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Under such sad circumstances the Athenian army sets out on the third day after the battle. Everything combines to render the situation desperate: the leaving behind of the dead, as well as the wounded and the sick, who break forth into the bitterest complaints; the despondency and helplessness with which about 40,000 men face a perfectly dark future; the lack of servants, most of whom had recently run away; the remembrance of the brilliant hopes with which they had set out, and which had now been utterly destroyed. 2. παρεσκευάσθαι: impers. inf. from the impers. indic. Cf. i.46.1; iii.107.21; iv.67.2.—καί: introducing the immediate performance of the resolution taken, as in ii.93.18; iv.8.40; viii.27.24, ὡς ἔπεισε, καὶ ἔδρασε ταῦτα. ἀνάστασις : departure, as in i.133.14; ii.14.7. 4. δεινὸν ἦν: with general subj. Cf. ii.51.11; v.64.17.—οὐ καθ᾽ ἓν μόνον τῶν πραγμάτων: explained by ὅτι τάς τε ναῦς . . . κινδυνεύοντες, and opp. to ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν τῇ ἀπολείψει . . . αἴσθεσθαι (7), i.e. the general result is contrasted with the personal experiences of the individual. The general sense of the whole sent. is: “it was terrible not only with regard to the one chief aspect of their situation (the loss of the fleet and consequent danger for themselves and the state), but also in that each one on leaving the camp had the most painful impressions.” ἀλλὰ . . . αἴσθεσθαι, though grammatically independent, is logically subord. to δεινὸν ἦν. See App.— 6. ἀντὶ μεγάλης ἐλπίδος: short for “instead of accomplishing the great things for which they had hoped.”— 8. αἴσθεσθαι: with the accentuation of the pres. in the good Mss. here and in v.26.29, corresponding to the sense of the passage, which refers to repeated and wide-spread impressions. 10. κείμενον: i.e. lying dead. Cf. iv.38.8; Xen. An. i.8.27.—μετὰ φόβου: thinking of the sacred duty of the burial of the dead. ζῶντες καταλειπόμενοι: closely connected with and attrib. to τραυματίαι τε καὶ ἀσθενεῖς: the wounded and sick (c. 60. 10) who were left behind alive.— 12. τοῖς ζῶσι: Cl. thinks the epithet ζῶντες, applied to the departing Athenians, out of place, esp. as the same expression has just been used very appropriately for the καταλειπόμενοι. τοῖς ζῶσι, he explains, must have been written by a glossator to make the meaning of λνπηρόν εροι (painful, act.) clear, or perhaps τοῖς ὁρῶσι must be substituted. The latter is more probable since καθίστασαν (sc. αὐτούς) seems to require some preceding noun. But it may be questioned whether τοῖς ζῶσι, although not necessary to the sense, does not after all make the contrast even stronger: “and the wounded and sick who were left behind alive were far more grievous to the living than the dead, and more wretched than those who had perished.” 14. ἀντιβολίαν: Schol. δέησις, ἱκεσία. καθίστασαν : sc. αὐτούς, τοὺς ὑποχωροῦντας. ἔνα ἕκαστον : cf. c. 69. 9; 70. 37.—ἐπιβοώμενοι: calling aloud. Cf. c. 69. 20; iii.59.11; 67. 9; viii.92.50. ἤδη ἀπιόντων: i.e. when they were just on the point of starting. ἐς ὅσον: Vat. and Valla (quousque) for ὅσον. προλίποι : Vat. for προλείποι, aor. of the single case. It is intr., like ἐλλείπειν, and rare. Cf. Eur. Or. 817, φόνος . . . οὐ προλείπει δισσοῖσιν Ἀτρείδαις. ἡ ῥώμη καὶ τὸ σῶμα : not equiv. to ῥώμη τοῦ σώματος (Pp.). but “their (last) powers of spirit and body.” See App. to vi.31.3. οὐκ ἄνευ [ὀλίγων] ἐπιθειασμῶν : the sense required here is evidently not without many imprecations, and Valla translates, non sine multis obtestationibus ac ploratibus. See App. ὑπολειπομενοι: dropping behind. Vat. for ἀπολειπόμενοι. It is intr. rather than pass. For the pl. after τῳ, see Kr. Spr. 58, 4, 5.—δάκρυσι: rare dat. with πλησθέν for δακρύων. Cf. Eur. Or. 1363, δακρύοισιν . . . Ἑλλάδα . . . ἔπλησε; Aesch. Pers. 133, πίμπλαται δακρύμασιν. ἀπορίᾳ : co-ord. with πλησθέν. καίπερ ἐκ πολεμίας : sc. ἀφορ- μωμένους. Though καίπερ belongs also to the following partics., πεπονθότας, δεδιότας (connected κατὰ σύνεσιν with στράτευμα), the restrictive signification is not prominent. μείζω ἢ κατά: quam pro. Kühn. 543, 8; Kr. Spr. 49, 4. Cf. ii.50.2. τὰ δέ: connected by prolepsis with δεδιότας, but in sense belonging to πάθωσι. περὶ τῶν ἐν ἀφανεῖ : Schol. περὶ τῶν μελλόντων. 