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πρός τε— “with reference to.” Freeman well says that we must remember the old εὐτυχία of Nicias. This remembrance it was which increased the vexation of the troops. ἀρρωστίαν—medical term. Here in moral sense, as in III. 15.2. ἀχθομένους—two reasons are given: (1) νόσῳ ἐπιέζοντο, (2) τὰ ἄλλα ἀνέλπιστα . . . ἐφαίνετο.
νόσῳ—esp. those encamped between the double walls below the cliff. κατ᾽ ἀμφότερα—for two reasons, which are then given, viz. (1) the season, (2) the place. οὔσης . . . χαλεπὸν ἦν—see on c. 13.2. 10 χαλεπὸν—unhealthy, like βαρυς, gravis. The unhealthiness of the marshy ground made it difficult to lay siege to Syracuse by land. The Romans found this out in 212, Livy 24.26 “tempore autumni et locis natura gravibus, multo tamen magis extra urbem quam in urbe, intoleranda vis aestus omnium ferme corpora movit.” ἀνέλπιστα—the pessimism that usually accompanies bad health.
ἐς τὰς Ἐ. διεκινδύνευσεν—the edd. compare III. 36.2 ἐς Ἰωνίαν παρακινδυνεῦσαι. τοῦ στρατεύματος—partitive after ναυσί: ‘so long as it was possible to prevail at least with that part of the fleet that had come to reinforce them.’
l. 20 ἐν τῇ χώρᾳ—at Decelea. ἢ Συρακοσίους—the preposition omitted in the second clause after a comparative. Cf. V. 111 αἰσχύνην αἰσχίω μετ᾽ ἀνοίας ἢ τύχης προσλαβεῖν. οὓς . . . ῥάδιον εἶναι—cf. I. 91.5 ὅσα μετ᾽ ἐκείνων βουλεύεσθαι; II. 13.5 οἷς χρήσεσθαι, and 102 λέγεται . . . ὄτε δὴ ἀλᾶσθαι. This attraction of short rel. clauses in Oratio Obliqua into infin. is less rare in Greek than in Lat. (qui=et is is different). Thuc. has nine instances. Cf. Roby, II. § 1677. εἰκὸς εἶναι—decere.
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