E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 7

---

---

μαχαιροφόρων—the wearing of dirks is a well-known custom of some of the Thracian tribes.

τοῦ Διακοῦ—the Dii were independent and lived mostly in the region of the Rhodope or Despoto mountains.

οὓς ἔδει—should have, according to arrangement. M.T. 415.

---

ὕστερον — ‘too late,’ as in ὕστερον παρεγενοντο, ἦλθον.

ὅθεν—antecedent omitted, as in Dem. 45.81 ανάγειν ὅθεν εἴληφας. Andoc. 1, 64 ἔλαβον ὅθεν ὁρμώμενοι ταῦτ᾽ ἐποίουν.

ἔχειν—keep.

τὸν ἐκ τῆς Δ. πόλεμον—the incursions from D.; not the same as ὁ Δεκελεικὸς πόλεμος, as ancient authors call the war from 413.

δραχμὴν—double the ordinary pay of a hoplite.

---

ἐπειδὴ γὰρ—from the time that D. was occupied for the injury of the country, at first by the whole army, after being fortified by it during this summer, and afterwards by garrisons reheving one another at fixed intervals. (This trans. takes ὑπὸ πάσης τῆς ς. both with τειχισθεῖσα and with ἐπῳκεῖτο, not, as is usually done, with τειχισθεῖσα only)

φρουραῖς—replacing the gen. with ὑπό.

ἔβλαπτε—the subj. to be supplied is ἡ Δ. τειχισθεῖσα.

ὀλέθρῳ—a strong word, ‘devastation,’ like the vastitas Italiae which Hannibal saw in a vision. ὄλεθρος is not generally used with things; it is as though a pest were destroying their resources

---

βραχεῖαι—the average duration of the previous invasions had only been about a month, i.e. as long as provisions held out.

ὁτὲ μὲν . . . ὁτὲ δὲ—does not occur elsewhere in good Attic prose. Xen. Hier. 1, 5 has ἔστι μὲν ὄτε . . . ἔστι δ᾽ ὅτε, and the edd. compare Plato, Phacdo, p 59 A ὁτὲ μὲν . . . ἑνίοτε δὲ and Theaet. p. 207 D ὁτὲ μὲν . . . τοτὲ δέ.

πλειόνων ἐπιόντων—VIZ. arriving from the Peloponnese to overrun Attica. The Spartans expected the occupation of Decelea would at once cripple the A. in Sicily. It did not do so: therefore special efforts were from time to time made by sending extra troops. The A. had done much the same at the beginning of the war in the case of Potidaea.

ἐξ ἀνάγκης—of necessity, to provision the garrison.

τῆς ἴσης φρουρᾶς—the normal garrison; in ἴσης he is thinking of the successive garrisons.

οὐκ ἐκ παρέργου—non obiter. His father Archidamus had been accused of slackness in his conduct of the war.

---

τῆς . . . χώρας . . . ἐστέρηντο—στερεῖν is to withhold something forcibly or fraudulently from its owner; as Demosth. speaks of himself as ἐστερημένος τῶν πατρῴων by his guaidians.

ἐν γῇ ἀποκρότῳ—with ἀπεχωλοῦντο; the two causes being expressed in different constructions, as often. Xen. in his treatise on riding refers to the roughness of the ground in parts of Attica, and gives advice to riders.

ξυνεχῶς ταλαιπωροῦντες—by continual fatigue.