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Intending to revolt even before the present war, we were hindered by you. Now, invited by the Boeotians, we have promptly taken this step not only in our own interest, but in that of the Hellenes who are enslaved by the Athenians. But as our revolt has been made too hastily and without the necessary preparations, you are the more bound to assist us, in order that your readiness to help in such cases may be known. All the circumstances are favourable. The power of the Athenians, already weakened and divided, will lose by our defection one of its strongest supports, while your fleet will receive a considerable addition. τοιαύτας ἔχοντες: in close connexion with the preceding without connecting particle, as in ii. 74. 1; iv. 93. 1, and freq.— προφάσεις, αἰτίας: not essentially different, except that the former is more the immediate occasion for action, as in i. 23. 23; 118. 3; Dem. xviii. 156. See on c. 9. 10.—2. σαφεῖς γνῶναι, ἱκανὰς ἐκφοβῆσαι: for inf. limiting adj., see GMT. 758; H. 952. Cf. i. 50. 25; ii. 61. 12; vii. 14. 6.—4. πρὸς ἀσφάλειάν τινα τρέψαι: to cause us to turn to some means of safety, i.e. to an alliance with Sparta. Cf. vi. 59. 7.— βουλομένους μέν, κωλυθέντας δέ: sc. ἀφίστασθαι. The partics., though joined to a subord. clause, by their position at the end of the period come to have the force of the leading clause, so that the following νῦν δὲ κτἑ. refers only to them. Cf. c. 2. § 1.—5. ἔτι ἐν τῇ εἰρήνῃ: closely connected, as in ii. 2. 19. See on i. 30. 20. 6. ὑμῶν δὲ οὐ προσδεξαμένων: cf. c. 2. 3.— 7. Βοιωτοὶ προυκαλέσαντο: this influence is not definitely mentioned above. But cf. c. 2. 14; 5. 13.—8. ἐνομίζομεν ἀποστήσεσθαι διπλῆν ἀπόστασιν . . . προποιῆσαι: we thought to effect a twofold withdrawal: from the Hellenes, so as not to become partners with the Athenians in doing them harm, but to aid in frecing them, and from the Athenians, so as not to be destroyed ourselves by them afterwards, but rather to destroy them first (προποιῆσαι, i.e. προδιαφθεῖραι). For examples similar to ἀφίστασθαι ἀπόστασιν, see Lobeck, Paralip. ii. 516 f. See also on i. 37. 11. ἐνομίζομεν here, as freq., expresses a certain self-confidence. Cf. i. 84. 17; 105. 23; ii. 3. 7. As to τε, τε, for which καί, καί is more usual in prose, see on i. S. 14; ii. 84. 14. In the const. of the sent. Thuc. evidently had in mind c. 10. § 3. Nominally the Mytileneans revolted not only from the Athenians, but also from the rest of the Hellenes of the Delian alliance, for whose enslavement they had, as they alleged, been obliged to aid the Athenians. But most editt. hold that ἀπόστασις is used here in a double sense, first, as regards the Greeks, of absistendi (cf. iv. 118. 40; vii. 7. 9), second, as regards the Athenians, of revolt. The object of the entrance into the alliance is expressed in c. 10. § 3 by ἐπί with the dat., while here the object of its renunciation is expressed by infs., the pres. (ξὺν κακῶς ποιεῖν, ξυνελευθεροῦν) in reference to the unlimited future, the aor. (διαφθαρῆναι, προποιῆσαι) to the case in hand.—9. ξὺν κακῶς ποιεῖν: like ἀντ̓ εὗ ποιεῖν, Ar. Plut. 1029; Xen. Anab. v. 5.21; Plato Gorg. 520 e; Dem. xx. 64. 