C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5

δἰ ὀργῆς εἶχον—according to Classen simply ‘were indignant’, but an object seems implied though not expressed. They were indignant at Nicias' failure or at the conduct of the Lacedaemomans. The other instances which Classen cites may be similarly explained. παρόντες implies that the envoys were already in Athens; παραγαγόντος that they were now brought before the assembly. Defensive treaty between Athens and the Argive league. Mantinea and Elis, no less than Argos and Athens, are spoken of as imperial States, the meaning being that the towns which Mantinea had acquired (ch. 29) and Lepreum, which was claimed by Elis (ch. 31), are recognised as their subject allies (Jowett). In Professor Jowett's second volume there is an account of a fragment of a marble tablet, containing portions of this treaty, discovered in 1877 on the Acropolis.

ἑκατὸν Ἀθηναῖοι ἔτη—cf. the order in iii. 90 fin. ἐπελθόντων οἱ Μεσσήνιοι τῶν τε Ἀθηναίων...προσεχώρησαν.

ἑκάτεροι—Athens and Argos respectively, not=ἔκαστοι. The members of the Argive league are here taken as a whole: in line 35 it is different. ἀδόλους—see ch. 18, 13, etc. The wording of this treaty is in many respects identical with the formulas in ch. 18 and 23, with slight verbal changes, e.g. μἡ ..τέχνῃ μηδὲ μηχανῇ is here written instead of μήτε τέχνῃ μήτε μηχανῇ. There is the usual mixture of imperative and infinitive construction.

ἐπὶ πημονῇ—ch. 18, 15.

ἐπαγγέλλωσιν—‘send word’ i.e. require; so vi. 56, 1, ἐπαγγείλαντες ἥκειν. Sometimes the word is used with the acc. like impero; iii. 16, 3, κατὰ πόλεις ἐπήγγελλον τεσσαράκοντα νεῶν πλῆθος: vii. 17, 1, στρατιὰν ἐπαγγέλλων ἐς τοὺς ξυμμάχους.

ταύτην τὴν πόλιν—‘the state in question’, so twicc in ch. 23.

μηδὲ κατὰ θάλασσαν—see ch. 56, 7. Krüger, who is followed by Stahl, regards these words as spurious, but they seem intended to guard against any possible evasion. εἶναι— ‘be allowed’. ἢν μή—διίωσι or ἐῶσι may be mentally supplied. Such participial constructions are not uncommon with εἰ μή, and in effect are simply adverbial. ἐπὴν ἔλθῃ—ἐπήν occurs twice towards the end of viii. 58, in the terms of a treaty; and three times in Aristo phanes. In Eur. Herc. Fur. 1364, it is read by Hermann and Paley (for ἐπάν), and is found in Isocrates and Xenophon. The later form ἐπάν, according to Kruger's Grammar, is more strictly Attic. The subject of ἔλθῃ is supplied from the sense, sc. ἡ βοήθεια or ἡ στρατιά.

ἀπιοῦσι κατὰ ταὐτά—the words κατὰ ταὐτά are confusing. They seem at first to suggest another period of thirty days; but they probably only imply maintenance on the way home, ‘in the same manner’ as on the way out. The city which applied for aid was thus entitled to help for 30 clear days without incurring expense.

τῷ μὲν ὁπλίτῃ—for this use of τῷ=‘each’, Krüger compares Xen. Anab. i. 3, 21, ὑπισχνεῖται δώσειν τρία ἡμιδαρεικὰ τοῦ μηνὸς τῷ στρατιώτῃ. Arnold says ‘It shews the democratic character of the contracting commonwealth, that the archer, and even the light-armed soldier, should have received the same pay as the heavy-armed soldier. Thus at Athens even the seamen received as high pay as the heavy-armed soldier: see iii. 17, 4: vi. 31, 3’. The archers are distinguished from the other light-armed troops, as in iv. 36, 1, where Poppo's note may be consulted.

τρεῖς ὀβολοὺς Αἰγιναίους—usually assumed to be equivalent to five Attic obols; the Aegmetan and Corinthian drachma being worth ten Attic obols. See Jowett on iii. 70, 4, where a different view is noticed.

κατὰ ἱερῶν τελείων—‘over’ lit. ‘down over, or on’: Dem. Aph. 852, § 26, κατ᾽ ἐμοῦ καὶ τῆς ἀδελφῆς, ‘on our heads’: id. Con. 1269. § 40, κατὰ παίδων. ἱερὰ τέλεια seem to be ‘fullgrown victims’, rather than ‘victims without blemish’ or ‘in full numbers’. Arnold compares Hdt. i. 183, where τὰ τέλεα τῶν προβάτων are contrasted with τὰ γαλαθηνά. So hostiae maiores are distinguished from hostiae lactentes.

αἱ ἔνδημοι ἀρχαί—‘the home authorities’, meaning, according to Arnold, the archons, secretaries etc. as opposed to the στρατηγοί or foreign office. In Aesch. Timarch. 45, we have μηδὲ ἀρχὴν ἀρχέτω μηδεμίαν μήτε ἔνδημον μήτε ὑπερόριον: so Ar. Pol. iii. 9, 8, τὰ ἔνδημα are home affairs, τὰ ὑπερόρια foreign affairs: cf. Thuc. i. 70, 4, ἀποδημηταὶ πρὸς ἐνδημοτάτους ‘most stay-at-home people’. For the concrete use of ἀρχαί, see note on τὰ τέλη, iv. 15, 1.

ἐξορκούντων—‘administer the oath’; Dem. Meid. 535, § 65: in Hdt. iii. 133, and iv. 154, ἐξορκῶ takes the accusative and denotes binding a person by oath.

οἱ ὀγδοήκοντα—nothing is known of these. They may have been a more aristocratical council than the βουλή, and the ἀρτῦναι may have been the presiding officers, who, as Muller suggests, had succeeded to the civil authority of the kings (Arnold). If αἱ ἀρτῦναι is the right reading, it is analogous to αἱ ἀρχαί: οἱ ἀρτῦναι (Duker) would come from ἀρτύνας (ης). Poppo suggests οἱ ἄρτυνοι, a form found in Plutarch.

οἱ δημιουργοί—a common title of the magistrates in the Peloponnesian states, with the exception of Lacedaemon. In i. 56, 2, ἐπιδημιουργοί are officials sent from Corinth to the colony of Potidaea. οἱ θεωροί—‘a sacred college, whose functions were perpetual, like the colleges of pontifices and augurs at Rome. Like the Pythii at Lacedaemon, they had the care of all oracles delivered to the state, and probably had a general control over religious matters’ (Arnold).

οἱ τὰ τέλη ἔχοντες—Arnold says that the phrase is not simply equivalent to οἱ ἐν τέλει or τὰ τέλη. He believes that some particular ‘council of administration’ is probably meant, smaller than the general council of six hundred. Krüger brackets the words as spurious, the phrase being unusual. In iv. 118, 7, τἐλος ἔχοντες means ‘having full powers’.

ἀνανεοῦσθαι—see ch. 18, 61. Arnold points out that the times specified were such that the renewal of the oaths might be completed on both sides before the return of their respective great public festivals. The great Panathenaea were celebrated every four years, in the third year of the Olympiad.

ἐν ἀγορᾷ—ch. 18, 64, note: ἐν τῇ ἀγορᾷ, as below, is more common.