Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War

Table of Contents

Go to

LXXXIX. the envoys sent by the Four Hundred to Samos arrived at Athens. Upon their delivering the message from Alcibiades, telling them to hold out and to show a firm front to the enemy, and saying that he had great hopes of reconciling them with the army and of overcoming the Peloponnesians, the majority of the members of the oligarchy, who were already discontented and only too much inclined to be quit of the business in any safe way that they could, were at once greatly strengthened in their resolve. [2] These now banded together and strongly criticised the administration, their leaders being some of the principal generals and men in office under the oligarchy, such as Theramenes, son of Hagnon, Aristocrates, son of Scellias, and others; who, although among the most prominent members of the government (being afraid, as they said, of the army at Samos, and most especially of Alcibiades, and also lest the envoys whom they had sent to Lacedaemon, might do the state some harm without the authority of the people), without insisting on objections to the excessive concentration of power in a few hands, yet urged that the Five Thousand must be shown to exist not merely in name but in reality, and the constitution placed upon a fairer basis. [3] But this was merely their political cry; most of them being driven by private ambition into the line of conduct so surely fatal to oligarchies that arise out of democracies. For all at once pretend to be not only equals but each the chief and master of his fellows; while under a democracy a disappointed candidate accepts his defeat more easily, because he has not the humiliation of being beaten by his equals. [4] But what most clearly encouraged the malcontents was the power of Alcibiades at Samos, and their own disbelief in the stability of the oligarchy; and it was now a race between them as to which should first become the leader of the commons.

Further comments from T. G. Tucker, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 8:
book 8 (general note)
book 8, chapter 89 (general note)
book 8, chapter 89, section 1: ek tês Samou
book 8, chapter 89, section 1: kakeinois
book 8, chapter 89, section 1: tous pollous tôn metechontôn
book 8, chapter 89, section 2: xunistanto
book 8, chapter 89, section 2: ta pragmata
book 8, chapter 89, section 2: tôn panu stratêgôn
book 8, chapter 89, section 2: Thêramenê
book 8, chapter 89, section 2: Aristokratê ton Skelliou
book 8, chapter 89, section 2: meteschon
book 8, chapter 89, section 2: en tois prôtois
book 8, chapter 89, section 2: spoudêi panu
book 8, chapter 89, section 2: tous te es tên Lakedaimona k.t.l.
book 8, chapter 89, section 2: aneu tôn pleonôn
book 8, chapter 89, section 2: es oligous elthein
book 8, chapter 89, section 2: apodeiknunai
book 8, chapter 89, section 2: isaiteran
book 8, chapter 89, section 3: ên de touto men schêma k.t.l.
book 8, chapter 89, section 3: tôi toioutôi prosekeinto, en hôiper k.t.l.
book 8, chapter 89, section 3: ek de dêmokratias k.t.l.
book 8, chapter 89, section 3: êgônizeto
book 8, chapter 89, section 3: prôtos
book 8, chapter 89, section 3: prostatês tou dêmou

Cross references from Raphael Kühner, Friedrich Blass, Ausführliche Grammatik der Griechischen Sprache (ed. Ildar Ibraguimov):
154 [Zweite Komparationsform.]

Cross references from Sir Richard Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Philoctetes:
* [219-675]

Cross references from W. W. How, J. Wells, A Commentary on Herodotus:
3, 82, 3 [BOOK III]

Cross references from E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 2:
2, 60, 4 [Commentary on Book 2]

Cross references from T. G. Tucker, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 8:
8, 88, 1
8, 68, 4
8, 86, 9
8, 89, 2
8, 1, 1
8, 27, 3
8, 86, 9
8, 90, 1
8, 89, 2
8, 89, 2
8, 89, 2

Cross references from C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5:
5, 81

Cross references from Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898):
peloponnesian-war [Peloponnesian War]

Cross references from Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve, Syntax of Classical Greek:
491 [Adverbs]: tôn panu stratêgôn

This text is based on the following book(s):
Thucydides. The Peloponnesian War. London, J. M. Dent; New York, E. P. Dutton. 1910.