Charles F. Smith, Commentary on Thucydides Book 6

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Use both my fresh young vigor and the tried luck of Nicias, and do not abandon the Sicilian expedition out of baseless fear. We shall not have there to contend with a great power; besides, against the Syracusans we shall find allies in the Sicels. And for the enemies whom we leave behind here, we shall be more than a match by reason of our fleet.

καὶ ταῦτα...ἔπεισε : thus did my youthful folly, which is thought to be abnormal, deal with (consort with) the power of the Peloponnesians in fitting words and with an impetuosity that inspired faith win assent. This is substantially St.'s rendering; for Cl.'s and Steup's views, see App.—ταῦτα: cognate acc. with ὡμίλησε (= ταύτην τὴν ὁμιλίαν ὡμίλησε, cf. 2. 37. 14 τὰ ἴδια προσομιλοῦντες), as with ἔπεισε.

παρὰ φύσιν δοκοῦσα εἶναι : i.e. transcending the bounds of even youthful folly.

ἐς τὴν Πελοποννησίων δύναμιν: either (1) the power of the Peloponnesians in general, i.e. the Lacedaemonian power as well as the confederacy, or (2) the states referred to in 16. 29 Πελοποννήσου τὰ δυνατώτατα. For δύναμις, cf. 2. 7. 7 ὅσοι ἦσαν ἐκτὸς τῆς ἑαυτῶν δυνάμεως.

λόγοις πρέπουσιν : i.e. suitable to the occasion.

ὀργῇ πίστιν παρασχομένῃ: Kr.'s correction, with three good Mss., adopted by most editors for the Vulg. παρασχομένη.

πεφόβησθε : necessary correction of Reiske for πεφοβῆσθαι of the Mss.—αὐτήν: i.e. τὴν ἐμὴν νεότητα καὶ ἄνοιαν.

ὁ Νικίας εὐτυχής : cf. 5. 16. 4; 7. 77. 7.—ἀποχρήσασθε: make the most of. Cf. 1. 68. 20; 7. 42. 27.

μὴ μεταγιγνώσκετε: as 3. 40. 5.— 7. ὄχλοις...ξυμμείκτοις : with motley crowds, i.e. of various race and so without community of feeling or interests.

πολυανδροῦσιν: swarm with inhabitants. The word found elsewhere only in late writers.—τῶν πολιτῶν τὰς μεταβολὰς καὶ ἐπιδοχάς: πολιτῶν of E with Stahl, Steup, Hude, and the Oxford text, for πολιτειῶν of the rest of the Mss., which fits neither with ἐπιδοχάς (which can only mean the reception of something additional) nor with the foll. sent., which clearly looks only to inhabitants here. Cf. 1. 2. 12 μάλιστα τῆς γῆς ἡ ἀρίστη αἰεὶ τὰς μεταβολὰς τῶν οἰκητόρων εἶχεν. ἐπιδοχάς only here in Thuc.

δἰ αὐτό: on this account, i.e. (the idea of the preceding sent.) because of mixed population and easy changes of condition.—ὡς περὶ οἰκείας πατρίδος: as for his own fatherland, such conditions not tending to rouse a true fatherland-feeling. The order—for one would expect these words after οὔτε—is prob. due to the fact that the correlating of τὰ περὶ τὸ σω_μα and τὰ ἐν τῇ χώρᾳ was an afterthought. Some editors take οὐδείς zeugmatically with the second οὔτε clause = no state. But οὐδείς must unquestionably mean the same for both clauses, and that individual persons are meant is proved not only by the expression τὰ περὶ τὸ σῶμα, but also by ἕκαστος (of the foll. sent.), which is the positive antithesis to the negative here.

τὰ περὶ τὸ σῶμα: in matters pertaining to personal protection.—ἐξήρτυται: placed between its two dependent clauses. Cf. 15. 16. For the sense of the passage, cf. 1. 80. 10 καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις ἄπασι ἄριστα ἐξήρτυνται, πλούτῳ τε ἰδίῳ καὶ δημοσίῳ κτἑ.

