E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 6

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Commentary on Thucydides, Histories. book 6, chapter 1:section 1.

[p. 115]

I.

eboulonto--‘the word is here (as in Xen. Hel. III. 4, 2, and elsewhere) used not so much of will as of intention (Bloomfield). This is not accurate. Trans. ‘felt a wish.’ boulomai expresses a vaguer wish than dianooumai: it never means ‘make up one's mind,’ and consequently cannot, like dianooumai, be constructed with a fut. infin.

authis--with epi Sikelian pleusantes. It is the habit of Thuc. to place the prominent word early in its clause. For the previous A. expeditions see Intr. p. x.

meizoni paraskeuêi--the numbers that sailed under Laches are not known. [Pythodorus and] Eurymedon took forty ships with them.

Aachêtos--in Sicily 427-426 B.C.; replaced in winter of 426 by Pythodorus. He was a supporter of Nicias in arranging the peace of 421. Plato's Laches is named after him. It has been conjectured that he is represented under Tydeus in the Supplices of Euripides (produced circ. 420 B.C.). He is the dog Labes in Aristoph. Wasps. He was attacked by Cleon.

kai--joins the names of two commanders who were not in power at the same time. Hence the full form would be tês [p. 116] meta Lachêtos kai tês meta Eur.: but it is worth noticing how with the second of two expressions joined by kai it is possible to omit (1) the article, (2) the preposition. Such omissions are common even when the connected expressions are quite distinct.

Eurumedontos--on returning to Athens from Sicily in 424, he had been tried on a charge of taking bribes (graphê dôrôn or dôrodokias), and was fined. He was not stratêgos again until 414 B.C. This long period of retirement is probably connected with his trial and condemnation.

epi S. pleusantes katastrepsasthai--it is regular to construct the common object of a partieiple and verb so as to suit the participle.

apeiroi hoi polloi--in limiting apposition to Athênaioi. Thuc. enlarges or contracts the subject at will.

tou megethous . . tou plêthous--chiasmus is so common in Thuc. as to amount to a mannerism. Cf. V. 61 tên te tou teichous astheneian kai tou stratou to plêthos. (On megethos and plêthos tôn enoikountôn in reference to the City see Aristot. Pol. 1326 a, with Fowler's City-State, p. 276.)

kai hoti--a clause introduced by hoti in either of its meanings is often co-ordinated to a noun, as in VII. 58, 4 dia megethos te poleôs kai hoti (‘because’) en megistôi kindunôi êsan. Cf. Demosth. VIII. 71 ouden an toutôn eitoimi, all hoti . . ouden politeuomai. (1) A similar use of ‘and that’ is common in eighteenth-centnry English prose; as also is (2) the habit of using together two constructions after a single verb or governing expression--here tou megethous . . kai hoti after apeiroi ontes. Thus in VIII. 4, 1 we have pareskeuazonto de . . tên te naupêgian kai Sounion teichisantes: Addison has ‘It was his design to marry her to such a gentleman, and that her wedding should be celebrated on such a day’; ‘They believe the same of all works of art . . and that, as any one of these things perish, their souls go into another world’; Cowper has ‘The fine gentleman would find his ceilings too low, and that his casements admitted too much wind’; Johnson, ‘They think veneration gained by such appearances of wisdom, but that no ideas are annexed to the words.’ Thackeray, Carlyle, and Ruskin also indulge in this and similar constructions.

ou pollôi tini--Hudson wrongly says ‘tini videtur pleonazein.’ Greek has three words for our ‘very,’ ‘really,’ or ‘actually’ (quidam with adjeetives)--(1) tis (generally with adjectives of degree); (2) panu and sphodra (often with words other than numcrals which cannot be compared. See Class. Rev. VIII. p. 152b). With negatives tis or panu or both together can be used. (See Stein on Herod. V. 33.) [p. 117]

hupodeesteron--antithesis to megethous kai plêthous, as in II. 89, 6 ek pollôi hupodeesterôn . . mega ti tês dianoias to bebaion echontes: V. 20 hupodeesteron on ta megista timêsei.

anêirounto--the pres and imperf., especially of -gignomai and -didômi, often express intention or attempt; as Aristoph. Pax 408 prodidoton tên Hellada: Eur H. F 538 kai tam' ethnêiske tekn, apôllumên d' egô liberi mei morituri erant, ego autem peritura.

This text is based on the following book(s):
Commentary on Thucydides Book 3 . E.C. Marchant. London. MacMillan & Company. 1909. Professional Data Entry .