T. G. Tucker, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 8

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τοῖς . . . Ἀθηναίοις. Grammatically the dative depends on προσαφιγμέναι ἦσαν. Jowett's opinion that it depends on some such intended expression as ἔδοξεν ἐφορμεῖν, with the construction subsequently changed, is disproved by such instances as i. 72 (init.), τῶν δὲ Ἀθηναίων ἔτυχε γὰρ πρεσβεία πρότερον ἐν τῇ Λακεδαίμονι περὶ ἄλλων παροῦσα, καὶ ὡς ᾔσθοντο τῶν λόγων ἔδοξεν αὐτοῖς κ.τ.λ., where Shilleto renders ‘as there was an embassy . . . so, etc.’ Cf. i. 115, τῶν δὲ Σαμίων ἦσαν γάρ τινες οἳ οὐχ ὑπέμενον ἀλλ᾽ ἔφυγον εἰς τὴν ἤπειρον. ξυνθέμενοι κ.τ.λ. Nor is such syntax confined to Thucydides; cf. Hdt. ix. 109, τῇ δὲ κακῶς γὰρ ἔδεε γενέσθαι, εἶπε κ.τ.λ. γὰρ in such sentences takes the force of ἐπεὶ, as so commonly in ἀλλὰ . . . γὰρ: ‘During the following winter, as the Athenians had received reinforcements, they were of a mind, etc.’ (= ἐπεὶ τοῖς Ἀθηναίοις προσαφιγμέναι ἦσαν . . ., ἐβούλοντο). Accepting this idiom as sufficiently common, we find the chief difficulty in the καὶ before τὰς ἀπὸ Χίου. The passage quoted from i. 72 is almost precisely similar, but Shilleto's rendering cannot disguise the fact that it is anacoluthic. Here καὶ ξυναγαγόντες is written as if the previous clause had run οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι προσαφιγμένας ἔχοντες κ.τ.λ., ‘having reinforcements and having gathered . . .’ But καὶ οἴκοθεν also helps and answers to καὶ τὰς ἀπὸ Χίου, the words καὶ στρατηγοὶ . . . Εὐκτήμων being parenthetical (as the otherwise impossible omission of ναῦς with τὰς ἀπὸ Χίου shows). The whole literally = ‘as there had arrived additional ships from home to the number of thirty-five (Charminus, etc., being in command of them), and having collected those from Chios and all the rest . . .’ [No alteration of the passage should be attempted by a critic familiar with Thucydides, but, if logical ease is desired at the expense of other considerations, it might be most natural to emend γὰρ ἦσαν to παρῆσαν, which would make the sentence normal by the smallest possible change.]

στρατηγοὶ The Athenians had no special term for admirals as distinguished from land-officers.

Στρομβιχίδης If this is the same as the Σ. of c. 15, § 1, and c. 17, we have not been told when or why he left the blockading forces at Lade for Athens.

τὰς ἀπὸ Χίου which had been making descents on Chios under Leon and Diomedon, c. 24, § 2.

τὰς ἄλλας πάσας e.g. from Lesbos, c. 24, § 2.

διακληρωσάμενοι a sortitio for the division of labour or sphere of operation. Kruger compares vi. 42, τρία μέρη νείμαντες ἓν ἑκάστῳ ἐκλήρωσαν, and vi. 62, δύο μέρη ποήσαντες καὶ λαχὼν ἑκάτερος.