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

ἐβούλοντο—‘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.’ βούλομαι expresses a vaguer wish than διανοοῦμαι: it never means ‘make up one's mind,’ and consequently cannot, like διανοοῦμαι, be constructed with a fut. infin.

αὖθις—with ἐπὶ Σικελίαν πλεύσαντες. It is the habit of Thuc. to place the prominent word early in its clause. For the previous A. expeditions see Intr. p. x.

μείζονι παρασκευῇ—the numbers that sailed under Laches are not known. [Pythodorus and] Eurymedon took forty ships with them.

Αάχητος—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.

καί—joins the names of two commanders who were not in power at the same time. Hence the full form would be τῆς μετὰ Λάχητος καὶ τῆς μετὰ Εὐρ.: but it is worth noticing how with the second of two expressions joined by καί it is possible to omit (1) the article, (2) the preposition. Such omissions are common even when the connected expressions are quite distinct.

Εὐρυμέδοντος—on returning to Athens from Sicily in 424, he had been tried on a charge of taking bribes (γραφὴ δώρων or δωροδοκίας), and was fined. He was not στρατηγός again until 414 B.C. This long period of retirement is probably connected with his trial and condemnation.

ἐπὶ Σ. πλεύσαντες καταστρέψασθαι—it is regular to construct the common object of a partieiple and verb so as to suit the participle.

ἄπειροι οἱ πολλοί—in limiting apposition to Ἀθηναῖοι. Thuc. enlarges or contracts the subject at will.

τοῦ μεγέθους . . τοῦ πλήθους—chiasmus is so common in Thuc. as to amount to a mannerism. Cf. V. 61 τήν τε τοῦ τείχους ἀσθενείαν καὶ τοῦ στρατοῦ τὸ πλῆθος. (On μέγεθος and πλῆθος τῶν ἐνοικούντων in reference to the City see Aristot. Pol. 1326 a, with Fowler's City-State, p. 276.)

καὶ ὅτι—a clause introduced by ὅτι in either of its meanings is often co-ordinated to a noun, as in VII. 58, 4 διὰ μέγεθός τε πόλεως καὶ ὅτι (‘because’) ἐν μεγίστῳ κινδύνῳ ἦσαν. Cf. Demosth. VIII. 71 οὐδὲν ἂν τούτων εἴτοιμι, ἀλλ̓ ὅτι . . οὐδὲν πολιτεύομαι. (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 τοῦ μεγέθους . . καὶ ὅτι after ἄπειροι ὄντες. Thus in VIII. 4, 1 we have παρεσκευάζοντο δὲ . . τήν τε ναυπηγίαν καὶ Σούνιον τειχίσαντες: 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.

οὐ πολλῷ τινι—Hudson wrongly says ‘τινι videtur πλεονάζειν.’ Greek has three words for our ‘very,’ ‘really,’ or ‘actually’ (quidam with adjeetives)—(1) τις (generally with adjectives of degree); (2) πάνυ and σφόδρα (often with words other than numcrals which cannot be compared. See Class. Rev. VIII. p. 152b). With negatives τις or πάνυ or both together can be used. (See Stein on Herod. V. 33.)

ὑποδεἐστερον—antithesis to μεγέθους καὶ πλήθους, as in II. 89, 6 ἐκ πολλῷ ὑποδεεστέρων . . μέγα τι τῆς διανοίας τὸ βέβαιον ἔχοντες: V. 20 ὑποδεέστερον ὂν τὰ μέγιστα τιμήσει.

ἀνῃροῦντο—the pres and imperf., especially of -γίγνομαι and -δίδωμι, often express intention or attempt; as Aristoph. Pax 408 προδίδοτον τὴν Ἑλλάδα: Eur H. F 538 καὶ τἄμ᾽ ἔθνῃσκε τέκν̓, ἀπωλλύμην δ᾽ ἐγώ liberi mei morituri erant, ego autem peritura.

Σικελίας—here follows a description of Sicily, in which Thuc., ‘like Herodotus, retains the spirit of the older geographers and logographers,’ and writes with something of the grace that characterises the style of Herodotus. It has been commonly supposed since Nicbuhr that Thuc. borrows from his contemporary Antiochus of Syracuse—so Goller, Wolfflin, Classen, Mahaffy,—but there is no certainty (see Freeman, Hist. Sic. I. p. 456). Thuc. probably visited Sicily during his exile.

