CHAPTER LXVII
ἀπό τε τῶν—lit. ‘on the side of’, i.e. ‘so far as regards’: cf.
ii. 77,
ἀπὸ τῶν παρόντων δεινῶν, ‘with their present means of offence’:
vi. 102,
ἀπὸ τῆς παρούσης δυνάμεως: see also note on
ἀπό, ch. 18, 8.
παρεσκεύαστο—so
i. 46,
ἐπειδὴ αὐτοῖς παρεσκεύαστο, ‘when their arrangements were complete’.
τὴν Μεγαρέων νῆσον—so
iii. 51,
ἐπἱ Μινώαν τὴν νῆσον ἣ κεῖται πρὸ Μεγάρων. The definite article is used because the situation of the island was well known, or because it has been mentioned before. Minoa was occupied by the Athenians in 427, as a convenient station for maintaining the blockade against Megara (
iii. 51).
ὅθεν ἐπλίνθευον—‘from which they got bricks for the walls’, i.e. clay to make them: so
Hom. Od. xviii. 359.
αἱμασίας λέγων. ‘picking (stones for) walls’. For
ἐπλίνθευον Classen suggests
ἐπλίνθευσαν: the imperfect however gives a good sense, as repairs and additions were probably made from time to time.
καὶ ἀπεῖχεν—sc. from the walls: it was plainly on the main land. We should say ‘and which was distant’, and possibly
ὅ is to be understood from
ὅθεν. In Greek however the second clause in a relative construction is commonly thrown into a demonstrative form; cf.
ii. 4,
οἴκημα, ὃ ἦν τοῦ τείχους, καὶ αὶ θύραι ἀνεῳγμέναι ἔτυχον αὐτοῦ:
Plat. Gorg. 452 D,
τί έστι τοῦτο ὃ φῂς σὺ μέγιστον ἀγαθὸν εἶναι, καὶ σὲ δημιουργὸν εἶναι αὐτοῦ. This seems also the simplest explanation of such sentences as the present, which are of common occurrence; e.g.
i. 106,
ᾦ ἔτυχεν ὄρυγμα μέγα περιεῖργον καὶ οὐκ ἦν ἔξοδος.
Πλαταιῆς—of those who escaped to Athens,
iii. 24.
καὶ ἕτεροι περίπολοι—‘and besides them certain of the frontier guard’. The Athenians on attaining eighteen years of age were enrolled among the
ἔφηβοι, and after some preliminary training, served till the age of twenty in the
περίπολοι or national guard. It seems probable that their first term of service was in Athens itself, while during the second year they formed a moveable force, employed in garrisoning fortified places in Attica, and in the defence of any point which might be threatened. They were armed with the hoplite's spear and shield. On the present occasion they seem to have been employed on service beyond the frontier of Attica, or to have been stationed at Minoa. Some authorities therefore doubt if
περίπολοι is to be understood here in its usual sense: see Arnold's and Poppo's notes.
ἐς τὸ Ἐνυάλιον—so Poppo, Krüger, etc. for the manuscript reading
ἐς τόν. The neuter
ὅ which follows makes the correction imperative, otherwise
τόν might possibly be retained on the analogy of
iii. 3,
ἐς τὸν Μαλόεντα ἐξῆλθον, ‘to the temple of (Apollo) Maloeis’: Ar. Av. 619,
εἰς Ἄμμων᾽ ἐλθόντες. In both these passages however there is an idea of worshipping or consulting the deity beyond the mere notion of locality, as is natural when the name of the god is used to designate his temple; vid. Arnold: cf. however ch. 118, 21,
παρὰ τοῦ Νίσου. The form
Ἐνυάλιον is neut. adj. sc.
ἱερόν.
ἔλασσον ἄποθεν—nearer (than the brick pit) to the walls.
ὡς λῃσταί—in
iii. 51 we find that the Athenians hoped by occupying Nisaea to suffer less from
λῃστῶν ἐκπομπαί on the part of the Megarians.
ἐκ πολλοῦ—‘for some time back’, connected with both
τεθεραπευκότες and
εἰώθεσαν, and opposed to
καὶ τότε, line 22: cf. ch. 103, 15.
τεθεραπευκότες—‘having managed, secured’:
v. 11,
ξυμμαχίαν θεραπεύοντες:
vi. 61,
θεραπεύοντες (
τὸ)
μὴ θορυβεῖν. τῶν πυλῶν—at the end of the long walls. These gates, like Nisaea itself, were held by the Peloponnesian garrison.
διὰ τῆς τάφροι—this seems to have been a dry trench outside the walls of Nisaea, extending from the long walls to the sea. Rutherford rejects the words,
κατὰ τήν being Attic.
ἐς τὸ τεῖχος—sc. within the long walls: so ch. 68, 2: 69, 9.
ὅπως...ἀφανής—i.e. that the Athenian garrison might not know what they had to look out against. For
ἀφανής in the sense of uncertain and doubtful, cf.
ii. 42, opp. to
τὸ ὁρώμενον:
viii. 92, opp. to a settled arrangement.
δή implies pretence: cf. ch. 23, 8.
καὶ τότε—‘so now’, resuming the account of the actual attempt.
ξυγκλῃσθῆναι—Bekker and Arnold have
ξυγκλῃθῆναι, but the aor. pass. seems always to have
ς: vid. Poppo, and Veitch's Greek Verbs. All editors have
ξυγκλῃσθέν,
v. 72, and
κατεκλῄσθησαν,
i. 117.
κώλυμα...προσθεῖναι—‘a hindrance to shutting’; vid. Goodwin § 92, note 2. In
i. 16 we have
κωλύματα μὴ αὐξηθῆναι. Similarly
κωλύω and other verbs of kindred meaning take an inf. with or without
μή. προσθεῖναι—cf.
Hdt. iii. 78,
προσθεῖναι τὰς θύρας: in Ar. Vesp. 201
τῇ δοκῷ προσθείς possibly means ‘shutting (the door) by means of the bar’.
καὶ αὐτοῖς—from its position virtually dat. commodi, though it may be connected grammatically with
ξυμπράσσοντες:
iii. 36,
οἱ αὐτοῖς τῶν Ἀθηναίων ξυμπράσσοντες. κατὰ τὰς πύλας—there is good authority for the article, which however is omitted by many editors: cf. note on
μέσον, ch. 31, 9.
οὖ νῦν τὸ τροπαῖον—so
v. 10,
ᾖπερ νῦν τροπαῖον ἔστηκε. Jowett points out that although the Megarians recovered the walls and destroyed them (ch. 109), yet the trophy was not molested.
ᾔσθοντο γάρ—explains
μαχόμενοι: notwithstanding the surprise the Athenians did not win the gates without fighting (Arnold).
ὁπλίταις—the troops under Hippocrates, supr. line 4.
