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Finally they break up in the middle of the night, in order to escape the pursuit of the enemy, and take their journey in the opposite direction, first to the coast and then toward Gamarina and Gela. But the army, driven by fear, pushes hastily on and falls into confusion. The division of Nicias goes before and keeps together; the greater part under Demosthenes follows in disorder. In the morning, however, Nicias reaches the coast, drives away a Syracusan guard at the river Cacyparis, crosses, and gets as far as the Erineus. 1. τῆς νυκτός: during the night preceding the sixth day after departure. τε: wanting in Vat. and omitted by Cl. on the ground that it has no correlative, καὶ . . . γεγενημέναις being merely parenthetical; but it would seem better with the other editt. to take τε as co-ord. with καί, the two clauses giving the grounds of κακῶς εἶχε. For the omission of ὅτι before καὶ κατατετραυματισμένοι ἦσαν, cf. v.61.17, βουλόμενοι ἄλλως τε προσγενέσθαι σφίσι, καὶ ὅμηροι . . . ἦσαν αὐτόθι. πυρὰ καύσαντας : the reading of Vat. for καύσαντες is preferable after τῷ Νικίᾳ καὶ Δημοσθένει ἐδόκει. See on c. 74. 6. πυρά, the pl. of the second deel., watch-fires. The object was to deceive the enemy with regard to their departure. τοὐναντίον ἤ: as in vi.68.14. 7. ἦν δὲ ἡ ξύμπασα ὁδὸς αὕτη κτἑ.: this parenthetical remark, introduced by the epexegetical δέ, refers, as the expression ἡ ξύμπασα ὁδός clearly shows, to the goal of the whole march after the departure from Syracuse, not simply to the direction taken in the night after the fifth day. Thuc. says expressly, and prob. in contradiction of varying reports about it: “from the beginning the plan of the march was not toward Catana (northward), but in the direction of Camarina and Gela (south-westward).” When, therefore, Diod. xiii. 18 says, προῄεσαν ἐπὶ Κατάνης, he has either misunderstood Thuc., or he follows another account not approved by Thuc. See App. 11. καύσαντες οὖν: resumptive after the digression. See on c. 6. 7; 42. 24. οἷον φιλεῖ: quod solet. Cf. iv.125.7, ὅπερ φιλεῖ μεγάλα στρατόπεδα ἀσαφῶς ἐκπλήγνυσθαι. φόβοι καὶ δείματα : in explanatory appos. to οἷον. Bloomf. compares Eur. Hel. 312, φόβος εἰς τὸ δεῖμα μ᾽ ἄγει, to prove that δεῖμα is stronger than φόβος, the former referring esp. to panic terrors. φόβος and δέος are distinguished by Prodicus, Plat. Prot. 358 d. For the pl. of words expressing emotion or passion, see Kr. Spr. 44, 3, 4. [ἀπό]: bracketed by Cl., with the majority of the editt., as admitting no intelligible explanation. Ullrich (Beitr. III. p. 28) explains, “going away from enemies not far distant.” So Kr., Arn., Bm. ἰοῦσι: belongs to αὐτοῖς, not to στρατοπέδοις. 16. ὥσπερ ἡγεῖτο: referring to the advantage which Nicias had, and giving the ground of προὔλαβε, rather than of ξυνέμενε. προύλαβε πολλῷ : sc. τῆς ὁδοῦ. Cf. iv.33.12, προλαμβάνοντες ῥᾳδίως τῆς φυγῆς; Hdt. iii.105.6, προλαμβάνειν τῆς ὁδοῦ; Liv. xxxvi. 19, aliquantum viae praeceperat. (Arn.) πολλῷ is dat. of degree of difference. Kr. Spr. 48, 15, 9. καὶ πλέον: cf. c. 48. 24. ἅμα δὲ τῇ ἕῳ: sixth day. From here to the end of the chap. the events related refer to the division of Nicias alone, as Holm (H. p. 401) has shown by the most careful investigation, coming to the same result that Grote had reached by another way. ὁδὸν τὴν Ἐλωρίνην: cf. vi.66.17. ἐπὶ Κακυπάρει: now Fiume di Cassibile. For the usual order of words, see Kr. Spr. 50, 7, 1; Kühn. 462, note 1. Cf. c. 82. 15. οὓς μετεπέμψαντο: for the facts, cf. c. 77. 32, and on the mid. (Vat.), see App. to i.112.6. For aor. indic. instead of opt. after secondary tense, see GMT. 74, 2. 27. ἐχώρουν πρὸς...τὸν Ἐρινεόν : advanced towards the Erineus. In c. 82. 15 they are said to have arrived there. The Erineus cannot be identified with certainty. Leake considers it the present Falconara; Holm (II. p. 401), the Cavallata. ταύτῃ: sc. χωρεῖν. Why the guides directed them to take this course can only be conjectured.
Commentary on Thucydides Book 7. Charles F. Smith. 1886. Boston. Ginn and Company.
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