124, 141; σὺν εὖ πάσχειν, Dem. viii. 65. Cf. Soph. Ant. 523 οὔτοι συνέχθειν, ἀλλὰ συμφιλεῖν ἔφυν. For ξύν as adv., see Matth. 594, 2. θᾶσσον: sc. ἢ ἠβουλόμεθα. For the omission of the second member of the comparison, see Kühn. 542, N. 7. The adv. co-ord. with adj., as in c. 4. 4. As to the facts, cf. c. 2. § 1, 2; 4. § 2.—13. ᾗ καί: used before a comp. adv. emphasizes an inference. Cf. i. 11. 8; 25. 22; ii. 2. 21; iv. 1. 14.— ξυμμάχους . . . ἀποστέλλειν: see App. ξυμμάχους is pred. to δεξαμένους ἡμᾶς, as i. 43. 7.— διὰ ταχέων:=ταχέως, as in i. 80. 8; iv. 8. 18; 96. 4; vi. 66. 10; viii. 101. 4. —14. ἵνα φαίνησθε ἀμύνοντές τε kte(.: summary of the two chief points on which the Mytileneans base their request. See on c. 10. 1. The grounds for the last clause (τοὺς πολεμίους βλάπτοντες) are given in what follows. ὡς οὔπω πρότερον: cf. ii. 20. 5; v. 63. 4.— ἐφθάραται, τετάχαται: such Ion. forms of the pf. and plpf. occur also in iv. 31. 7; v. 6. 23; vii. 4. 34. G. 701; 777, 3; H. 464 a; Kühn.^{3} 214, 8; Kr. Spr. 30, 2, 7.—17. χρημάτων δαπάνῃ: ‘a plena locutio, which has, however, an intensive force.’ Bl. It occurs also in [Dem.] lx. 13. — νῆες, αἱ μέν, αἱ δέ: part. appos. See on ii. 95. 5; vii. 71. 4. G. 914; H. 624 d; Kühn. 406, 7.—18. αἱ μὲν . . . εἰσίν: i.e. the 30 ships sent under Asopius. Cf. c. 7. 3. περὶ τὴν ὑμετέραν=περὶ τὴν Λακωνικήν, as often in this specch the Lacedaemonians only are to be understood as addressed (e.g. ll. 6, 34). The territory of the Peloponnesian alliance was not such a unity that the orators could properly speak of a fleet as about this territory. See also on c. 16. 4, 12.— ἐφ̓ ἡμῖν: in hostile sense, rare instead of the accusative. Cf. c. 16. 4; 63. 8; i. 102. 19; ii. 70. 8. οὐκ εἰκὸς αὐτοὺς περιουσίαν νεῶν ἔχειν: considering the statement above, 1. 16, νόσῳ . . . δαπάνῃ, and that there could hardly have been a prospect of an actual lack of ships (cf. ii. 13. 55), the reference seems to be to the manning and maintenance of more ships. The inf. pres. with εἰκός on account of the notion of duration. Cf. iv. 20. 16, and see on i. 81. 13.—20. ἐπεσβάλητε τὸ δεύτερον: ἐπι- is further defined by τὸ δεύτερον. ἐπεισβαλεῖν, meaning attack, is found clsewhere only in a fragment of Palaephatus; in Eur. El. 498 it means insuper inicere. The first invasion was described in c. 1.— 21. ἀπ̓ ἀμφοτέρων: sc. ἡμῶν τε καὶ ὑμῶν. νομίσῃ τε μηδείς: order as in iv. 95. 3; vi. 84. 1. Kühn. 512, N. 1. — ἀλλοτρίας . . . ἕξειν: cf. i. 78. 2.— 23. μακρὰν ἀπεῖναι: procul abesse. Cf. μακρὰν ἀποικεῖν, c. 55. 5. Kr. Spr. 43, 3, 8.—24. τὴν ὠφελίαν αὐτῷ: when an oblique ease of αὐτός thus follows its rel., it is equiv. to a weak dem. and cannot stand first in its clause. Kühn. 468, N. 4. Cf. iv. 92. 42; 126. 19; 128. 3.— οὐ γὰρ ἐν τῇ Ἀττικῇ ἔσται ὁ πόλεμος: for not upon Attica will the war depend, i.e. it will not draw its strength thence. For ἐν, not in local sense, cf. i. 74. 2 ἐν ταῖς ναυσὶ τὰ πράγματα ἐγένετο, ii. 35. 7 ἐν ἑνὶ ἀνδρὶ . . . κινδυνεύεσθαι, ii. 64. 11 μὴ ἐν ὑμῖν κωλυθῇ. Kr. Spr. 68, 12, 6.—25. δἰ ἥν: i.e. ἐν ταύτῃ δἰ ἥν, nearly=δἰ ἧς. Cf. i. 83. 4 δαπάνης, δἰ ἣν τὰ ὅπλα ὠφελεῖ. Also c. 39. 43; vii. 68. 18; Dem. i. 12. ἔστι δὲ . . . ἡ πρόσοδος: cf. ii. 13. 20 λέγων τὴν ἰσχὺν αὐτοῖς ἀπὸ τοίτων εἶναι τῶν χρημάτων τῆς προσόδου.