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πλέον ἢ ὅσον ἐτύγχανεν ὂν. Cf. c. 87, § 5, ἔφη αὐτὰς ἐλάσσους ἢ ὅσας βασιλεὺς ἔταξε ξυλλεγῆναι. ‘Imagining the conspiracy to be much more extensive than it actually (ἐτύγχανεν) was.’ The ὃ ἦν of most MSS. is clumsy, but can be construed, ‘imagining the conspiracy to be much more extensive than the amount which (ὅσον) the actual one (ὃ ἦν) really (ἐτύγχανεν) was.’ καὶ ἐξευρεῖν αὐτοὶ ἀδύνατοι ὄντες . . . ἐξαιρεῖν The MSS. mostly have καὶ ἐξευρεῖν αὐτὸ (or αὐτοὶ) ἀδύνατοι ὄντες διὰ τὸ μέγεθος τῆς πόλεως καὶ διὰ τὴν ἀλλήλων ἀγνωσίαν οὐκ εἶχον αὐτὸ (or αὐτοὶ) ἐξευρεῖν. Some inferior MSS. omit the last two words. We may take one of two views, either (1) that the last words αὐτοὶ (or αὐτὸ) ἐξευρεῖν are a gloss to explain οὐκ εἶχον, or (2) that αὐτοὶ (or αὐτὸ) ἐξευρεῖν is a corruption of some other words. The omission of the last two words in some MSS. is no proof that they have no right in the text, since they may well have been critically expelled as a dittography. If we take the first view and eject αὐτὸ ἐξευρεῖν, we must still further eject ἀδύνατοι ὄντες, in order to make any sense or construction of οὐκ εἶχον, unless we take the unlikely course of giving to the second καὶ the sense of etiam, ‘while unable to find it out because of the size of the city, they were also unable to do so because of their not knowing one another.’ No one is likely to maintain this correction and rendering. If we take the second view, αὐτὸ ἐξευρεῖν is an error for some words to eomplete the sense beginning ‘and being unable to find it out because of the greatness of the city and their not knowing each other, they could not——.’ The context seems to require ‘put it down,’ or ‘deal with it.’ In the Classical Review for December 1889, I suggested the emendation αὐτὸ ἐξαιρεῖν, which I am now more strongly convinced is right. ‘Being unable on their side （αὐτοὶ） to discover it . . . they could not make an end of it.’ For ἐξαιρεῖν cf. c. 46, § 3, ἢν μήποτε αὐτοὺς ἐξέλωσι; Xen. Hell. ii. 2, 19, μὴ σπένδεσθαι Ἀθηναίοις ἀλλ᾽ ἐξαιρεῖν, and frequently. τὴν ἀλλήλων ἀγνωσίαν Jowett quotes Aristot. Pol. vii. 4, 7, and his remark that for political purposes ἀναγκαῖον γνωρίζειν ἀλλήλους, ποῖοί τινές εἰσι, τοὺς πολίτας.
Commentary on Thucydides Book 8. T.G. Tucker. London. MacMillan & Company. 1892.
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