[598] The picture drawn by Aristophanês (Acharn. 760) is a caricature, but of suffering probably but too real.

[599] Thucyd. iv, 66. Strabo (ix, p. 391) gives eighteen stadia as the distance between Megara and Nisæa; Thucydidês only eight. There appears sufficient reason to prefer the latter: see Reinganum, Das alte Megaris, pp. 121-180.

[600] Thucyd. iv, 68. Ξυνέπεσε γὰρ καὶ τὸν τῶν Ἀθηναίων κήρυκα ἀφ᾽ ἑαυτοῦ γνώμης κηρύξαι, τὸν βουλόμενον ἰέναι Μεγαρέων μετὰ Ἀθηναίων θησόμενον τὰ ὅπλα.

Here we have the phrase τίθεσθαι τὰ ὅπλα employed in a case where Dr. Arnold’s explanation of it would be eminently unsuitable. There could be no thought of piling arms at a critical moment of actual fighting, with result as yet doubtful.

[601] Thucyd. iv, 69.

[602] Thucyd. i, 103; iv, 69. Καὶ οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι, τὰ μακρὰ τείχη ἀποῤῥήξαντες ἀπὸ τῆς τῶν Μεγαρέων πόλεως καὶ τὴν Νίσαιαν παραλαβόντες, τἄλλα παρεσκευάζοντο.

I cannot think, with Poppo and Göller, that the participle ἀποῤῥήξαντες is to be explained as meaning that the Athenians PULLED DOWN the portion of the Long Walls near Megara. This may have been done, but it would be an operation of no great importance; for to pull down a portion of the wall would not bar the access from the city, which it was the object of the Athenians to accomplish. “They broke off” the communication along the road between the Long Walls from the city to Nisæa, by building across or barricading the space between: similar to what is said a little above,—διοικοδομησάμενοι τὸ πρὸς Μεγαρέας, etc. Diodorus (xii, 66) abridges Thucydidês.

[603] Thucyd. iv, 73. εἰ μὲν γὰρ μὴ ὤφθησαν ἐλθόντες (Brasidas with his troops) οὐκ ἂν ἐν τύχῃ γίγνεσθαι σφίσιν, ἀλλὰ σαφῶς ἂν ὥσπερ ἡσσηθέντων στερηθῆναι εὐθὺς τῆς πόλεως.

[604] Thucyd. iv, 71.

[605] Thucyd. iv, 72.

[606] Thucyd. iv, 73.

[607] We find some of them afterwards in the service of Athens, employed as light-armed troops in the Sicilian expedition (Thucyd. vi, 43).

[608] Thucyd. iv, 74. οἱ δὲ ἐπειδὴ ἐν ταῖς ἀρχαῖς ἐγένοντο, καὶ ἐξέτασιν ὅπλων ἐποιήσαντο, διαστήσαντες τοὺς λόχους, ἐξελέξαντο τῶν τε ἐχθρῶν καὶ οἵ ἐδόκουν μάλιστα ξυμπρᾶξαι τὰ πρὸς τοὺς Ἀθηναίους, ἄνδρας ὡς ἑκατόν· καὶ τούτων πέρι ἀναγκάσαντες τὸν δῆμον ψῆφον φανερὰν διενεγκεῖν, ὡς κατεγνώσθησαν, ἔκτειναν, καὶ ἐς ὀλιγαρχίαν τὰ μάλιστα κατέστησαν τὴν πόλιν. καὶ πλεῖστον δὴ χρόνον αὕτη ὑπ᾽ ἐλαχίστων γενομένη ἐκ στάσεως μετάστασις ξυνέμεινεν.

[609] Thucyd. iv, 109.

[610] Thucyd. iv, 76. εὐθὺς μετὰ τὴν ἐκ τῆς Μεγαρίδος ἀναχώρησιν, etc.

[611] Thucyd. iv, 77.

[612] Thucyd. iv, 89.

[613] Thucyd. iv, 101.

[614] Thucyd. iv, 93, 94. He states that the Bœotian ψιλοὶ were above ten thousand, and that the Athenian ψιλοὶ were πολλαπλάσιοι τῶν ἐναντίων. We can hardly take this number as less than twenty-five thousand ψιλῶν καὶ σκευοφόρων (iv, 101).

The hoplites, as well as the horsemen, had their baggage and provision carried for them by attendants: see Thucyd. iii, 17; vii, 75.

[615] Thucyd. iv, 90. Ὁ δ᾽ Ἱπποκράτης ἀναστήσας Ἀθηναίους πανδημεὶ, αὐτοὺς καὶ τοὺς μετοίκους καὶ ξένων ὅσοι παρῆσαν, etc.: also πανστρατιᾶς (iv, 94).

