E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 2

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Τοιόσδε—see c. 41, 2. Late authors make no dis- tinction between these pronouns.

τάφος—contrast the meaning in 34, 4.

ἐγένετο—pass. of ταφὰς ἐποιήσαντο, c. 34, 1.

πρῶτον—Thuc. never inserts the art. in these formulae.

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Τὰ δύο μέρη—limiting apposition. The arrangements for the campaign are exactly the same as tbose of the pre ceding year, though the Spartans now knew that the Athenians would not offer battle. It is clear therefore that Sparta too saw that the only hope was to wear Athens out. Cf. Intr. p. lxx.

καθεζόμενοι—c. 18, 1.

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Ἡ νόσος—‘the famous plague.’ The account (c. 47-54) falls into three parts, (i) its origin (47, 48), (ii) symptoms and effects on sufferers (49, 50), (iii) effects on morality (51, etc.). This description has been imitated by many writers, as Lucretius VI. 1138-1251 who is in turn imitated by Vergil, Georg. III, 478 and Ovid, Met. VII. 523), Procopius, Persica II, 22, who describes the plague at Constantinople in Justinian's reign, A.D. 542, and John Cantacuzene, Emperor of the Eastern Empire, who described very poorly the great plague of 1347 with which the plague of Florence described by Boccaccio and the ‘Black Death’ in England are connected. Superstitious horror, followed by demoralisation, is common to all great plagues.

πρῶτον ἤρξατο—cf. c. 36, 1, 48, 1.

γενέσθαι—the phrase occurs also I. 103 τὸ μῖσος ἤρξατο γενέσθαι, c. 68, 2, III. 18 ὁ χειμὼν ἤρχετο γίγνεσθαι, Isocr. 15, 82 ἤρχετο τὸ γένος τὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γίγνεσθαι, Andoc. 2, 9 ἤρχετο γίγνεσθαι δυσδαιμονἐστερος. The tense of γίγνομαι must be the same as that of ἄρχομαι; yet ἤρξατο πρἀσσειν is good Greek, though ἤρχετο πρᾶξαι is not (the reason is that γίγνομαι is inceptive, while πράσσω is not, so that ἤρξατο γίγνεσθαι would be a contradiction in terms; thus ἤρξατο γιγνώσκειν would not do).

λεγόμενον—as though νόσημα had preceded.

ἐγκατασκῆψαι —Soph. O. T. 27 ἐν δ᾽ ὁ πυρφόρος θεός | σκήψας ἐλαύνει, λοιμὸς ἔχθιστος πάλιν. περὶ—circa: c. 7, 3.

οὕτως—with γενέσθαι. ἐμνημονεύετο—anacoluthon. as λεγόμενον μὲν preceded. (Observe that this is not a solecism.) Cf. c. 65, 11.

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Τὸ πρῶτον—with θεραπεύοντες, ‘as they treated it at first with no knowledge of its nature.’

μάλιστα .. ὅσῳ καὶ μάλιστα—i.e. the mortality among them was greater than among any other class because they came in contact with the disease more than others. For the double superl. or compar. in proportion, cf. I. 68 προσήκει ἡμᾶς οὐχ ἥκιστα εἰπεῖν, ὁσῳ καὶ μέγιστα ἐγκλήματα ἔχομεν, III. 45 οὐχ ἧσσον τὰς πόλεις, ὅσῳ περὶ μεγίστων, V. 90 πρὸς ὑμῶν οὐχ ἧσσον τοῦτο, ὅσῳ καὶ ἐπὶ μεγίστῃ τιμωρίᾳ ἂν παράδειγμα γένοισθε. Cf. also c. 11, 1 καὶ ἐπὶ πόλιν δυνατωτάτην ... καὶ αὐτοὶ πλεῖστοι ἐρχόμεθα. πρὸς ἱεροῖς—ad loca sacra; cf. c. 87, 6, 94, 4.

ἱκέτευσαν—the aor. sums up all the instances (complexive).

ἐχρήσαντο—sc. ὅσα, which with ἱκέτευσαν=ὅσας ἱκετείας, but with ἐχρήσαντο=περὶ ὅσα. See L. and S. χράω A. III.

τε—does not belong to the preceding τε, which added a third fact to οὔτε οὔτε, but=‘and so.’

ὑπὸ τοῦ κακοῦ—cf. 51, 1; but contrast 60, 6 χρήμασι νικώμενος. The verbs which commonly have ὑπὸ with things in prose are such as νικῶμαι, βλάπτομαι, διαφθείρομαι, ἀναγκάζομαι, ἡττῶμαι, πείθομαι (Isaeus only has πείθομαι and διαφθείρομαι, Lysias only ἀναγκἀζομαι, ἐπαίρομαι, διἀκειμαι) and the things so used must be such as can be easily personified, such as (1) natural phenomena, as χειμών, σεισμός, ἄπλοια, (2) external circumstances, as κίνδυνος, συμφορά, πληγαί, δεσμοί, κέρδος, χρήματα, νόμος, (3) emotions, as ἡδον ή, φθόνος, (4) words which imply a person, as λόγοι, πράγματα, δύναμις, when the person is often inserted (as in ὑπὸ τῆς τοῦ ῥήτορος δενότητος), and all the topics of rhetoric as ὑπὸ τῶν εἰκότων, ὑπὸ τοῦ δικαίου. The construction is optional in these cases, as the following examples show: Aristoph. Av. 1438 πἀντες τοῖς λόγοις ἀναπτεροῦνται, ib. 1447 ὑπὸ λόγων ἐπαίρεται; Isocr. 5, 40 τὰς πόλεις ὡμαλισμένας ὑπὸ τῶν συμφορῶν, 6, 65 ὡμαλισμένοι ταῖς συμφοραῖς.