C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5

ἐς πόλεμον φανερὸν κατέστησαν—so ch. 84, 17: i. 23, fin. ἐς τὸν πολεμον κατέστησαν, of the first outbreak of war.

γέγραφε—compare the opening words of the first Book, Θουκυδίδης Ἀθηναῖος ξυνέγραψε κ.τ.λ., where the writer gives the plan and purpose of his history. Similarly in i. 97, 2, he says ἔγραψα δὲ αὐτὰ...διὰ τόδε. Here he is regarding the work as complete, and therefore uses the perfect; so i. 22, fin. κτῆμα ἐς ἀεὶ...ξύγκειται: cf. ch. 22, ὥσπερ γέγραπται. ξυγγράφω, conscribo, is the special word for the compilation of history, and from his frequent use of the word Thucydides in particular was styled ὁ ξυγγραφεύς. κατὰ θέρη καὶ χειμῶνας—see ch. 20.

κατέλαβον—‘occupied’; iv. 1, 1, note. Two manuscripts have κατέβαλον, which agrees with Plut. Lys. 14, καββαλόντες τὸν Πειραιᾶ καὶ τὰ μακρὰ σκέλη: Xen. Hel. ii. 2, 20, τὰ μακρὰ τείχη καὶ τὸν Πειραιᾶ καθελόντες. Both words are historically correct, for the Lacedaemonians sailed into the Peiraeus, and continued to occupy Athens till the conditions of the peace, including the dismantling of the walls, were carried out.

καὶ τὴν διὰ μέσου—‘and if any one shall think himself entitled to consider the intervening convention as anything but war, he will make a claim which is not justified by facts’. διὰ μέσου—iv. 20, 1, διὰ μέσου γενόμενον: viii. 75, 1, ὑπὸ τῶν διὰ μέσου κωλυθέντες: so Hdt. and Xen. ἀξιῶ and δικαιῶ, in the sense of thinking fit and right, differ but slightly in meaning: οὐκ ἀξιῶ is constructed with the negative like οὔ φημι, as noted on iv. 40, 1.

τοῖς τε—apparently answered by ἔξω τε τούτων: unless indeed the latter is merely a continuation of the subordinate relative construction. I rather suspect that this is so, as all the things mentioned seem explanations of τοῖς ἔργοις, and the relative clause is otherwise very curt. In this case the sentence is incomplete, unless we take the initial τε γάρ as equivalent to nam etiam, as Poppo suggests. (See Jowett on i. 9, 3 for τε in the sense of ‘too’.) τοῖς ἔργοις—what was actually done, facts, including hostile movements.

διῄρηται—most editors take this to mean ‘interrupted’ lit. ‘divided’, which is no doubt the common use of the word. The perfect tense seems against this view; we should expect the imperfect or pluperfect. I therefore incline to the rendering ‘how it is characterised’, of which Poppo approves, taking διαιρεῖν in the sense of ‘defining’. This sense is found in Herodotus ii. 6: vii. 16, 47, 50, and 103; and is common in Plato.

ἔξω—‘besides, not counting’; a usage nearly confined to Herodotus and Thucydides (Krüger on i. 9, 3). Μαντινικόν —the difficulty with Mantinea, which occupies many chapters in this Book, is first mentioned in ch. 33; the quarrel with Epidaurus in ch. 53.

ἐγένοντο—here the plural verb is naturally used, as ἁμαρτήματα occurred on either side and on more than one occasion. But besides instances which can be thus explained Thucydides not uncommonly uses the plural with a neuter nominative of things, e.g. ch. 75, 9, Κάρνεια ἐτύγχανον ὄντα; vi. 62, 4, ἐγένοντο ἐξ αὐτῶν εἴκοσι καὶ ἑκατὸν τάλαντα. In i. 126, 3, ἐπῆλθον（εν) Ὀλύμπια: ii. 8, 2, πολλὰ λόγια ἐλἐγοντο (ετο): i. 58, 1, τὰ τἐλη ὑπέσχοντο (ετο), the best manuscripts, according to Krüger, are in favour of the plural. In viii. 10, 1, we have τὰ Ἴσθμια ἐγίγνετο ..ἐπηγγἐλθης αν γάρ: where the subject of ἐπηγγέλθησαν is probably τὰ Ἴσθμια, though many follow the scholiast in supplying αἱ σπονδαί.

πολέμιοι—as hostile to Athens as ever. Thus they opposed the restoration of Amphipolis, and refused to accept the treaty; see ch. 35.

ἐκεχειρίαν δεχήμερον—explained as a truce which had to be renewed every ten days, or which could be terminated on ten days notice. The word occurs in ch. 32, 19 and 32; also vi. 7, 4; vi. 10, 3.

