CHAPTER V
οἱ δὲ ἑορτήν—‘but the Lacedaemonians chanced to be keeping a certain feast, and withal when they heard the news accounted but lightly of it, thinking that when they had once marched forth either the Athenians would not stand their attack or they would easily take them by force’. So we find the Lacedaemonians remaining inactive during the Carneian festival (
v. 54), and during the Gymnopaediae (
v. 82). Herodotus (
ix. 7) relates that in 479 they were prevented by the Hyacinthia from marching into Boeotia to aid the Athenians against Mardonius. ‘They considered it of the greatest importance’ he adds ‘to perform their duties to the god; and meanwhile their wall across the isthmus was in progress, and the battlements were getting fixed’. Jowett also cites
Hdt. vi. 106 (before Marathon), and
vii. 206 (before Thermopylae).
ἐν ὀλιγωρίᾳ ἐποιοῦντο—cf.
vii. 3:
Hdt. ix. 42,
ἐν ἀδείῃ ποιεῖσθαι, ‘to account as safe’: so
περὶ πολλοῦ ποιεῖσθαι and many like expressions; the verb meaning to make for oneself, and therefore to account, reckon, etc.
ἢ οὐχ ὑπομενοῦντας—this is the accusative absolute with
ὡς in the sense of thinking, ‘in the belief that’ (Madvig, § 182); with it is joined
ἢ ληψόμενοι, in agreement with the subject of the sentence: cf. Dem. de Sym. 182,
ἀπεβλέψατε πρὸς ἀλλήλους ὡς αὐτὸς μὲν ἕκαστος οὐ ποιήσων, τὸν δὲ πλησίον πράξοντα.
καί τι καὶ αὐτούς—‘and in some part too their army being still before Athens detained them’, i.e. the fact that a portion of their forces was still away with king Agis.
ἐν ταῖς Ἀθήναις—‘in the neighbourhood of Athens’: so ch. 25, 8,
ἐν τῷ Ῥηγίῳ:
ii. 2,
ἡ ὲν Ποτιδαίᾳ μάχη, ‘the battle at (as we say of) Potidaea’: Dem. Lept. 479,
ὑμᾶς ἔχων παρετἀξατο ἐν Θήβαις, ‘at Thebes’:
Plat. Rep. 522 D,
ἐν Ἰλίῳ, of the Greeks before Troy.
ἐπέσχε—‘checked, held back’:
i. 129,
καί σε μήτε νὺξ μήθ᾽ ὴμἐρα ἐπισχέτω: more often intrans. as ch. 31, 2.
τὸν πλοῦν...ἠπείγοντο—‘pushed on with their voyage to Corcyra and Sicily’: so
viii. 9,
ἐπειγομένων τὸν πλοῦν:
iii. 2,
τὴν παρασκευὴν ἐπείγονται: usually intransitive, ‘to hasten on’, as in ch. 3, 4. Note the position of
καὶ Σικελίαν, two words which are part of the epithet of
πλοῦν. When the epithet of a substantive consists of several words, a portion of these words may be placed otherwise than between the article and substantive; e.g.
iii. 56,
κατὰ τὸν πᾶσι νόμον καθεστῶτα:
vi. 31,
τὴν τῆς πόλεως ἀνάλωσιν δημοσίαν. In ch. 24, 18, we have a similar order: see also note on ch. 90, 7.