24. κατήφεια: dejection; in Thuc. only here. It means originally a looking down (from modesty or shame). —κατάμεμψις σφῶν αὐτῶν: self-condemnation. οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἤ: really elliptical; some general word like ἐγίγνετο or ἐποίει must be supplied from the following verb, as with Lat. nihil aliud quam. See on ii.16.10. Kühn. 597, 20; Kr. Spr. 62, 3, 7. —πόλει ἐκπεπολιορκημένῃ: i.e. the inhabitants of a city captured after a siege. οὐ σμικρᾷ: this form occurs also in iv.13.19; viii.81.11. —μυριάδες κτἑ.: Boeckh (P. E. p. 367) estimates that over 60,000 men had come to Sicily. To these must be added the Sicilian allies. By loss in battle and esp. by desertion (below, 32, and c. 13. 12) they had been reduced to this number. τις ἕκαστος: cf. vi.31.31. παρὰ τὸ εἰωθὸς αὐτοί: as a rule every hoplite and cavalryman was attended by a servant.—ἐπὶ τοῖς ὅπλοις: in addition to their arms, Pluygers's emendation (Mmem. 11, 96) for ὑπὸ τοῖς ὅπλοις. Cf. c. 86. 8, ἐπὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις, in addition to everything else. ἀκολούθων: elsewhere called θεράποντες (c. 13. 9; iv.16.9) or ὑπηρέται (iii.17.10; vi.102.10).—ἀπιστίᾳ: i.e. fearing that those who were still present would follow the example of those who had run away. παραχρῆμα: lately, i.e. since the sea-fight. Schol. ἐν τῷ τότε παρόντι. οὐδὲ ταῦτα : i.e. τὰ σιτία. 34. ἡ ἄλλη αἰκία καὶ ἰσομοιρία τῶν κακῶν: we should have expected “nor, moreover, was the rest of their misery and sufferings easy to bear” (αἰκία referring to their inward wretchedness, τὰ κακά to the outward ills that came upon them). But by the addition of ἰσομοιρία a shift in the thought is effected; for this idea,— not simply the evils, but the equal sharing of them,—dominates all the rest of the sent. And so we have: “and, moreover, the rest of their misery, and the equal sharing of their sufferings, although having in this very ‘along with the many’ some alleviation,” etc. τό introduces the proverbial μετὰ πολλῶν. Cf. τὸ κρατίστους εἶναι κτἑ., c. 67. 3. Kr. Spr. 50, 5, 12. τὸ μετὰ πολλῶν is obj. of ἔχουσα, and τινα κούφισιν is pred. See App. οὐδ᾽ ὥς: refers to ἔχουσα . . . κούφισιν, but resumes esp. the idea of ὅμως, which though joined to the partic. belongs in sense to the main verb. —ἄλλως τε καί: supply ἐνθυμουμένοις from ἐδοξάζετο. Kühn. 551, 9 does not supply ἐνθυμουμένοις, but explains = ὅτι ἀπὸ τοιαύτης κτἑ. ἀπὸ οἵας λαμπρότητος...ἐς οἵαν τελευτήν : the same emphatic connexion of two rel. clauses with strong effect as in v.7.4.—αὐχήματος: self-confidence. Cf. c. 66. 15; ii.62.28.—τοῦ πρώτου: placed after its noun for emphasis, “as it was at first,” and opp to τελευτήν, as λαμπρότητος καὶ αὐχήματος is to ταπεινότητα. ἀφῖκτο : it had come, without expressed subj. as παρεσκευάσθαι in 2 above and i.46.1. St. has adopted Badham's conjecture, ἀφίκατο. μέγιστον γὰρ κτἑ.: for the form of the sent., see on c. 29. 29; i.1.8.— 39. τὸ διάφορον: reverse, i.e. change in circumstances. See on c. 55. 9.— Ἑλληνικῷ: the art. τῷ which the Mss. have is not appropriate, since there is an implied contrast with βάρβαρος, as in v.60.14; vi.31.7. Of the Persians at Marathon and Salamis the like could perhaps be said. —οἷς: referring to στράτευμα, as in 22, πεπονθότας. See on c. 1. 9. For the acc. following, see on c. 74. 6.— 40. ἀντὶ τοῦ...ἥκειν κτἑ.: cf. i.69.24.—τοῦτο: proleptic, as τὰ δέ in 23. μεθ᾽ ὧν ἐξέπλεον: cf. vi. 32.— πάλιν τούτων: the first belongs to ἀφορμᾶσθαι; the second to ἐναντίοις. For position of τούτων, cf. vi.64.24, ταῦτα τοὺς ξυνδράσοντας. πεζούς τε : τε (Vat.; the rest of the Mss. δέ) is co-ord. with καί before ὁπλιτικῷ.— 44. ναυβατῶν: this rather unusual word includes, as the Schol. correctly observes, the ναῦται and ἐπιβάται. προσέχοντας : Vat. for vulgate προσσχόντας, “turning their minds to, trusting.” ὑπὸ μεγέθους: cf. c. 72. 5. οἰστά: as in i.122.9.
Commentary on Thucydides Book 7. Charles F. Smith. 1886. Boston. Ginn and Company.
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