The meaning of the word πανδημεὶ is well illustrated by Nikias in his exhortation to the Athenian army near Syracuse, immediately antecedent to the first battle with the Syracusans,—levy en masse, as opposed to hoplites specially selected (vi, 66-68),—ἄλλως τε καὶ πρὸς ἄνδρας πανδημεί τε ἀμυνομένους, καὶ οὐκ ἀπολέκτους, ὥσπερ καὶ ἡμᾶς—καὶ προσέτι Σικελιώτας, etc.

When a special selection took place, the names of the hoplites chosen by the generals to take part in any particular service were written on boards according to their tribes: each of these boards was affixed publicly against the statue of the Heros Eponymus of the tribe to which it referred: Aristophanês, Equites, 1369; Pac. 1184, with Scholiast; Wachsmuth, Hellen. Alterthumsk. ii, p. 312.

[616] Thucyd. iv, 100.

[617] Thucyd. iv, 55.

[618] Thucyd. iv, 90; Livy, xxxv, 51.

[619] Dikæarch. Βίος Ἑλλάδος. Fragm. ed. Fuhr, pp. 142-230; Pausan. i, 34, 2; Aristotle ap. Stephan. Byz. v, Ὠρωπός. See also Col. Leake, Athens and the Demi of Attica, vol. ii, sect. iv, p. 123; Mr. Finlay, Oropus and the Diakria, p. 38; Ross, Die Demen von Attika, p. 6, where the Deme of Græa is verified by an inscription, and explained for the first time.

The road taken by the army of Hippokratês in the march to Delium, was the same as that by which the Lacedæmonian army in their first invasion of Attica had retired from Attica into Bœotia (Thucyd. ii, 23).

[620] Dikæarchus (Βίος Ἑλλάδος, p. 142, ed. Fuhr) is full of encomiums on the excellence of the wine drunk at Tanagra, and of the abundant olive-plantations on the road between Orôpus and Tanagra.

Since tools and masons were brought from Athens to fortify Nisæa about three months before (Thucyd. iv, 69), we may be pretty sure that similar apparatus was carried to Delium, though Thucydidês does not state it.

[621] Thucyd. iv, 90. That the vines round the temple had supporting-stakes, which furnished the σταυροὺς used by the Athenians, we may reasonably presume: the same as those χάρακες which are spoken of in Korkyra, iii, 70: compare Pollux, i, 162.

[622] “The plain of Oropus (observes Col. Leake) expands from its upper angle at Oropó towards the mouth of the Asopus, and stretches about five miles along the shore, from the foot of the hills of Markópulo on the east to the village of Khalkúki on the west, where begin some heights extending westward towards Dhilisi, the ancient Delium.”—“The plain of Oropus is separated from the more inland plain of Tanagra by rocky gorges through which the Asopus flows.” (Leake, Athens and the Demi of Attica, vol. ii. sect. iv, p. 112.)

[623] Thucyd. iv, 93; v, 38. Akræphiæ may probably be considered as either a dependency of Thebes, or included in the general expression of Thucydidês, after the word Κωπαιῆς—οἱ περὶ τὴν λίμνην. Anthêdon and Lebadeia, which are recognized as separate autonomous townships in various Bœotian inscriptions, are not here named in Thucydidês. But there is no certain evidence respecting the number of immediate members of the Bœotian confederacy: compare the various conjectures in Boeckh, ad Corp. Inscript. tom. i, p. 727; O. Müller, Orchomenus, p. 402; Kruse, Hellas, tom. ii, p. 548.

[624] Thucyd. iv, 91. τῶν ἄλλων Βοιωταρχῶν, οἵ εἰσιν ἕνδεκα, οὐ ξυνεπαινούντων μάχεσθαι, etc.

The use of the present tense εἰσιν marks the number eleven as that of all the bœotarchs; at this time, according to Boeckh’s opinion, ad Corp. Inscript. i, vol. i, p. 729. The number, however, appears to have been variable.

[625] Thucyd. iv, 91. προσκαλῶν ἑκάστους κατὰ λόχους, ὅπως μὴ ἁθρόοι ἐκλίποιεν τὰ ὅπλα, ἔπειθε τοὺς Βοιωτοὺς ἰέναι ἐπὶ τοὺς Ἀθηναίους καὶ τὸν ἀγῶνα ποιεῖσθαι.

Here Dr. Arnold observes: “This confirms and illustrates what has been said in the note on ii, 2, 5, as to the practice of the Greek soldiers piling their arms the moment they halted in a particular part of the camp, and always attending the speeches of their general without them.”