κατὰ τοὺς χρόνους—ch. 20, 6, σκοπείτω δέ τις κατὰ τοὺς χρόνους. καὶ ἡμέρας—‘that is to say with a variation of but a few days’; see note on ch. 20, 4. The time is calculated from the beginning of April 431, when the Thebans attacked Plataea (ii. 2), to the middle of April 404, when Lysander sailed into the Peiraeus.

καὶ τοῖς ἀπό—‘and (he will find) that they who on the strength of oracles were positive on any matter found, in this, one solitary instance of the event decidedly corresponding to the prediction’ (Arnold). ἀπό=‘starting from’, i.e. grounding their belief on; cf. iv. 18, 2, ἀπὸ τῶν ἀεὶ ὑπαρχόντων: cf. ch. 17, 6. For ἰσχυρισαμένοις with neut. acc. cf. iii. 44, 5, τοῦτο ὂ Κλέων ἰσχυρίζεται: vii. 49, 1, τοσαῦτα λέγων ἰσχύριζετο: also with ὅτι, vi. 55, 1 etc.: with ὡς and a participle iv. 68, fin.

ἐχυρῶς—ἐχυρός ‘secure’ is used somewhat in the sense of πιστός. iii. 83, 1, λόγος ἐχυρός: vii. 41, 4, τὴν ἐλπίδα ἑχυράν εἷχον. The positive adverb is not found elsewhere in Thucydides: in viii. 24, 4, we have ε:κοσμοῦντο ἐχυρώτερον. ξυμβάν— Hdt. ii. 3, εἰ συμβήσονται τοῖσι λόγοισι τοῖσιν ἐν Μέμφι: Ar. Eq. 220, χρησμοί τε συμβαίνουσι καὶ τὸ Πυθικόν.

αἰσθανόμενος—of intelligent perception, as in i. 71, 4, πρὸς ἀνθρώπων τῶν αἰσθανομένων. τῇ ἡλικίᾳ—‘by reason of’; for dat. cf. ch. 13, 6. Thucydides does not speak of himself except as bearing on his history. At the beginning of his book he tells us that he had compiled materials from the first outbreak of the war (ἀρξάμενος εὐθὺς καθισταμένου); here he asserts his claims as being capable of seeing and appreciating facts throughout its course. We cannot be certain about his age; but the statement is commonly accepted that he was about forty when the war began. The biography of Marcellinus only says that Thucydides died at over fifty. The question is fully discussed in Classen's introduction. τι is emphatic, as in line 32.

ἀκριβές—of exact detail, as in ch. 20, 10: 68, 5. For the indicative εἴσομαι after a secondary tense see Goodwin, § 339: cf. iii. 4 fin., ἔπρασσον ὅπως βοήθεια η:´ξει.

φεύγειν—‘to be in exile from my country’, whether by banishment or voluntarily (ch. 72, 4). μετὰτὴν ξ̓ς Λ̓μφίπολιν στρατηγίαν—for ἑς cf. ch. 7, ἐς τὴν Πύλον εὐτυχήσας. The words simply denote the attempt to relieve the place, and do not prove, as Grote supposes, that Thucydides was sent expressly to Amphipolis. See Appendix to iv. 104.

παρ᾽ ἀμφοτἐροις τοῖς πράγμασι—‘at what was done on both sides’. οὐχ ἧσσον = μᾶλλον. We do not know where Thucydides passed the time of his exile. Marcellinus says that he went first to Aegina, and then to Thrace, where, as we know (iv. 105), he had property and powerful connexions. He probably visited various places, including even Sicily, of which he shows the knowledge of an eyewitness. Most likely he returned to Athens in 403, when the amnesty was proclaimed under Thrasybulus. One account says he was assassinated in Athens, another that he died in Thasos.

αἰσθἐσθαι—the present form αίσθεσθαι is retained by Poppo and others here, as suiting the sense better; and Classen has αἴσθεσθαι, vii. 75, 2, and προαίσθεσθαι, ii. 93, 4; iii. 83, 4: in each case with good manuscript authority. αἴσθομαι is a form used by late ecclesiastical writers, and the introduction of its infinitive into classical authors may be merely a copyist's error.

τήν—one article belongs to two nouns, which are closely connected in idea; so ch. 5, 1: i. 120, 2, τὴν κατακομιδὴν καὶ πάλιν ἀντίληψιν. τὰ ἔπειτα may be the direct subject of ω:ς ἐπολεμήθη, which is in that case personally constructed; Poppo however (iii. 6, 2) considers such constructions, e.g. iv. 23, 2, τὰ περὶ Πύλον ἐπολεμεῖτο, as impersonal with determinant accusative: cf. ch. 52, 6.