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You Plataeans have misused your alliance with the Athenians by sharing in all their deeds of violence against other Hellenes, thereby voluntarily incurring a heavy burden of guilt. ὡς δὲ ὑμεῖς kte(.: beginning of the second part of the explanation announced c. 62. 6. From here to the end of c. 66 the Plataeans are directly addressed.— μᾶλλον ἠδικήκατε τοὺς Ἕλληνας: cf. c. 56. 1.— 2. ἀξιώτεροι: i.e. μᾶλλον ἄξιοι. “You rather than we are worthy of every penalty.” Cf. i. 122. 11. ἐγένεσθε: the asyndeton shows the earnestness of the speaker.— ἐπὶ τῇ ἡμετέρᾳ τιμωρίᾳ: for our punishment, i.e. for your protection against us. Cf. ii. 42. 17; vi. 76. 15. ἡμετέρᾳ stands for the obj. gen.— ὡς φατέ: c. 55. § 1.—4. πολῖται: see on c. 55. 12.— οὐκοῦν kte(.: Cl. writes οὐκ οὖν, and makes the sent. (ending with προβάλλεσθε) a question.— τὰ πρὸς ἡμᾶς μόνον: only in that which pertains to us, i.e. only against us. —5. αὐτούς: i.e. τοὺς Ἀθηναίους.— 6. ὑπάρχον γε ὑμῖν: when it was certainly open to you, sc. μὴ ξυνεπιέναι. ὑπάρχειν in this sense also c. 109. 20; i. 82. 26; vii. 63. 6. See on i. 124. l. For the acc. abs., see GMT. 851; H. 973.— ἄκοντες προσήγεσθε:=ἠναγκάζεσθε, as ii. 89. 14. Cf. vi. 54. 13 βίᾳ προσαγάγηται.—7. τῶν Λακεδαιμονίων τῶνδε: the art. preceding the dem. τῶνδε is unusual, but prob. the pron. was added with esp. reference to the judges. Kr. Spr. 50, 11, 19.— 8. ἤδη ἐπὶ τῷ Μήδῳ: placed before ξυμμαχίας, as αὐτοίς before κακία in c. 61. 7. ἐπὶ τῷ Μήδῳ, as in c. 13. 18; i. 102. 19, in hostile sense, for the more usual acc. Kühn. 438, ii. d. This const. with the dat. is the rule in epic, and is freq. also in Attic poets.—9. προβάλλεσθε: put forward as a cloak. Cf. i. 37. 16; ii. 87. 14. On the matter, cf. esp. c. 58. § 1; iv. 59. § 2.— ἱκανή γε: the asyndeton is justified by the order of the words. See on c. 37. 10. St. explains, ‘Particula γε sententias iungit hic et i. 40. 15; 70. 6; vi. 86. 8.’ Kr. proposes, after Reiske and Va., ἣ ἱκανή γε, or ἱκανήν γε ἡμᾶς.—10. ἀποτρέπειν: as c. 39. 1, doubtless only in the mild sense of restrain, not ward off.— τὸ μέγιστον: what is most important. Appos. to the inf. clause. H. 626 b; Kr. Spr. 57, 10, 12. See on i. 142. 1.— παρέχειν: sc. ὑμῖν.—11. οὐ βιαζόμενοι κτἑ.: in answer to c. 55. 3 ὅτε Θηβαῖοι ἡμᾶς ἐβιάσαντο.— εἵλεσθε . . . τὰ Ἀθηναίων: cf. c. 56. 23. The formula is similar to φρονεῖν τά τινος, c. 68. 17; βούλεσθαι τά τινος, vi. 50. 12. καὶ λέγετε: cf. c. 55. § 3.— αἰσχρόν, αἴσχιον: as in ii. 40. 4.— 14. καταπροδοῦναι: κατα- with intensive force, as in c. 109. 18; i. 86. 19; iv. 10. 10; vii. 48. 26; and καταδουλουμένους below.— οῖς ξυνωμόσατε: i.e. πρὸς οὓς ξυμμαχίαν ἐποιήσασθε. Cf. c. 64. 7, 10; i. 71. 23; ii. 72. 5; 74. 11.—15. τοὺς μὲν καταδουλουμένους, τοὺς δὲ ἐλευθεροῦντας: joined chiastically to the preceding.—16. τοὺς δὲ ἐλευθεροῦντας: as in i. 124. 19 Corinthian speakers address to the representatives of the Peloponnesian alliance the words, τοὺς νῦν δεδουλωμένους Ἕλληνας ἐλευθερώσωμεν, so here the whole Peloponnesian alliance, not merely the ἡγεμόνες, are represented as the liberators of Greece. οὐκ ἴσην τὴν χάριν: the order and effect as in c. 30. 4 πολὺ τὸ ἀφύλακτον, i. 34. 10 ἐλαχίστας τὰς μεταμελείας, the pred. adj. supplying the place of an adverb.—19. τοῖς δέ: sc. τοῖς Ἀθηναίοις, ἀδικοῦσιν ἄλλους being pred. Jow. takes τοῖς ἀδικοῦσιν together in a general sense, wrongdoers, on the ground that τοῖς δέ as dem. would introduce an opposition between it and αὐτούς, while both really refer to the same persons.— καίτοι τὰς ὁμοίας kte(.: “and indeed it is a shame to refuse to repay favours with like favours, not however to omit the repayment of favours which, though justly due, cannot be returned without injustice.” Cf. Cic. de Off. i. 15. 48 non reddere bono non licet, modo id facere possit sine iniuria.— καίτοι: as in c. 39. 13; ii. 39. 19.—20. μὴ ἀντιδιδόναι: cf. i. 41. 4. The words are to be supplied in the second clause.— μᾶλλον ἤ: as in c. 37. 12; 64. 9, completely subordinates the second member, so that αἰσχρόν applies only to the first. —21. ὀφειληθείσας, ἀποδιδομένας: the change of time corresponds to the service already rendered and the still doubtful requital. The whole sentence serves to substantiate the words οὐδὲ αἰσχύνης ἀπηλλαγμένην (l. 17), the charge τὰς ὁμοίας χάριτας μὴ ἀντιδιδόναι being, according to the Theban speakers, applicable to the Plataeans.— ἐς ἀδικίαν: cf. c. 37. 7; ii. 40. 22.
Commentary on Thucydides Book 3 Edited on the basis of the Classen-Steup Edition. Charles F. Smith. Boston. Ginn & Company. 1894.
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