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

οἱ . . . Πελοποννήσιοι not followed by any verb, but resumed by οὕτω δὴ ὁ Μίνδαρος. Cf. iv. 73, οἱ γὰρ Μεγαρῆς . . . οὕτω δὴ τῷ Βρασίδᾳ οἱ τῶν φευγόντων φίλοι κ.τ.λ., with about as much intervening matter as here.

ὡς τροφήν τε . . . καὶ αἱ Φ. νῆες . . . ὅ τε Φίλιππος . . . Φαρνάβαζός τε The first τε looks forward to καὶ αἱ νῆες and these combined form one member of a co-ordination, of which the second and third τε supply the two other elements. In καὶ ἄλλος Ἱπποκράτης the καὶ does not answer to a τε, but joins Ἱπποκράτης to Φίλιππος.

τῶν . . τότε . . . προσταχθέντων Cf. c. 87, § 3, where this duty is given to Tamos.

αἱ Φοίνισσαι νῆες οὐδὲ ὁ Τισσαφέρνης ἧκον The single negative as in Aesch. Ag. 532, Πάρις γὰρ οὔτε συντελὴς πόλις; Cho. 294; Pind. P. vi. 48, and elsewhere not rarely.

τέως usually translated incorrectly as if = πω, ‘not yet,’ but it should be taken with Τισσαφέρνης alone: ‘the Phoenician ships had put in no appearance, nor had Tissaphernes done so in the meantime’ (i.e. pending their arrival).

ὁ ξυμπεμφθεὶς Cf. c. 87, § 6.

καὶ ὢν gives the reason of his ability to speak on the subject. He was a Spartan and was moreover at Phaselis (and so could know).

καὶ αὐτὸς ‘on his side too,’ i.e. as much as Tissaphernes.

πλέον τι σχήσειν ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ=πλεονεκτήσειν ἐκ τούτου του ῀ πράγματος (Aemilius Portus). For ἀπ᾽ αὐτου ῀ cf. c. 92, § 2.

ἀπὸ παραγγέλματος Cf. ii. 90, ἀπὸ σημείου ἑνὸς ἐπιστρέψαντες. αἰφνιδίου is explained by ὅπως λάθοι κ.τ.λ.

τρισὶ καὶ ἑβδομήκοντα In c. 79, § 1, the Peloponnesian ships number 112. In c. 80, § 3, ten of them reach the Hellespont. In the sentence following the present we are told that sixteen others had gone on in the same summer. There should thus be eighty-six accounted for. Diodorus (xiii. 38) states that Dorieus had been sent with thirteen ships to Rhodes to suppress a threatened revolution. This would leave the seventy-three mentioned here. (In Xen. Hell. i. 1, 2, Dorieus brings fourteen ships from Rhodes to the Hellespont.) Thucydides, however, says nothing of these thirteen ships. We have had occasion to remark before (c. 79) that we cannot expect Thucydides to give an account of the fate of every ship in either the Peloponnesian or the Athenian fleet. He states that, as a fact, seventy-three ships left Miletus. He does not (as commentators seem to suppose) arrive at this number by a computation, but states it on the word of his authorities for the particular event. There may have been occasional errors of copying in the case of numbers written compendiously, but such errors were surprisingly infrequent. See, however, c. 104, § 2.

τῆς Χερσονήσου which had been largely eolonised by Athenians.

Ἴκαρον the nearest large island, west of, and near to, Samos.