νομίμοις κατασκευαῖς : with regular (or proper) equipments, i.e. in buildings ete. The Schol. explains νομίμοις by οὐ ταῖς νομιζομέναις, ἀλλὰ ταῖς ἱκαναῖς: οὕτω καὶ νόμιμον ῥήτορα τὸν ἱκανὸν καὶ νόμιμον ἀθλητήν φαμεν. St. and Cl. adopt the emendation of Dukas—μονίμοις, permanent. —ὅ τι δὲ...ταῦτα ἑτοιμάζεται : but whatever each man thinks that he can obtain from the common stock by persuasive speech or by sedition, and settle with it elsewhere, in case of failure, that he provides for himself. “The obscurity of the latter part of the sentence arises from the principal idea being expressed by the participle and the subordinate idea by the verb” (Jowett). ἐκ τοῦ λέγων πείθειν (lit. ‘from persuading byspeech’) is parallel to στασιάζων. The reference is to colonization in consequence of popular decree or of sedition. For the epanaleptic ταῦτα in plural after the collective ὅ τι, cf. Xen. Cyrop. 1. 6. 11 ὅ τι δ᾽ ἂν πρὸς τοῖς εἰρημένοις λαμβάνῃ τις, ταῦτα τιμὴν νομιοῦσι. Kr. Spr. 58, 4, 5. See App.

τὸν τοιοῦτον ὅμιλον: a rabble of this kind. For Thuc.'s use—16 times in all—of the Ionic and poetic ὅμιλος, see C. F. Smith, Trans. Amer. Phil. Assoc. XXXI, 80.

ὡς ἕκαστοι: severally. See on 1. 3. 19.

εἴ τι καθ᾽ ἡδονὴν λέγοιτο: i.e. by Athenian ambassadors.—προσχωροῖεν: sc. ἡμῖν.

καὶ μὴν...ὡπλίσθη : the whole section, suspected by Cl. on the ground that it has nothing to do with the matter in hand, is bracketed by Steup and Müller. See App. It is generally agreed that it is at least an observation of Thuc. rather than of Alcibiades, who could hardly use ἐν τῷδε τῷ πολέμῳ when there had been at least a nominal peace for six years.

οὔτ̓ ἐκείνοις ὅσοιπερ κομποῦνται, οὔτε οἱ ἄλλοι Ἕλληνες κτἑ.: parataxis, though the second is really subord. to the first.—κομποῦνται: only here in Thuc., and rare in prose. Cf. κόμπος 2. 40. 3, 41. 5; κομπώδης 2. 62. 7; 5. 68. 6.

μέγιστον: cogn. acc. with ἐψευσμένη.

ἔτι εὐπορώτερα: explained by the parenthetical sent. (βαρβάρους . . . αὐτοῖς).—βαρβάρους [τε] γὰρ πολλούς : i.e. many Sicels. Cf. 88. § 3 ff.; 3. 103. § 1. Haacke was the first to bracket the inexplicable τε.

ἐπικωλύσει : rare word, Cf. Xen. Occ. 8. 4; Soph. Phil. 1242.

οἱ γὰρ πατέρες...τὴν ἀρχὴν ἐκτήσαντο : the stress is on καὶ προσέτι τὸν Μῆδον ἐχθρὸν ἔχοντες, the argument being that the Athenians had at the time when they acquired their supremacy a foreign as well as a domestic foe.

φασι: i.e. Nicias and his followers.—ὑπολιπόντας: the Mss. ABE give ὑπολείποντας, which Bk. and Cl. adopt, but most of the rest rightly adopt the aor. Cf. 36. 13; 8. 82. 8; and esp. 10. 1, to which our passage refers.

καὶ νῦν: paratactically correlated with οἱ πατέρες ἡμῶν. Cf. καὶ νῦν above (3). The argument is: ‘as our fathers established their sway even against a double enemy, so our enemies havenothingserious to hope (wenothing material to fear); irruptionsinto Attica they may still make without great harm to us.’—οὔτε ἀνέλπιστοι...ἐγένοντο : never were the Peloponnesians more hopeless against us. ἀνέλπιστοι act. as 3. 30. 6; 8. 1. 15. Cf. τὸ ἀνέλπιστο<*> 2. 51. 13. Elsewhere in Thuc. pass. 33. 22; 4. 55. 8. Kr. suggests that the passive force would suit the sense better,—“and so even now the Peloponnesians were never less to be expected against us,” —but that contradicts the foll. remark that nothing stands in the way of their irruptions by land.

εἴ τε: correl. to οὔτε. The argument is: ‘on the one hand, they never had less hope against us; on the other, even if they are ever so confident, they can do no considerable harm.’ In the paratactic arrangement (τὸ μὲν . . . ἐσβάλλειν . . . ἱκανοί εἰσι, τῷ δὲ ναυτικῷ . . . βλάπτειν) the stress is on the second clause.—ἔρρωνται: in moral sense. See on 2. 8. 1.—τὸ μὲν . . . ἐσβάλλειν: to be taken as accus. of specification with ἱκανοί, as τὸ μὲν προσταλαιπωρεῖν with πρόθυμος 2. 53. 9.