In the case here before us, it appears that the Bœotians did come by separate lochi, pursuant to command, to hear the words of Pagondas, and also that each lochus left its arms to do so; though even here it is not absolutely certain that τὰ ὅπλα does not mean the military station, as Dukas interprets it. But Dr. Arnold generalizes too hastily from hence to a customary practice as between soldiers and their general. The proceeding of the Athenian general Hippokratês, on this very occasion, near Delium, to be noticed a page or two forward, exhibits an arrangement totally different. Moreover, the note on ii, 2, 5, to which Dr. Arnold refers, has no sort of analogy to the passage here before us, which does not include the words τίθεσθαι τὰ ὅπλα; whereas these words are the main matters in chapter ii, 2, 5. Whoever attentively compares the two, will see that Dr. Arnold, followed by Poppo and Göller, has stretched an explanation which suits the passage here before us to other passages where it is no way applicable.

[626] Thucyd. iv, 92.

[627] Thucyd. iv, 93. ἐπ᾽ ἀσπίδας δὲ πέντε μὲν καὶ εἴκοσι Θηβαῖοι ἐτάξαντο, οἱ δὲ ἄλλοι ὡς ἕκαστοι ἔτυχον.

What is still more remarkable, in the battle of Mantincia, in 418 B.C. between the Lacedæmonians on one side and the Athenians, Argeians, Mantincians, etc., on the other, the different lochi or divisions of the Lacedæmonian army were not all marshalled in the same depth of files. Each lochage, or commander of the lochus, directed the depth of his own division (Thucyd. v, 68).

[628] Diodor. xii, 70. Προεμάχοντο δὲ πάντων οἱ παρ᾽ ἐκείνοις Ἡνίοχοι καὶ Παραβάται καλούμενοι, ἄνδρες ἐπίλεκτοι τριακόσιοι.... Οἱ δὲ Θηβαῖοι διαφέροντες ταῖς τῶν σωμάτων ῥώμαις, etc.

Compare Plutarch, Pelopidas, c. 18, 19.

[629] Thucyd. iv, 93. Καὶ ἐπειδὴ καλῶς αὐτοῖς εἶχεν, ὑπερεφάνησαν (the Bœotians) τοῦ λόφου καὶ ἔθεντο τὰ ὅπλα τεταγμένοι ὥσπερ ἔμελλον, etc.

I transcribe this passage for the purpose of showing how impossible it is to admit the explanation which Dr. Arnold, Poppo, and Göller give of these words ἔθεντο τὰ ὅπλα (see Notes ad Thucyd. ii, 2). They explain the words to mean, that the soldiers “piled their arms into a heap,” disarmed themselves for the time. But the Bœotians, in the situation here described, cannot possibly have parted with their arms, they were just on the point of charging the enemy: immediately afterwards, Pagondas gives the word, the pæan for charging is sung, and the rush commences. Pagondas had, doubtless, good reason for directing a momentary halt, to see that his ranks were in perfectly good condition before the charge began. But to command his troops to “pile their arms” would be the last thing that he would think of.

In the interpretation of τεταγμένοι ὥσπερ ἔμελλον, I agree with the Scholiast, who understands μαχέσασθαι or μαχεῖσθαι after ἔμελλον (compare Thucyd. v, 66), dissenting from Dr. Arnold and Göller, who would understand τάσσεσθαι; which, as it seems to me, makes a very awkward meaning, and is not sustained by the passage produced as parallel (viii, 51).

The infinitive verb, understood after ἔμελλον, need not necessarily be a verb actually occurring before: it may be a verb suggested by the general scope of the sentence: see ἐμέλλησαν, iv, 123.

[630] Thucyd. iv, 95.

[631] Thucyd. iv, 95, 96. Καθεστώτων δ᾽ ἐς τὴν τάξιν καὶ ἤδη μελλόντων ξυνιέναι, Ἱπποκράτης ὁ στρατηγὸς ἐπιπαριὼν τὸ στρατόπεδον τῶν Ἀθηναίων παρεκελεύετό τε καὶ ἔλεγε τοιάδε.... Τοιαῦτα τοῦ Ἱπποκράτους παρακελευομένου, καὶ μέχρι μὲν μέσου τοῦ στρατοπέδου ἐπελθόντος, τὸ δὲ πλέον οὐκέτι φθάσαντος, οἱ Βοιωτοὶ, παρακελευσαμένου καὶ σφίσιν ὡς διὰ ταχέων καὶ ἐνταῦθα Παγώνδου, παιωνίσαντες ἐπῄεσαν ἀπὸ τοῦ λόφου, etc.

This passage contradicts what is affirmed by Dr. Arnold, Poppo, and Göller, to have been a general practice, that the soldiers “piled their arms and always attended the speeches of their generals without them.” (See his note ad Thucyd. iv, 91.)

[632] Thucyd. iv, 96. καρτερᾷ μάχῃ καὶ ὠθισμῷ ἀσπίδων ξυνεστήκει, etc. Compare Xenophon, Cyropæd. vii, 1, 32.

[633] The proverbial expression of Βοιωτίαν ὗν, “the Bœotian sow,” was ancient even in the town of Pindar (Olymp. vi, 90, with the Scholia and Boeckh’s note): compare also Ephorus, Fragment 67, ed. Marx: Dikæarchus, Βίος Ἑλλάδος, p. 143, ed. Fuhr; Plato, Legg. i, p. 636; and Symposion, p. 182, “pingues Thebani et valentes,” Cicero de Fato, iv, 7.

