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ἀπὸ Μαλέας πελάγιαι, i.e. not παραπλέουσαι, but ‘straight across the open Aegean.’ Cf. c. 10, § 2, ὑπῆγον ἐς τὸ πέλαγος. The distance to Melos is about sixty miles. Μήλῳ which had come into the hands of the Athenians amid cruel circumstances (v. 116), and had been re-colonised by them. τὰς τρεῖς Cf. τὰς ὀκτὼ, c. 15, § 1. πλείω τὸν πλοῦν διὰ φυλακῆς ποησάμενοι Jowett renders ‘they took the precaution of going by a longer route.’ This rather represents διὰ φυλακήν. Dale has ‘having made their journey longer by taking this precaution.’ This would require ταύτης τῆς φυλακῆς or a different turn of expression, e.g. ταῦτα φυλασσόμενοι. Rather, as Dukas, ἐπιμηκύναντες τὴν ὁδὸν φυλαττόμενοι πανταχῆ, ‘having made their voyage longer in a state of watchfulness.’ Cf. i. 17, δι᾽ ἀσφαλείας ᾤκουν; iv. 30, ἀριστοποιεῖσθαι διὰ προφυλακῆς; vii. 8, τὰ κατὰ τὸ στρατόπεδον διὰ φυλακῆς μᾶλλον ἔχων. Καῦνον τῆς Ἀσίας This place did not yet, as it did later, belong to Rhodes. τῆς Ἀσίας implies that it was not within the Hellenic fringe. It was ‘Asiatic.’
Commentary on Thucydides Book 8. T.G. Tucker. London. MacMillan & Company. 1892.
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