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

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χηλὴ ‘a mole,’ resembling a ‘claw.’ Cf. i. 63, παρῆλθε παρὰ τὴν χηλὴν διὰ τῆς θαλάσσης; vii. 53, etc. Two moles ran out from the north and south sides of the harbour, nearly meeting in the middle of the channel, and leaving a passage for only two or three triremes abreast. The harbour was thus made into what was called a κλῃστός λιμήν (vii. 38). Eetioneia was the northern mole. There was a natural promontory which was very helpful in forming the κλῇθρον, but the χηλή in question was a further projection from it and was of artificial work. Xen. Hell. ii. 3, 46, φανεροὶ ἐγένοντο ἐπὶ τῷ χώματι ἔρυμα τειχίζοντες, εἰς ὃ ἐβούλοντο τοὺς πολεμίους δεξάμενοι κ.τ.λ. Various late and mediaeval authorities (Harpocration, Suidas, etc.) call Eetioneia an ἄκρα, and the name may have belonged to a portion of the natural promontory as well as to the χῶμα, or the χηλή itself may be loosely spoken of as an ἄκρα.

ξὺν τῷ πρότερον κ.τ.λ. ‘with the help of,’ or ‘in connection with . . .’ The ‘landward’ wall is the main outer wall of the town of Peiraens, on the northern side of the harbour. It defended the port from an attack on the landward side.

ἐς αὐτὸ sc. τὸ τεῖχος, to be supplied from the sense.

τοῦ γε ἔσπλου Jowett says ‘a handful of men could protect at any rate the entrance to the harbour, if not the approach from the city.’ The force of γε may rather be ‘they had control of the (important point, viz. the) entrance of the harbour, if nothing else.’ γε thus implies that the control is satisfactory.

ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸν γὰρ κ.τ.λ. i.e. ‘for both the old landward wall and also the inner new one, which was being built inside against the sea, came to an end exactly at the fort (one of a pair), which was at the mouth of the harbour, the said harbour being narrow.’ The description is rather clumsy, probably because Thucydides was himself so well acquainted with the locality. Arnold has rightly explained that the πύργος was at the end of the χηλή; from this πύργος ran the mole to the natural promontory, whence the masonry continued inland as the outer wall of Peiraeus. The oligarchs built another wall inside the heads, at an angle to this, running from the same πύργος by the shore of the harbour. The object of the second wall was to prevent a landing upon Eetioneia from the harbour of Peiraeus itself. Having carried this wall sufficiently far, they carried a third side of the triangle across to the old landward wall (hence sup. ἐτειχίζετο ξὺν τῷ πρότερον κ.τ.λ.), and in doing so they cut off inside the triangle the στοά mentioned below. Thus they have a small triangular space walled in, containing the Eetioneia and the στοά, a space which is a castle (τεῖχος) easily defended by a handful of men.

τὸν ἕτερον because there was another on the opposite mole.

τειχιζόμενον For position of the attributive participle cf. c. 35, § 2; c. 36, § 1, etc.

πρὸς θάλασσαν. θάλασσαν is used rather than τὸν λιμένα for antithesis to πρὸς ἤπειρον. The new castle could be attacked by ‘land’ or by ‘sea.’