ἔλασσον—not ἐλάσσων: the adverbs πλέον, ἔλασσον are regularly used in such cases. Cf. c. 95, 1 ἐπράθη ταλάντων οὐκ ἔλασσον πέντε καὶ εἴκοσι. The repetition of οὐ πολλῷ τινι emphasises the vastness of the undertaking.

ἡμερῶν—so II. 97, 1 περίπλους τεσσάρων ἡμερῶν. The length of the coasts of Sicily is 512 miles. In ancient times, astronomy not being applied to navigation, distance round the coasts of a country of which the measurements were unknown, could be reckoned only by the time occupied in the voyage.

τοσαύτη οὖσα—Thuc. ‘seems to think that there is a geographical incongruity in so large an island being separated from the mainland by so narrow a channel’ (note in Jowett); or rather, he adds as a second proof of the geographical importance of the island—and consequently of the magnitude of the new undertaking—the fact that Sicily, in addition to its size, is so close to the mainland as to be almost part of the continent. Athens was in the habit of reducing islands— πλεύσαντες καταστρέψασθαι—but she had not the means for reducing a large continental country. (Stein explains similarly.)

ἐν . . μέτρῳ—a difficult use of ἑν in its quasi-instrumental sense, ‘res in qua aliqua actio vel qualitas cernitur.’ c. 16, 5 ἔν τινος λαμπρότητι προέσχον is the same use. It is from this use that adverbial phrases like ἐν τάχει come.

τὸ μή—Soph. Phil. 1141 ἔστιν τις ἔστιν ὅς σε κωλύσει τὸ δρᾶν. M.T. 811: Wecklein on Agam. 1588. It is internal accus.

εἶναι—see crit. note. Poppo defended οὖσα here as a confusion between two constructions; but Classen is probably right in thinking that οὖσα got in from τοσαύτη οὖσα above. Among recent critics, only L. Herbst defends οὖσα: he thinks that τό does not affect the construction here and in other places, but is used as a demonstrative particle. Would μή then be possible?

ᾠκίσθη δέ—answering to περίπλους μέν above. cc. 2-5 are generally described as a digression; but the passage is perhaps rather a continuation of the description of the greatness of Sicily. ‘The greatness of Sicily,’ Freeman says, ‘was essentially a colonial greatness, the greatness of communities which did not form whole nations but only parts of nations, nations of which other parts remained in their elder homes.’

τὸ ἀρχαῖον—distinguish from κατὰ τὸ άρχαῖον (‘in the ancient manner’).

ἔσχε—sc. αὐτήν. τὰ ξύμπαντα is nom., agreeing with ἔθνη. When the art. precedes πᾶς and its compds., the whole is regarded as the sum of its component parts. (To take τὰ ξύμπαντα as accus. is wrong. A complete list of tribes is what Thuc. gives; their geographical distribution is also described, but that is already referred to in ὦδε ᾠκίσθη. Cf, the last sentence of c. 2, where the same ideas recur in inverse order.) λέγονται—λέγομαι used personally or impersonally is regularly constructed with an infin.

Κύκλωπες—Homer does not say that the Cyclopes dwelt in Sicily (Od. IX); but the scene of his story was always localised by later writers (as by Euripides) in Sicily.

Λαιστρυγόνες—mythical beings (Od. X. 81) like the Cyclopes, dwelling, like them, in fairy-land. The story that they lived in Sicily is the product of Greek fancy. (See Freeman l.c. pp. 100, 106.)

ποιηταῖς—esp. Homer. Observe that the perf. pass., when the subject is non-personal, regularly has the agent in dat.

ὡς ἕκαστος γιγνώσκει—so in II. 48, of the origin of ‘the Plague.’

περὶ αὐτῶν—Classen takes αὐτῶν as neut., ‘these questions,’ i.e. γένος, ὁπόθεν ἐσῆλθον κ.τ.λ. Of this rather vague use of αὐτά Thuc. is fond. But μετ᾽ αὐτούς below is strongly in favour of making αὐτῶν masc.

Σικανοί—some modern critics, including Holm, think that Σικανοί and Σικελοί are ‘simply dialectal differences of the same name.’ Freeman combats this view l.c. pp. 472 fol.