— 27. καὶ ἔτι . . . καταστρέψονται: the proof of the claim made 1. 24. τὴν ὠφελίαν . . . παρέξει. If the subjugation of the Mytileneans will increase the revenues of the Athenians, it is clearly to the interest of the Peloponnesians to prevent this.—28. τά τε ἡμέτερα: nostrae opes. τε correl. to οὔτε.—29. πάθοιμέν τ̓ ἂν δεινότερα: esp. through an increase of taxes, as it would seem from the context. τε introduces a third circumstance. For the opt. with ἄν exchanging with fut. indie., see Kühn. 396, N. 1.— ἢ οἱ πρὶν δουλεύοντες: than those enslaved before (us), i.e. the ξύμμαχοι ὑποτελεῖς (i. 80. 14; 99. 11). Cf. c. 10. § 4. 5. Arnold explains: ‘Worse than they who were slares before they rerolled; because the Mytileneans would seem to have revolted on much less provocation. See Cleon's speech c. 39. § 5, where he calls for an exemplary vengeance upon Mytilene on this very ground.’ βοηθησάντων δὲ ὑμῶν: this alternative, which contains the main point of the thought, or rather of the whole speech, is expressed in gen. abs., although the verbs of the apod. have the same subject. GMT. 850; Kr. Spr. 47, 4, 2; Kühn. 494 a. See on c. 112. 21; ii. 83. 15; viii. 76. 12.— 32. προσδεῖ: sc. besides what you already have.— καθαιρήσετε: of violent overthrow of an existing order of things, or a predominant person. See on i. 4. 6; 77. 20.— ὑφαιροῦντες: of gradual drawing out. Cf. c. 31. 8; 82. 17. Bl. calls this an architectural metaphor, namely to pull down (καθαιρεῖν) by undermining or pulling out stones from the foundation (ὑφαιρεῖν).—33. πᾶς τις: everyone, as comprehensive as possible. Kr. Spr. 51, 16, 11. Cf. c. 93. 10; ii. 41. 21; vi. 68. 7; vii. 60. 13. —34. τὴν αἰτίαν: the reproach, as in ii. 18. 9; 60. 25; vi. 60. 3. With ἔχειν also i. 83. 8; vi. 46. 27.— ἀποφεύξεσθε: cf. ii. 42. 23 τὸ αἰσχρὸν τοῦ λόγου ἔφυγον.—ἣν εἴχετε: refers to the period before the Peloponnesian war. Cf. i. 69. § 5. The reading of Vat., ἔχετε—with which ἀποφεύξεσθε would mean get rid of, not avoid—would ill accord with the relation of the Mytileneans to the Lacedaemonians, and would hardly answer to the actual circumstances, since the Lacedaemonians had indeed, as they had promised and not far otherwise than the Mytileneans now demanded for themselves (c. 13. § 4; 15. § 1), sought to bring aid to the Potidaeans (cf. i. 58. § 1; 71. § 4; ii. 70. § 1, and, as an example of the opposite course in earlier times, i. 101. § 1 f.).—35. ἢν δ᾽ ἐλευθεροῦντες φαίνησθε: if you openly appear as liberators (of the oppressed). Thus φανῆτε, which would be the more usual form before ἕξετε, is not necessary. There is an allusion to the boast made by the Lacedaemonians at the opening of the war, ὅτι τὴν Ἑλλάδα ἐλευθεροῦσιν (ii. 8. 15; iv. 85. 4). Cf. c. 32. 5.— τὸ κράτος τοῦ πολέμου: τὸ δύνασθαι περιγενέσθαι τῷ πολέμῳ, Schol. Cf. ii. 87. 27; Plato Legg. 962 a. Also Dem. xix. 130 κράτος πολέμου καὶ νίκην . . . διδόναι, Dio C. (fragm.) 35. 4 τὸ κράτος τοῦ πολέμου ὑποχείριον ἔσχε. κράτος in this sense (mastery, victory) seems to be Ion. and poetic.— βεβαιότερον ἕξετε: see on c. 11. 16.
Commentary on Thucydides Book 3 Edited on the basis of the Classen-Steup Edition. Charles F. Smith. Boston. Ginn & Company. 1894.
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