Xenophon (Memorab. iii, 5, 2, 15; iii, 12, 5: compare Xenoph. de Athen. Republ. i, 13) maintains the natural bodily capacity of Athenians to be equal to that of Bœotians, but deplores the want of σωμασκία, or bodily training.

[634] See the notes of Dr. Arnold and Poppo, ad Thucyd. iv, 96.

[635] Compare Thucyd. v, 68; vi, 67.

[636] Thucyd. iv, 96. Τὸ δὲ δεξιὸν, ᾗ οἱ Θηβαῖοι ἦσαν, ἐκράτει τε τῶν Ἀθηναίων, καὶ ὠσάμενοι κατὰ βραχὺ τὸ πρῶτον ἐπηκολούθουν.

The word ὠσάμενοι (compare iv, 35; vi, 70), exactly expresses the forward pushing of the mass of hoplites with shield and spear.

[637] Thucyd. iv, 96; Athenæus, v, p. 215. Diodorus (xii, 70) represents that the battle began with a combat of cavalry, in which the Athenians had the advantage. This is quite inconsistent with the narrative of Thucydidês.

[638] Diodorus (xii, 70) dwells upon this circumstance.

[639] Pyrilampês is spoken of as having been wounded and taken prisoner in the retreat by the Thebans (Plutarch, De Genio Socratis, c. 11, p. 581). See also Thucyd. v, 35, where allusion is made to some prisoners.

[640] See the two difficult chapters, iv, 98, 99, in Thucydidês.

[641] See the notes of Poppo, Göller, Dr. Arnold, and other commentators, on these chapters.

Neither these notes, nor the Scholiast, seem to me in all parts satisfactory; nor do they seize the spirit of the argument between the Athenian herald and the Bœotian officers, which will be found perfectly consistent as a piece of diplomatic interchange.

In particular, they do not take notice that it is the Athenian herald who first raises the question, what is Athenian territory and what is Bœotian: and that he defines Athenian territory to be that in which the force of Athens is superior. The retort of the Bœotians refers to that definition; not to the question of rightful claim to any territory, apart from actual superiority of force.

[642] Thucyd. iv, 97.

[643] Thucydidês, in describing the state of mind of the Bœotians, does not seem to imply that they thought this a good and valid ground, upon which they could directly take their stand; but merely that they considered it a fair diplomatic way of meeting the alternative raised by the Athenian herald; for εὐπρεπὲς means nothing more than this.

Οὐδ᾽ αὖ ἐσπένδοντο δῆθεν ὑπὲρ τῆς ἐκείνων (Ἀθηναίων)· τὸ δὲ ἐκ τῆς ἑαυτῶν (Βοιωτῶν) εὐπρεπὲς εἶναι ἀποκρίνασθαι, ἀπιόντας καὶ ἀπολαβεῖν ἃ ἀπαιτοῦσιν.

The adverb δῆθεν also marks the reference to the special question, as laid out by the Athenian herald.

[644] Thucyd. iv, 100, 101.

[645] See Plato (Symposion, c. 36, p. 221; Lachês, p. 181; Charmidês, p. 153; Apolog. Sokratis, p. 28), Strabo, ix, p. 403.

Plutarch, Alkibiadês, c. 7. We find it mentioned among the stories told about Sokratês in the retreat from Delium, that his life was preserved by the inspiration of his familiar dæmon, or genius, which instructed him on one doubtful occasion which of two roads was the safe one to take (Cicero, de Divinat. i, 54; Plutarch, de Genio Sokratis, c. 11, p. 581).

The skepticism of Athenæus (v, p. 215) about the military service of Sokratês is not to be defended, but it may probably be explained by the exaggerations and falsehoods which he had read, ascribing to the philosopher superhuman gallantry.

[646] See above, page 378.

[647] Thucyd. iv, 78.

[648] Thucyd. iv, 78. Ὁ δὲ, κελευόντων τῶν ἀγωγῶν, πρίν τι πλέον ξυστῆναι τὸ κωλῦσον, ἐχώρει οὐδὲν ἐπισχὼν δρόμῳ.

[649] The geography of Thessaly is not sufficiently known to enable us to verify these positions with exactness. That which Thucydidês calls the Apidanus, is the river formed by the junction of the Apidanus and Enipeus. See Kiepert’s map of ancient Thessaly (Colonel Leake, Travels in Northern Greece, ch. xlii, vol. iv, p. 470; and Dr. Arnold’s note on this chapter of Thucydidês).

