Charles F. Smith, Commentary on Thucydides Book 6

μετὰ κινδύνων: under (impending) dangers. —μᾶλλον αὐτοὺς ἐσῄει τὰ δεινά: the dangers came closer home to them, i.e. made them more anxious. Cf. 4. 30. 2 οὐχ ἥκιστα αὐτὸν ταῦτα ἐσῄει.

ὅμως δὲ...ἀνεθάρσουν : but still by reason of their present strength on account of the multitude of all whom they saw before them they were encouraged by the sight. The words διὰ τὸ πλῆθος ἑκάστων ὧν ἑώρων, explanatory of τῇ παρούσῃ ῥώμῃ, are omitted by St. as unnecessary. For τῇ ὄψει ἀνεθάρσουν, cf. 4. 34. 5 τῇ ὄψει τοῦ θαρσεῖν τὸ πλεῖστον εἰληφότες. For the views of Cl. and Steup, see App.— 5. κατὰ θέαν: to look on. See on 5. 7. 11.—ὡς ἐπὶ...διάνοιαν : in the feeling that the undertaking was stupendous and scarcely credible.

παρασκευὴ γὰρ αὕτη...ἐγένετο : for this armament sailing out as the first from a single city with a Hellenic force was the costliest and finest of those up to that time. For the const., see on 1. 1. 8. Here the pred. noun placed first has besides the sup. a further modifier (ἐκπλεύσασα . . . Ἑλληνικῇ) with the effect of a gen. pl. πρώτη ἐκπλεύσασα κτἑ. means “such as had sailed out from no single city before.” ἡ πρώτη was to be expected, as Dobree says. See App.

ἡ ἐς Ἐπίδαυρον...μετὰ Ἅγνωνος : cf. 2. 56. § 1 ff., 58.

καὶ ξύμμαχοι ἔτι πολλοί: these additional allies, which seem to have been with the Attic forces on the 100 Athenian triremes, are not mentioned in 2. 56. § 2.

ἐπί: for, with dat. of object. See on 4. 86. 2.—φαύλῃ: see on 21. 1.

οὗτος δὲ ὁ στόλος: sc. ὡρμήθη. Cl. unneccessarily follows Kr. in thinking the sent. anacoluthic. He objects to supplying ὡρμήθη as “not answering to the moment of the narrative.” But between ἐγένετο in 9 and 42 the aor. ὡρμήθη is quite in place.

οὗ ἂν δέῃ: of whichever there might be need, i.e. whether they had to proceed by water or by land.—τὸ μὲν ναυτικὸν...ἐκπονηθέν...τὸ δὲ πεζὸν...ἐκκριθέν : part. appos. as freq. in Thuc.

ἐκπονηθέν: built up with effort. Cf. 3. 38. 13.

τοῦ μὲν δημοσίου κτἑ.: on the contributions of the state on the one side and of the trierarchs on the other, see Boeckh, Staatshaushaltung^{3} I, 639 ff. The pay of the sailors, usually three obols per day, was this time doubled. See on 8. 3.

κενάς: acc. to Ar. Eq. 912 ff., the state furnished at other times in the Peloponnesian War besides the body or hull of the ship also at least a part of the equipment. See Boeckh, ibid., with note 858 of M. Fränkel. That ἀνδρῶν is not to be supplied here with νῆες κεναί, as in 1. 27. 15 and freq. (cf. 7. 77. 40), is clear from the context, and esp. from καὶ ὑπηρεσίας ταύταις τὰς κρατίστας. Naber (Mnem. N.S. XIV, 326 f.) would write καινάς. But if the Athenians had built at that time such an unusual number of new triremes (cf. Diod. 11. 43), Thuc. must surely have mentioned the fact in his reference to the Athenian preparations 26. § 2.

ὑπηρεσίας: here, 1. 23, and 8. 1. 15, and the sing. ὑπηρεσία 1. 143. 7, the technically trained seamen, who were on the triremes along with the marines (ἐπιβάται) and oarsmen (ναῦται in a narrowersense), and were regarded as assistants of the trierarchs. Acc. to 1. 143. 6, the κυβερνήτης belonged to the ὑπηρεσία, and in (Xen.) De Rep. Athen. 1. 2 οἱ κυβερνῆται καὶ οἱ κελευσταὶ καὶ οἱ πεντηκόνταρχοι καὶ οἱ πρῳρᾶται καὶ οἱ ναυπηγοί the whole or nearly the whole of the ὑπηρεσία seem to be included. See A. Kirchhoff, Abhdl. d. Berl. Akad. 1865, 81 f.; U. Köhler, Mitt. d. dtsch. arch. Instituts in Athen VIII, 177 f.; G. Gilbert, Handb. d. gr. Staatsalt.^{2} I, 365 f.

τῶν <δὲ> τριηράρχων : the δέ, due to the Schol. of Patmos, was first adopted by Heilmann.—ἐπιφοράς: bounties in addition to the pay of the state.

καὶ ταῖς ὑπηρεσίαις: these words, bracketed by Bl., Cl., St., and most other recent editors, offer no difficulty if the ὑπηρεσίαι (see on 20) are not included in the ναῦται, as 1. 143. § 1 requires they should not be. The correct understanding of the term ὑπηρεσίαι makes unnecessary the assumption that the Schol. (οἱ θρανῖται . . . πλείονα κόπον ἔχουσι τῶν ἄλλων: διὰ τοῦτο τούτοις μόνοις ἐπιδόσεις ἐποιοῦντο οἱ τριήραρχοι, οὐχὶ δὲ πᾶσι τοῖς ἐρέταις) did not have before him the words καὶ ταῖς ὑπηρεσίαις.

