T. G. Tucker, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 8

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δυοῖν ἡμέραιν. MSS. have δυσὶν ἡμέραις. But δυσὶν is a form unknown in Attic until Roman times (Meisterhans, Gr. Att. Ins. p. 124), and is expressly condemned by Phrynichus (Rutherford, New Phryn. Art. clxxxv.) The correction to δυοῖν being made, ἡμέραιν must be written (New Phryn. ibid.） Jowett renders ‘having spent two days in provisioning,’ as if he read δύο ἡμέρας. The accusative would be used if the provisioning took the whole time; the genitive implies that it was done ‘at times within’ two days. So P - S renders intra duos dies, comparing v. 14, ᾤοντο ὀλίγων ἐτῶν καθαιρήσειν τὴν τῶν Ἀθηναίων δύναμιν. Jelf, § 523, 2. The genitive is really partitive. We cannot render ‘provisioning themselves for two days' voyage,’ because of the following τῇ τρίτῃ.

λαβόντες the masc. because ὁ Μίνδαρος καὶ αἱ νῆες is regarded as = οἱ Πελοποννήσιοι.

τεσσαρακοστὰς a coin of unknown value,—ἀρχαῖα νομίσματα ἐπιχώρια is all the scholiast can say. Obviously it was 1/40 of some standard sum, perhaps a stater, in which case 1/40 = 3 obols. Arnold quotes ἕκτας Φωκαΐδας from an inscription in Boeckh's ‘Economy.’

οὐ πελάγιαι. οὐ was added by Haacke. The meaning plainly is that they did not sail in the straightest course to the Hellespont, which would be W.N.W. through the open sea, but they chose to hug the coast of Asia Minor keeping Lesbos on the left. By proceeding πελάγιαι they would pass not far from Eresus. ἀλλὰ, moreover, requires a preceding negative. Grote has a long and vehement note (pt. ii. c. lxiii.) in which he tries to show that the text is sound, and that Mindarus sailed from Chios southwards round the island, going up its western side and round the north, in order to avoid the scouts whom he supposes to be watching the channel. The note is, however, based on an illusion. πελάγιαι cannot mean what he would have it mean, viz. ‘sailing on the sea-side of the island.’ It can only be opposed to coasting. Yet even with Grote's fanciful and tortuous view, the ships would still παραπλεῖν and not πλεῖν πελάγιαι. Moreover, Thucydides distinctly says that their reason for sailing as they did was ‘to avoid falling in with the ships at Eresus.’ The scouts, again, are posted on the mainland opposite Lesbos (c. 100, § 2). If they had been opposite Chios they would at least have seen Mindarus' departure from that city.

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τῆς Φωκαΐδος gen. part. with what follows.

Καρτερίοις Pliny, v. 38 [138], says, Carteria iuxta Smyrnam insula, which is incorrect as to position but may be true as to the insula. The plural points to a group. The nearest point of [the Phocaeid] to Chios by sea is some fortyfive miles distant. The Arginusae islands may be reckoned at some twenty-five miles farther.

ὑπεραιωροῦνται. All MSS. but one inferior copy give the meaningless περαιοῦνται; that copy has δειπνοποιοῦντες, and from this reading and the coenavere of Valla editors mostly read δειπνοποιοῦνται. But, as Classen pertinently asks, ‘wie erklart sich diese sonderbare Erscheinung?’ δειπνοποιοῦνται cannot have become περαιοῦνται by any comprehensible error. A glance at the map will show the disproportion between the distances accomplished on the first and second day, and also how small a voyage (25 miles) was effected between the ἄριστον of this day and the following night. It is evident that some stay was made at Arginusae, and naturally so, inasmuch as the fleet wished to pass between Mytilene and the mainland when it was dark. The word of which περαιοῦνται is a corruption was presumably a similar but uncommon word. Taking these considerations together, one may feel justified in inserting in the text ὑπεραιωροῦνται, ‘they lie at anchor off.’ Cf. Hdt. vi. 116, οἱ δὲ βάρβαροι τῇσι νηυσὶ ὑπεραιωρηθέντες Φαλήρου, τοῦτο γὰρ ἧν ἐπίνειον τότε τῶν Ἀθηναλων, ὑπὲρ τούτου ἀνοκωχεύσαντες τὰς νέας ἀπέπλεον ὀπίσω ἐς τὴν Ἀσίην. The Arginusae islands are at the limit of the territory of Cyme, and ‘when the Peloponnesians have coasted along this territory’ they stop till dead of night (παραπλεύσαντες τὴν Κυμαίαν ὑπεραιωροῦνται κ.τ.λ.) They do not now put into the mainland (which from this point was dependent on Mytilene), but lie off it at Arginusae.

τῆς ἠπείρου has caused some difficulty. P - S brackets it. Others take it that Ἀργινοῦσσαι, like Σύβοτα (i. 47, 50), comprehended a part of the mainland in the immediate vicinity of the islands, so that Ἀργινούσσαις τῆς ἠπείρου = ‘the mainland portion of Arginusae.’ This is possible; but with the reading ὑπεραιωροῦνται the genitive is directly governed by that verb, and the whole = ‘they lie at anchor off the mainland’ (and not actually on its shore), ἐν τῷ ἀντιπέρας τῆς Μυτιλήνης means not ‘on the mainland opposite M.’ but ‘across the water from M.’

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ἔτι πολλῆς νυκτὸς i.e. ‘while there was still much of the night left,’ or ‘while the night was still deep,’ ‘long before dawn,’ = multa nocte. Cf. Polyb. v. 8, 3, πολλῆς ὤρας.

ἐς Ἁρματοῦντα Though not otherwise known, the place was evidently ‘directly opposite Methymna,’ and must have been about fifty miles sailing from Arginusae.

Λεκτὸν (neut.), the S. W. promontory of Troas and end of the Ida range.

Ἁμαξιτὸν The atlases (after Strabo, xiii. 1, § 47) place this town south of Larisa. But Xenophon (Hell. iii. 1, 13) has the same order as Thucydides, πόλεις προσέλαβεν ἐπιθαλαττιδίας Λάρισάν τε καὶ Ἁμαξιτὸν καὶ Κολωνάς, and their authority should perhaps be preferred.

Ῥοίτειον some seven miles up the Hellespont from Sigeum. As Classen points out, ἤδη belongs to τοῦ Ἐλλησπόντου.