We must suppose that Brasidas was detained a considerable time in parleying with the opposing band of Thessalians. Otherwise, it would seem that the space between Melitæa and Pharsalus would not be a great distance to get over in an entire day’s march, considering that the pace was as rapid as the troops could sustain. The much greater distance between Larissa and Melitæa, was traversed in one night by Philip king of Macedon, the son of Demetrius, with an army carrying ladders and other aids for attacking a town, etc. (Polyb. v, 97.)

[650] Thucyd. iv, 78.

[651] Thucyd. iv, 82.

[652] Thucyd. iv, 83.

[653] Thucyd. iv, 84. Οἱ δὲ περὶ τοῦ δέχεσθαι αὐτὸν κατ᾽ ἀλλήλους ἐστασίαζον, οἵ τε μετὰ τῶν Χαλκιδέων ξυνεπάγοντες καὶ ὁ δῆμος· ὅμως δὲ, διὰ τοῦ καρποῦ τὸ δέος ἔτι ἔξω ὄντος, πεισθὲν τὸ πλῆθος ὑπὸ τοῦ Βρασίδου δέξασθαί τε αὐτὸν μόνον καὶ ἀκούσαντας βουλεύσασθαι, δέχεται, etc.

[654] Thucyd. iv, 85, 86, 87.

[655] Thucyd. iv, 108.

[656] Thucyd. iv, 88. Οἱ δὲ Ἀκάνθιοι, πολλῶν λεχθέντων πρότερον ἐπ᾽ ἀμφότερα, κρύφα διαψηφισάμενοι, διά τε τὸ ἐπαγωγὰ εἰπεῖν τὸν Βρασίδαν καὶ περὶ τοῦ καρποῦ φόβῳ, ἔγνωσαν οἱ πλείους ἀφίστασθαι Ἀθηναίων.

[657] Thucyd. iv, 88; Diodor. xii, 67.

[658] Thucyd. iv, 103. μάλιστα δὲ οἱ Ἀργίλιοι, ἐγγύς τε προσοικοῦντες καὶ ἀεί ποτε τοῖς Ἀθηναίοις ὄντες ὕποπτοι καὶ ἐπιβουλεύοντες τῷ χωρίῳ (Amphipolis).

[659] Thucyd. iv, 104. Κατέστησαν τὸν στρατὸν πρὸ ἕω ἐπὶ τὴν γέφυραν τοῦ ποταμοῦ.

Bekker’s reading of πρὸ ἕω appears to me preferable to πρόσω. The latter word really adds nothing to the meaning; whereas the fact that Brasidas got over the river before daylight is one both new and material: it is not necessarily implied in the previous words ἐκείνῃ τῇ νυκτί.

[660] Thucyd. iv, 104. Ἀπέχει δὲ τὸ πόλισμα πλέον τῆς διαβάσεως, καὶ οὐ καθεῖτο τείχη ὥσπερ νῦν, φυλακὴ δέ τις βραχεῖα καθειστήκει, etc.

Dr. Arnold, with Dobree, Poppo, and most of the commentators, translates these words: “The town (of Amphipolis) is farther off (from Argilus) than the passage of the river.” But this must be of course true, and conveys no new information, seeing that Brasidas had to cross the river to reach the town. Smith and Bloomfield are right, I think, in considering τῆς διαβάσεως as governed by ἀπέχει and not by πλέον,—“the city is at some distance from the crossing:” and the objection which Poppo makes against them, that πλέον must necessarily imply a comparison with something, cannot be sustained: for Thucydidês often uses ἐκ πλείονος (iv, 103; viii, 83), as precisely identical with ἐκ πολλοῦ (i, 68; iv, 67; v, 69); also περὶ πλείονος.

In the following chapter, on occasion of the battle of Amphipolis, some farther remarks will be found on the locality.

[661] Thucyd. iv, 106. Οἱ δὲ πολλοὶ ἀκούσαντες ἀλλοιότεροι ἐγένοντο τὰς γνώμας, etc.

The word ἀλλοιότεροι seems to indicate both the change of view, compared with what had been before, and new divergence introduced among themselves.

[662] Thucyd. iv, 105, 106; Diodor. xii, 68.

[663] Thucyd. iv, 108. Ἐχομένης δὲ τῆς Ἀμφιπόλεως, οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι ἐς μέγα δέος κατέστησαν, etc.

The prodigious importance of the site of Amphipolis, with its adjoining bridge forming the communication between the regions east and west of the Strymon, was felt not only by Philip of Macedon, as will hereafter appear, but also by the Romans after their conquest of Macedonia. Of the four regions into which the Romans distributed Macedonia, “pars prima (says Livy, xlv, 30) habet opportunitatem Amphipoleos; quæ objecta claudit omnes ab oriente sole in Macedoniam aditus.”

[664] Thucyd. iv, 108. Τὸ δὲ μέγιστον, διὰ τὸ ἡδονὴν ἔχον ἐν τῷ αὐτίκα, καὶ ὅτι τὸ πρῶτον Λακεδαιμονίων ὀργώντων ἔμελλον πειρᾶσθαι, κινδυνεύειν παντὶ τρόπῳ ἑτοῖμοι ἦσαν (the subject-allies of Athens).