τἆλλα : adv. as 3. 3. 26; 4. 55. 6; 8. 86. 32.—σημείοις: figures or other outer ornaments by which the ships were distinguished and named. Schol. σημεῖα λέγει τὰς ἔξωθεν καταγραφὰς τῶν τριήρων. Cf. Ar. Ranae 933 (of the ἱππαλέκτωρ）σημεῖον ἐν ταῖς ναυσὶν ἐνεγέγραπτο.

κατασκευαῖς : inner equipments of the ships, as elsewhere of houses (2. 14. 3, 38. 3, 65. 9).

ἐς τὰ μακρότατα: Schol. ἐπὶ τὸ πλεῖστον. Unusual for ἐς τὰ μέγιστα, which also occurs only once in Thuc. (4. 86. 24), but freq. in Hdt.

ἑνὸς ἑκάστου: sc. τῶν τριηράρχων.

αὐτῷ τινι : for each one himself. Cf. 77. 17; 1. 37. 12, 40. 21, 43. 2.

καταλόγοις χρηστοῖς: i.e. καταλόγοις τῶν χρηστῶν, levies of the best.

τῶν...σκευῶν : accouterments for the body. σκεύη of equipment outside of the regular arms, as in 7. 84. 14.

ἁμιλληθέν: active in force as everywhere else in Attic, Plato, Legg. 968 B; Eur. Suppl. 195; Hel. 165, 387; Cycl. 628. Cf. ἐξαμιλλήσασθαι Eur. Hel. 1471. (Kr.)

ξυνέβη δέ: and it came to pass. See on 5. 10. 33.—πρός τε σφᾶς αὐτοὺς ἅμα...προσετάχθη : that both among themselves there was rivalry in that whereto each was assigned. Here ἔρις = ἀγαθὴἔρις. Stein rightly understands τούτου before ᾦ. Cf. Hom. ς 366 εἰ γὰρ νῶιν ἔρις ἔργοιο γένοιτο.

τις ἕκαστος : order as 7. 75. 29; but ἕκαστός τις 3. 45. 18; 4. 4. 7, 63. 4.

προσετάχθη : of military assignment; see on 2. 87. 32.—καὶ ἐς τοὺς ἄλλους Ἕλληνας κτἑ.: and it seemed rather a display of power and wealth before the rest of the Greeks than an undertaking against enemies. The subj. implied with εἰκασθῆναι is τοῦτο or the preparations just described. For the meaning of ἐξουσία, cf. 3. 45. 17 and Schol. περιουσίαν ἐξουσίαν φησί. Cl. understood δυνάμεως of Athens' strength at home, ἐξουσίας of her outward supremacy. But the distinction seems arbitrary, and acc. to 30. § 1 the allies were only slightly represented in the παρασκευή in question here, most having sailed direct to Corcyra. On the other hand, in § 5 is without doubt described the enormous cost of that παρασκευή to the state of Athens and the individual Athenians.

δημοσίαν: Cl. and most recent editors follow Kr. in bracketing the word, because it is omitted by Valla, is unnecessary after τῆς πόλεως, and requires the art. But Steup, referring to 1. 51. 11 and 4. 43. 15 for like omissions of the art., argues that if δημοσίαν is superfluous, then in the second clause καὶ τὴν τῶν στρατευομένων, or merely καὶ τῶν στρατευομένων, would have sufficed without ἰδίαν.

προετετελέκει : correctly restored by Reiske for προσετετελέκει of the Mss. ὅσα ἤδηπροετετελέκει is opp. to ἂ ἔχοντας τοὺς στρατηγοὺς ἀπέστελλε.

τις : every one, collective opp. to τριήραρχος.

χωρὶς δέ : and besides, as 1. 61. 15; 2. 97. 16. See on 3. 17. 6.

πάντα τινά: every one. See on 2. 41. 21; 3. 13. 33.— παρασκευάσασθαι: aor. inf. after εἰκὸς ἦν referring to the past. For const. see on 3. 10. 20.—ἐφόδιον: pred., as money for the journey. Cf. 2. 70. 16.— 39. ἐπὶ μεταβολῇ: for barter and sale. See on 14.—ἢ στρατιώτης ἢ ἔμπορος: cf. 7. 13. 16.

τόλμης θάμβει: on account of astonishment at the daring. θάμβος only here in Thuc., rare in Plato. Cf. Plut. Caes. 32 θάμβει τόλμης.

πρὸς οὓς...ὑπερβολῇ : sc. τούτων dependent on ὑπερβολῇ, by superiority of force over those whom they went against. Cf. Lys. 14. 38 ὑπερβολὴν ποιησάμενος τῆς προτέρας πονηρίας. In agreement with what is here said is 86. 6 δυνάμει μείζονι πρὸς τὴν τῶνδε ἰσχὺν πάρεσμεν, and 2. 65. 11 ff. —μέγιστος ἤδη...οἰκείας : a very long journey then from home. On ἤδη Bk. remarks “usitatius δή,” but the particle does not belong to the superlative. The relatively unimportant first Sicilian expedition (see Steup, Rh. Mus. LVI, 453 ff.) is disregarded here; the Egyptian expeditions of 1. 104. § 2, 110. § 4, 112. § 3, were undertakings of the Delian Alliance, not of the Athenians alone.

ἐπὶ μεγίστῃ ἐλπίδι...ἐπεχειρήθη : and was undertaken in (i.e. on the basis of) very great hope for the future as compared with the present, i.e. what they now possessed. On the expectationsentertained at the time, cf. 90. § 2f.