similar verb had gone before. So
v. 53,
ἐδόκει Ἐπίδαυρον προσλαβεῖν, τῆς τε Κορίνθου ἕνεκα ἡσυχίας, καὶ ἐκ τῆς Αίγίνης βραχυτέραν ἔσεσθαι τὴν βοήθειαν, ‘it was determined to acquire Epidaurus both in order to keep Corinth quiet, and (because it was thought) that the voyage from Aegina would be shorter’.
οἰκείους ὄντας αὐτῷ τὸ ἀρχαῖον:
v. 80, 2,
ἦν δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς τὸ ἀρχαῖον ἐξ Ἄργους. ὁμοφώνους—i.e. speaking Dorian Greek: for the same reason Demosthenes when he surprised the Ambraciots at Idomene placed the Messenians in front of his force as
Δωρίδα γλῶσσαν ἱέντας (
iii. 112). We are not told that Demosthenes had any Messenians at Pylos as yet: the arrival of some is related in ch. 9.
πλει_στ᾽ ἂν βλάπτειν...ἔσεσθαι—there is a difference of meaning between the infinitive with
ἄν, and the future infinitive: ‘they would (be likely to) do the greatest injury to the Lacedaemonians, and would (be sure to) prove, etc.’