ἐνοικισάμενοι—‘settled there.’ The next words mean ‘or rather (καί=immo) before them, according to their own account.’ There is an instance of the sarcastic humour of which Thuc. is rather fond in ἐνοικισάμενοι . . αὐτόχθονες: if ‘original inhabitants,’ they could not be ‘settlers.’

ὡς μὲν αὐτοί φασι—this is placed early in order to bring out the antithesis sharply. It is a very common trick of order in Thuc.

διὰ τὸ . . εἶναι—the inf. with διὰ τό is very common in Thuc. (63 cases according to Behrendt), but διὰ τοῦ with inf. is not found. The inf. with art., commoner in Thuc. and Demosth. than in any other author, is in Thuc. found chiefly in the speeches and the loftier parts of narrative. The construction and usage of the Eng. inf. in -ing (as distinct from the verbal noun) are precisely similar to the Gk. inf. with art., except only that the Eng. inf. can be qualified, not only by the def. art., but by a pronoun and by a substantive in the possessive case.

Ἴβηρες—great value attached to a well-authenticated claim to be αὐτόχθονες: hence Thuc. marks the antithesis to διὰ τὸ αύ. εἶναι, instead of writing ὕστεροι in contrast with πρότεροι. Stein reads <ὕστεροι>, Ἴβηρες.

Σικανοῦ—has been thought to be the Sègre or even the Seine, but it is unknown. It is not certain from what quarter these Iberians really immigrated to Sicily. 14

Τρινακρία—Freeman points out that this name, derived from τρεῖς ἄκραι, is probably a mere corruption of the Homeric Θρινακίη, with which island Sicily was identified, the supposed reference being to the triangular shape of Sicily. Ov. Fast. IV. 419 Trinacris a positu nomen adepta loci.

καλουμένη—this tense of the partic. (imperf.) is invariably used when a name now obsolete is referred to. κληθείς= ‘called’ (timeless), or ‘having received the name,’ and is used of names given under some definite circumstances referred to, as in c. 4, 1 τοὺς Ὑ. κληθέντας, and c. 4, 5.

τὰ πρὸς ἑσπέραν—adverbial. For the expression cf. τὰ πρὸς βορρᾶν § 5 and τὸ πρὸς νότον III. 6. πρὸς ἑσπέραν also means ‘towards evening,’ sub vesperum.

ἁλισκομένου—Classen makes this historic pres.; but it cannot be shown that the historic pres. is used in any mood but the indic. Stahl takes it with διαφυγόντες—‘escaped at the time of the capture.’ This is possible; but Goodwin (M.T. § 27) classes ἁλίσκομαι with ἀδικῶ, φεύγω, νικῶ, etc., so that the pres. may here resemble a perf.: but observe (1) when the pres. indic. of ἁλ. refers to the past, it appears to he historic pres.; (2) ἁλισκόμενος is either (a) coincident in time with the main verb, or (b) approaches to the perf., like άδικῶ. (An imperf. partic. in gen. abs. joined to a historic pres. sometimes gives the cause of the verb; as I. 136 δεδιέναι φασκόντων Κερκυραίων ἔχειν αὐτόν, διακομίζεται ἐς τὴν ἤπειρον.)

ἀφικνοῦνται—verbs of ‘going’ and ‘sending’ are especially common in the hist. pres.

ξύμπαντες μέν—Jowett renders ‘they settled near the Sicanians, and both took the name of Elymi’; but Freeman says ‘I certainly always understood this simply to mean that the whole people were called E. . . . but that there were two separate Elymian cities.’ Freeman is clearly right. The Sicanians had given their name to the island, and they remained quite distinct from the Elymi. Also, is J.'s rendering of ξύμπαντες possible? ξ. is often contrasted with κατὰ πόλεις, whereas it never means in Thuc. ‘they with the others.’ And Thuc. is clearly giving the name and the cities of the new settlers.

Ἔρυξ—the story of the Trojan origin of Eryx is accepted and elaborated by Virgil m Aeneid V.; but Freeman shows that the older legend did not assign to it a Trojan origin.

Ἔγεστα—this is the Greek name; but the native name, retained by the Romans, was Segesta. It is the Acesta of Aen. v. 718. To the Romans is due the tradition that it was founded by Aeneas, who named it after Acestes.

προσξυνῴκησαν δὲ . . καί—a characteristic anaphora of ὅμοροι . . οἰκήσαντες. Thuc. does not in narrative balance the clauses exactly by anaphora, whereas in Xenophon such balance is very frequent. Cp. c. 20, 4.