[665] Thucyd. iv, 108.

[666] Thucyd. iv, 108. Οἱ μὲν Ἀθηναῖοι φυλακὰς ὡς ἐξ ὀλίγου καὶ ἐν χειμῶνι, διέπεμπον ἐς τὰς πόλεις etc.

[667] Thucyd. v, 26. See the biography of Thucydidês by Marcellinus, prefixed to all the editions, p. 19, ed. Arnold.

[668] I transcribe the main features from the account of Dr. Thirlwall, whose judgment coincides on this occasion with what is generally given (Hist. of Greece, ch. xxiii, vol. iii, p. 268).

“On the evening of the same day Thucydidês, with seven galleys which he happened to have with him at Thasos, when he received the despatch from Euklês, sailed into the mouth of the Strymon, and learning the fall of Amphipolis proceeded to put Eion in a state of defence. His timely arrival saved the place, which Brasidas attacked the next morning, both from the river and the land, without effect: and the refugees who retired by virtue of the treaty from Amphipolis, found shelter at Eion, and contributed to its security. The historian rendered an important service to his country: and it does not appear that human prudence and activity could have accomplished anything more under the same circumstances. Yet his unavoidable failure proved the occasion of a sentence, under which he spent twenty years of his life in exile: and he was only restored to his country in the season of her deepest humiliation by the public calamities. So much only can be gathered with certainty from his language: for he has not condescended to mention either the charge which was brought against him, or the nature of the sentence, which he may either have suffered, or avoided by a voluntary exile. A statement, very probable in itself, though resting on slight authority, attributes his banishment to Cleon’s calumnies: that the irritation produced by the loss of Amphipolis should have been so directed against an innocent object, would perfectly accord with the character of the people and of the demagogue. Posterity has gained by the injustice of his contemporaries,” etc.

[669] Thucyd. iv, 104. Οἱ δ᾽ ἐναντίοι τοῖς προδιδοῦσι (that is, at Amphipolis) κρατοῦντες τῷ πλήθει ὥστε μὴ αὐτίκα τὰς πύλας ἀνοίγεσθαι, πέμπουσι μετὰ Εὐκλέους τοῦ στρατηγοῦ, ὃς ἐκ τῶν Ἀθηναίων παρῆν αὐτοῖς φύλαξ τοῦ χωρίου, ἐπὶ τὸν ἕτερον στρατηγὸν τῶν ἐπὶ Θρᾴκης, Θουκυδίδην τὸν Ὀλόρου, ὃς τάδε ξυνέγραψεν, ὄντα περὶ Θάσον (ἔστι δ᾽ ἡ νῆσος, Παρίων ἀποικία, ἀπέχουσα τῆς Ἀμφιπόλεως ἡμισείας ἡμέρας μάλιστα πλοῦν) κελεύοντες σφίσι βοηθεῖν.

Here Thucydidês describes himself as “the other general along with Euklês, of the region of or towards Thrace.” There cannot be a clearer designation of the extensive range of his functions and duties.

I adopt here the reading τῶν ἐπὶ Θρᾴκης, the genitive case of the well-known Thucydidean phrase τὰ ἐπὶ Θρᾴκης, in preference to τὸν ἐπὶ Θρᾴκης; which would mean in substance the same thing, though not so precisely, nor so suitably to the usual manner of the historian. Bloomfield, Bekker, and Göller have all introduced τῶν into the text, on the authority of various MSS.: Poppo and Dr. Arnold also both express a preference for it, though they still leave τὸν in the text.

Moreover, the words of Thucydidês himself, in the passage where he mentions his own long exile, plainly prove that he was sent out as general, not to Thasos, but to Amphipolis: (v, 26) καὶ ξυνέβη μοι φεύγειν τὴν ἐμαυτοῦ ἔτη εἴκοσι μετὰ τὴν ἐς Ἀμφίπολιν στρατηγίαν, etc.

[670] Compare Thucyd. iv, 84, 88, 103.

[671] Thucyd. iv, 103. μάλιστα δὲ οἱ Ἀργίλιοι, ἐγγύς τε προσοικοῦντες καὶ ἀεί ποτε τοῖς Ἀθηναίοις ὄντες ὕποπτοι καὶ ἐπιβουλεύοντες τῷ χωρίῳ (Amphipolis), ἐπειδὴ παρέτυχεν ὁ καιρὸς καὶ Βρασίδας ἦλθεν, ἔπραξάν τε ἐκ πλείονος πρὸς τοὺς ἐμπολιτεύοντας σφῶν ἐκεῖ ὅπως ἐνδοθήσεται ἡ πόλις, etc.

