CHAPTER XLVIII
ἐς μὲν ἄνδρας ἑξήκοντα—‘to the number of’; these words form the object of
ἐξαγαγόντες: so ch. 80, 18,
προκρίναντες ἐς δισχιλίους: as subject,
iii. 20,
ἐς ἄνδρας διακοσίους καὶ εἴκοσι ἐνέμειναν.
μεταστήσοντάς ποι ἄλλοσε—‘in order to remove them elsewhere’. The fut. participle is a correction for
μεταστήσαντας, to retain which necessitates taking
ποι ἄλλοσε with
ἄγειν: the enclitic more naturally belongs to the word which it follows, while
ἄγειν corresponds to the preceding
ἐξαγαγόντες.
σφᾶς...αὐτούς—the former of these words is governed by
διαφθείρειν, of which
αὐτούς is the subject; ‘kill us yourselves’, is the appeal which the captives make to the Athenians.
οὑδ᾽ ἐσιέναι...οὐδένα—the inf. follows
περιόψεσθαι, as in
v. 29:
i. 35,
προσλαβεῖν περιόψεσθε. κατὰ δύναμιν—‘to the best of their power’,
οὑ περιόψεσθαι being equivalent to ‘will prevent’: so
i. 53,
οὐ περιοψόμεθα καπὰ τὸ δυνατόν.
κατὰ μὲν τὰς θύρας—cf. note, ch. 25, 48.
οὑδ᾽ αὐτοί— lit. ‘neither themselves’, i.e. they had no more intention of entering than the prisoners had of letting them in.
οὐδέ means ‘also not’, as in this sentence, more commonly than ‘not even.
τὴν ὀροφήν—so
iii. 68,
ὀροφαῖς ἐχρησαντο: but
i. 134,
τὸν ὄροφον. τῷ κεράμῳ—‘with the tiling’: so
ii. 4,
λίθοις τε καὶ κεράμῳ βαλλοντων.
καὶ ἅμα...διέφθειρον—the rest of the sentence, as far as
ἀπαγχόμενοι, describes the ways in which the captives destroyed themselves. It has two main divisions,
οἰστούς τε... καθιέντες and
καὶ...ἀπαγχόμενοι, the latter being again divided into two clauses of somewhat different construction. The imperfect participles
καθιέντες and
ἀπαγχόμενοι denote what went on during the night, while the concluding aor.
διεφθάρησαν regards the work of death as ended and complete.
ἐς τὰς σφαγάς—‘into their throats’.
σφαγή is the spot where the victim is struck for sacrifice:
Eur. Or. 291,
τεκούσης ἐς σφαγὰς ὦσαι ξίφος.
ἐκ κλινῶν τινῶν...ἀ παγχόμενοι—they strangled themselves either with bed girths or with strips of their garments.
ἐκ κλινῶν goes with
τοῖς σπάρτοις alone, which is governed by
ἀπαγχόμενοι. In the next clause instead of another dative of the instrument we have the active construction
παραιρήματα ποιοῦντες, which must be rendered ‘with strips made’. This use of the act. participle is a common way of varying the construction in the concluding clause of the sentence: Dem. Lept. 496,
καὶ τοιούτους τινὰς ἐξειλεγμένοι, ‘and such specimens’:
Eur. El. 496,
ταλάρων τ᾽ ἐξελὼν τυρεύματα, ‘and cheeses taken from their baskets’.
παντί τε τρόπῳ—‘and so in every fashion’.
τε is not found in the MSS. but is inserted by Poppo. We have in this book frequent instances of its use in summing up and concluding an account, e.g. ch. 4, 12. If
τε be not read,
διεφθάρησαν is redundant, being added as if there had been no such main verb as
διέφθειρον.
ἐπεγένετο τῷ παθήματι—‘closed on the scene’: ch. 25, 9.
φορμηδόν—‘like matting’, some lengthways, some across:
ii. 75,
φορμηδὸν τιθέντες: so
Hdt. ii. 96,
πλινθηδόν, ‘brickfashion’.
ἠνδραποδίσαντο—‘enslaved’: the middle, as Classen points out, possibly implying that the Corcyreans kept them in their own service. In all other passages Thuc. uses the active to describe the selling of captives, e.g.
v. 32,
παῖδας δὲ καὶ γυναῖκας ήνδραπόδισαν.
ἡ στάσις πολλὴ γενομένη—an English writer would have said, ‘this was the end of this great struggle’, but in Greek an accessory idea, as in this case of the height to which faction rose, is not as a rule expressed by an epithet but thrown into a predicative form.
στάσις—the word used throughout of the Corcyrean revolution: so
iii. 76,
οἱ Κερκυραῖοι ἐστασίαζον. It is applied to any struggle between men of the same blood, even if rising to the importance of a civil war: thus in ch. 61, 6, to the war in Sicily.
ἐτελεύτησεν ἐς τοῦτο—so
iii. 104,
ἐτελεύτα ἐς τάδε τὰ ἔπη, ‘ended with these verses’: cf.
i. 51,
ἡ ναυμαχία ἐτελεύτα ἐς νύκτα, i.e. lasted till night and then ended:
iii. 108,
ὴ μάχη ἐτελεύτα ἕως ὀψέ. There is a similar use of
μέχρι in
i. 71,
μέχρι τοῦδε ὡρίσθω ὑμῶν ἡ βραδυτής, ‘let this be the limit of your inaction’.
ὅσα γε κατά—‘so far as relates to’: so
viii. 70,
ὅσα πρὸς τοὺς θεούς: cf. ch. 16, 15,
ὅσα μή. ὅ τι καὶ ἀξιόλογον—so
i. 15,
ὅθεν τις καὶ δύναμις παρεγένετο.
ἴνα περ...ὥρμηντο—so ch. 74, 4,
ἵνα περ καὶ τὸ πρῶτον ὥρμητο, ἐκεῖ and
ἐνταῦθα are often similarly used with verbs of motion. Thuc. uses the perfect and plup. of
ὁρμᾶσθαι to denote actual motion, as in these passages, or mental impulse, as in ch. 27, 24.
ἐπολέμουν—by the use of the imperfect the historian leaves the Athenians engaged in their operations in Sicily and passes to another subject. Nothing further is said of Sicily till the convention at Gela next year (ch. 58).