Φωκέων—the statement that Phocians settled in Sicily receives no support except from a single passage in Pausanias. And this testimony is really of slight value, as P. is enumerating the Greek settlers in Sicily, as distinct from the barbarians, among whom he places the Elymi (Phrygians, i.e Trojans). The correction Φρυγῶν is not really supported, because when later writers speak of Phrygians in Sicily they mean Trojans. It looks as if in τῶν Τρώων τινές above Thue. refers to that arrival which appears under a much-developed form in Dion. Hal. as the return of Acestes. Whether in Φωκέων τινές we have an early form of the legend that reappears in the story of Aeneas, is much more doubtful. Dion. Hal. assigns an Areadian origin to Aeneas: and it should be borne in mind that the Trojans are barbarians in Thuc. and Pausanias, but Hellenes in Dion. Hal. and Virgil. Dion. Hal. speaks of the Trojans under Aeneas as τὰς πόλεις συνοικίζοντες τοῖς Ἐλύμοις έν Σικελίᾳ. These faets only show how great was the confusion in the stories concerning the settlement of the Elymi, and how impossible it is to correct Φωκέων with any confidenee.

τότε—refers back to διαφυγόντες (Stahl).

ἐς Λιβύην—it is not impossible that this suggested to Virgil the bringing of Aeneas to Carthage. πρῶτον, ἔπειτα—πρῶτον without μέν is always followed by ἔπειτα without δἐ, unless καί follows ἔπειτα, when δέ is always added, as in VII. 23 τὸ μέγιστον πρῶτον, ἔπειτα δὲ καί κτλ.

ἀπ̓ αὐτῆς—this pronoun, referring to a preceding noun or pronoun, corresponds to is in Lat There is in Thuc. a use of αὐτά which corresponds to haec omnia, ‘our empire,’ as in Cic. pro Sul. § 28.

κατενεχθέντες—cf. IV. 120 πλέοντας δ᾽ άπὸ Τροίας σφῶν τοὺς πρώτους κατενεχθῆναι ἐς τὸ χωρίον τοῦτο τῷ χειμῶνι ᾧ ἐχρήσαντο Ἀχαιοί.

Σικελοί—it is generally agreed among ancient writers that the Siculi were Italian, and had been driven into Bruttium from Latium.

Ίταλίας—i.e. only the modern Calabria, in ancient times the peninsula reaching to the Laus on W., and to Metapontum on E. Dion. Hal. I. 12 defines Italy in this sense as άπὸ ἄκρας Ἰαπυγίας μέχρι πορθμοῦ Σικελικοῦ.

Ὀπικούς—identified by Strabo with the Oscans. They were enemies of the Latins, who regarded them as barbarous. Cf. Jovenal's opici mures.

ὡς μὲν εἰκός—there are two uses of εἰκός—(1) to introduce what is probable, but is incapable of proof; (2) of the reasonable conduct of persons.

ἐπὶ σχεδιῶν—cf. on c. 101, 3. In this use, the gen. with ἐπί differs from the dat. in that it expresses the means as well as the place.

τηρήσαντες=φυλάξαντες, as III. 22, and Demosth. 28, 1 τηρήσας τὴν τελευταίαν ἡμέραν. πορθμός generally in prose= ‘strait,’ but ‘passage’ suits τηρήσαντες better ‘Watching for the passage when the wind blew,’ means that they waited till the wind blew from Italy. The danger of the πορθμὸς Σικελικός is proverbial. Cf. the mare Siculum of Roman poets.

κατιόντος—technical word. <ἐς> τὸν π. Stein.

τάχα ἄν—sc. διέβησαν, M.T. § 244. The contrast is between what they probably did and what they may possibly have done. δέ—τάχα δ᾽ ἄν would be more usual, but expressions like τάχ̓ ἄν occasionally displace δέ. Thus Andocides has δῆλον ὅτι δέ for δῆλον δ᾽ ὅτι.

ἀπὸ Ἰταλοῦ—this remark is of no value as history. Cf. Aen. I. 532 nunc fama, minores | Italiam dixisse, ducis de nomine, gentem.

οὕτως—referring back to ἀπὸ Ἰταλοῦ after the parenthetical remark τοὔνομα τ. ἔ.

στρατὸς πολύς—predicate, =ἦλθον πολλοί.