[672] Thucyd. iv, 103. φυλακὴ δέ τις βραχεῖα καθειστήκει, ἣν βιασάμενος ῥᾳδίως ὁ Βρασίδας, ἅμα μὲν τῆς προδοσίας οὔσης, ἅμα δὲ καὶ χειμῶνος ὄντος καὶ ἀπροσδοκήτος προσπεσὼν, διέβη τὴν γέφυραν, etc.

[673] Thucyd. iv, 105. καὶ ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ δύνασθαι ἐν τοῖς πρώτοις τῶν ἠπειρωτῶν, etc.

Rotscher, in his Life of Thucydidês (Leben des Thukydides, Göttingen, 1842, sect. 4, pp. 97-99), admits it to be the probable truth, that Thucydidês was selected for this command expressly in consequence of his private influence in the region around. Yet this biographer still repeats the view generally taken, that Thucydidês did everything which an able commander could do, and was most unjustly condemned.

[674] Thucyd. v, 26.

[675] Thucyd. iv, 104-108.

[676] This is the σταύρωμα, mentioned (v, 10) as existing a year and a half afterwards, at the time of the battle of Amphipolis. I shall say more respecting the topography of Amphipolis, when I come to describe that battle.

[677] See Grisebach, Reise durch Rumelien und Brura, vol. i, ch. viii, p. 226.

[678] Thucyd. iv, 109.

[679] Thucyd. iv, 110. καὶ αὐτὸν ἄνδρες ὀλίγοι ἐπῆγον κρύφα, ἑτοῖμοι ὄντες τὴν πόλιν παραδοῦναι, iv, 113. Τῶν δὲ Τορωναίων γιγνομένης τῆς ἁλώσεως τὸ μὲν πολὺ, οὐδὲν εἰδὸς, ἐθορυβεῖτο, etc.

[680] Thucyd. iv. 114, 115. νομίσας ἄλλῳ τινὶ τρόπῳ ἢ ἀνθρωπείῳ τὴν ἅλωσιν γενέσθαι.

[681] Thucyd. iv, 119.

[682] Thucyd. iv, 21.

[683] Thucyd. iv, 108. Ὁ δὲ ἐς τὴν Λακεδαίμονα ἐφιέμενος στρατιάν τε προσαποστέλλειν ἐκέλευε.... Οἱ δὲ Λακεδαιμόνιοι τὰ μὲν καὶ φθόνῳ ἀπὸ τῶν πρώτων ἀνδρῶν οὐχ ὑπηρέτησαν αὐτῷ, etc.

[684] Thucyd. iv, 117. Τοὺς γὰρ δὴ ἄνδρας περὶ πλέονος ἐποιοῦντο κομίσασθαι, ὡς ἔτι Βρασίδας εὐτύχει· καὶ ἔμελλον, ἐπὶ μεῖζον χωρήσαντος αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀντίπαλα καταστήσαντος, τῶν μὲν στέρεσθαι, τοῖς δ᾽ ἐκ τοῦ ἴσου ἀμυνόμενοι κινδυνεύειν καὶ κρατήσειν.

This is a perplexing passage, and the sense put upon it by the best commentators appears to me unsatisfactory.

Dr. Arnold observes: “The sense required must be something of this sort. If Brasidas were still more successful, the consequence would be that they would lose their men taken at Sphakteria, and after all would run the risk of not being finally victorious.” To the same purpose, substantially Haack, Poppo, Göller, etc. But surely this is a meaning which cannot have been present to the mind of Thucydidês. For how could the fact, of Brasidas being more successful, cause the Lacedæmonians to lose the chance of regaining their prisoners? The larger the acquisitions of Brasidas, the greater chance did the Lacedæmonians stand of getting back their prisoners, because they would have more to give up in exchange for them. And the meaning proposed by the commentators, inadmissible under all circumstances, is still more excluded by the very words immediately preceding in Thucydidês: “The Lacedæmonians were above all things anxious to get back their prisoners, while Brasidas was yet in full success;” (for ὡς with ἔτι must mean substantially the same as ἕως.) It is impossible immediately after this, that he can go on to say: “Yet if Brasidas became still more successful, they would lose the chance of getting the prisoners back.” Bauer and Poppo, who notice this contradiction, profess to solve it by saying, “that if Brasidas pushed his successes farther, the Athenians would be seized with such violence of hatred and indignation, that they would put the prisoners to death.” Poppo supports this by appealing to iv, 41, which passage, however, will be found to carry no proof in the case: and the hypothesis is in itself inadmissible, put up to sustain an inadmissible meaning.

Next, as to the words ἀντίπαλα καταστήσαντος (ἐπὶ μεῖζον χωρήσαντος αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀντίπαλα καταστήσαντος); Göller translates these: “Postquam Brasidas in majus profecisset, et sua arma cum potestate Atheniensium æquasset.” To the same purpose also Haack and Poppo. But if this were the meaning, it would seem to imply, that Brasidas had, as yet, done nothing and gained nothing; that his gains were all to be made during the future. Whereas the fact is distinctly the reverse, as Thucydidês himself has told us in the line preceding: Brasidas had already made immense acquisitions,—so great and serious, that the principal anxiety of the Lacedæmonians was to make use of what he had already gained as a means of getting back their prisoners, before the tide of fortune could turn against him.

Again, the last part of the sentence is considered by Dr. Arnold and other commentators as corrupt; nor is it agreed to what previous subject τοῖς δὲ is intended to refer.

So inadmissible, in my judgment, is the meaning assigned by the commentators to the general passage, that, if no other meaning could be found in the words, I should regard the whole sentence as corrupt in some way or other. But I think another meaning may be found.

I admit that the words ἐπὶ μεῖζον χωρήσαντος αὐτοῦ might signify, “if he should arrive at greater success;” upon the analogy of i, 17, and i, 118, ἐπὶ πλεῖστον ἐχώρησαν δυνάμεως—ἐπὶ μέγα ἐχώρησαν δυνάμεως. But they do not necessarily, nor even naturally, bear this signification. Χωρεῖν ἐπὶ (with accus. case) means to march upon, to aim at, to go at or go for (adopting an English colloquial equivalent), ἐχώρουν ἐπὶ τὴν ἀντικρὺς ἐλευθερίαν (Thucyd. viii, 64). The phrase might be used, whether the person of whom it was affirmed succeeded in his object or not. I conceive that in this place the words mean: “if Brasidas should go at something greater;” if he should aim at, “or march upon, greater objects;” without affirming the point, one way or the other, whether he would attain or miss what he aimed at.

Next, the words ἀντίπαλα καταστήσαντος do not refer, in my judgment, to the future gains of Brasidas, or to their magnitude and comparative avail in negotiation. The words rather mean: “if he should set out in open contest and hostility that which he had already acquired,” (thus exposing it to the chance of being lost), “if he should put himself and his already-acquired gains in battle-front against the enemy.” The meaning would be then substantially the same as καταστήσαντος ἑαυτὸν ἀντίπαλον. The two words here discussed are essentially obscure and elliptical, and every interpretation must proceed by bringing into light those ideas which they imperfectly indicate. Now, the interpretation which I suggest keeps quite as closely to the meaning of the two words as that of Haack and Göller; while it brings out a general sense, making the whole sentence, of which these two words form a part, distinct and instructive. The substantive, which would be understood along with ἀντίπαλα, would be τὰ πράγματα; or perhaps τὰ εὐτυχήματα, borrowed from the verb εὐτύχει, which immediately precedes.

In the latter part of the sentence, I think that τοῖς δὲ refers to the same subject as ἀντίπαλα: in fact, ἀπὸ τοῦ ἴσου ἀμυνόμενοι is only a fuller expression of the same general idea as ἀντίπαλα.

The whole sentence would then be construed thus: “For they were most anxious to recover their captives while Brasidas was yet in good fortune; while they were likely, if he should go at more, and put himself as he now stood into hostile contention, to remain deprived of their captives; and even in regard to their successes, to take the chance of danger or victory in equal conflict.”

The sense here brought out is distinct and rational; and I think it lies fairly in the words. Thucydidês does not intend to represent the Lacedæmonians as feeling, that if Brasidas should really gain more than he had gained already, such further acquisition would be a disadvantage to them, and prevent them from recovering their captives. He represents them as preferring the certainty of those acquisitions which Brasidas had already made, to the chance and hazard of his aiming at greater; which could not be done without endangering that which was now secure, and not only secure, but sufficient, if properly managed, to procure the restoration of the captives.

Poppo refers τοῖς δὲ to the Athenians: Göller refers it to the remaining Spartan military force, apart from the captives who were detained at Athens. The latter reference seems to me inadmissible, for τοῖς δὲ must signify some persons or things which have been before specified or indicated; and that which Göller supposes it to mean has not been before indicated. To refer it to the Athenians, with Poppo and Haack, in his second edition, we should have to look a great way back for the subject, and there is, moreover, a difficulty in construing ἀμυνόμενοι with the dative case. Otherwise, this reference would be admissible; though I think it better to refer τοῖς δὲ to the same subject as ἀντίπαλα. In the phrase κινδυνεύειν, or κινδυνεύσειν, for there seems no sufficient reason why this old reading should be altered, καὶ κρατήσειν, the particle καὶ has a disjunctive sense, of which there are analogous examples; see Kühner, Griechische Grammmatik, sect. 726, signifying, substantially, the same as ἢ: and examples even in Thucydidês, in such phrases as τοιαῦτα καὶ παραπλήσια (i, 22, 143), τοιαύτη καὶ ὅτι ἐγγύτατα τούτων, v, 74; see Poppo’s note on i, 22.