Charles F. Smith, Commentary on Thucydides Book 6

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From our policy, which for the maintenance of our supremacy must take precautions on all sides, you have nothing to fear; do not try, therefore, to direct it along other courses. Use rather our offered aid for your security, and oppose resolutely, both you and the rest, the Syracusan lust for rule.

ταῖς τῶνδε διαβολαῖς: cf. 83. 12 ἐξ ὧν οἵδε διαβάλλουσι.

μήτε οἱ ἄλλοι : here is definitely expressed what elsewhere in the admonitions to the Camarinaeans was implied. See below on 8 and on 85. 13 and 86. 2.—πᾶσαν τὴν ἀλήθειαν: a stock phrase in Greek from Homer down, as in English.— 3. ὑποπτευόμεθα: cf. 83. 13; 85. 14; 86. 6, 22.—ἐν κεφαλαίοις: in the chief points. Cf. 6. 14; 1. 36. 14; 4. 50. 8.

ἀξιώσομεν πείθειν: see on 86. 5.

φαμὲν γάρ: we say, namely. See on 33. 7.—ἄρχειν μὲν κτἑ.: cf. 82. § 2, 3; 83. § 4.

ὑπακούωμεν ἄλλου: see on 82. 7.

ὅπως μὴ ὑπ᾽ αὐτῶν βλαπτώμεθα: cf. 84. 3.—πολλὰ πράσσειν: as πολυπραγμοσύνη below (12), in a good sense, characterizing the policy of the Athenians at their acme, as described by Pericles in the funeral oration 2. 40, 41; its antithesis ἀπραγμοσύνη, τὸ ἄπραγμον in 2. 63. 7, 12. Cf. 18. 39.— 7. πολλὰ φυλασσόμεθα: we are on guard at many points. Strictly cogn. accus.

τοῖς ἐνθάδε ὑμῶν ἀδικουμένοις: ὑμῶν including all the Siceliotes except the Syracusans. For the part. gen. in attrib. position, see on 62. 19. —οὐκ ἄκλητοι, παρακληθέντες δέ: cf. καὶ παρακαλούμενος καὶ ἄκλητος 1. 118. 23. For emphasis by both negation and affirmation, cf. 76. 19, and see on 2. 98. 10. On the matter, cf. 19. § 1; 3. 86. § 3.

τῶν ἡμῖν ποιουμένων: for dat. of agent with pass., see on 3. 64. 15, and C. F. Smith, Trans. Amer. Phil. Assoc. XXV, p. 71.—ὡς σωφρονισταί: as moderators, i.e. schooling us to moderation, as 3. 65. 16; 8. 48. 43. Cf. σωφρονίζειν 78. 11; 8. 1. 27.

ὃχαλεπὸνἤδη : referring to ἀποτρέπειν.

καθ̓ ὅσον δέ τι...τὸ αὐτὸ ξυμφέρει : in proportion as anything of our busy activity and character (way of acting) is profitable alike to you (as to us). Cf. 83. 10 f. The specific word and the general (τρόπου) with asingle article, though of different genders., Cf. 1. 102. 21; 3. 61. 5. πολυπραγμοσύνη only here in Thuc. Cf. Ar. Acharn. 733. τὸ αὐτό pred. appos. to τι. Cf. 3. 47. 18; 4. 25. 3.

τούτῳ ἀπολαβόντες χρήσασθε: take this out and use it. Cf. Plato, Rep. 420 C τὴν εὐδαίμονα（πόλιν）πλάττομεν οὐκ ἀπολαβόντες, ὀλίγους ἐν αὐτῇ τοιούτους τινὰς θέντες, ἀλλ̓ ὅλην.

αὐτά : i.e. πολυπραγμοσύνη καὶ τρόπος.

ἐν παντὶ γὰρ πᾶς χωρίῳ: πᾶς inserted for the sake of the paronomasia. Cf. ἃ ἐν τῷ παντὶ χρόνῳ ὀλίγοις δὴ ἅμα πάντα ξυνέβη 1. 33. 13; ἐπεσέρχεται . . . ἐκ πάσης γῆς τὰ πάντα 2. 38. 4; κατὰ πάντα γὰρ πάντως νικηθέντες 7. 87. 23; πάντα δὲ πανταχόθεν αὐτοὺς ἐλύπει 8. 1. 9.

καὶ ᾧ : prep. not repeated, as freq., in the second clause. Cf. 1. 6. 20 f., and see on 4. 46. 1. Kr.'s conjecture κἀν ᾧ is unnecessary.

ὑπεῖναι ἐλπίδα: subesse spem. ἐλπίδα, hope in the first case (τῷ μέν), anticipation in the second (τῷ δέ).

ἀντιτυχεῖν ἐπικουρίας ἀφ᾽ ἡμῶν: i.e. to get redress (ἀντι-) through our aid, as Haacke explains.

μὴ ἀδεὲς εἶναι κινδυνεύειν: that it is not without danger to take up the conflict. ἀδεεῖς is the reading of the Mss., which Jowett retains, explaining, “ἀδεεῖς, though in the plural, refers to τῷ δέ preceding.” But all recent editors emend. ἀδεές is Reiske's conjecture, adopted also by St., who brackets κινδυνεύειν. Cf. Dem. 16. 22 οὐ γὰρ ἔγωγ᾽ ἀδεὲς τοῦθ̓ ὑπολαμβάνω τῇ πόλει. But Steup contends that κινδυνεύειν as subj. inf. makes no difficulty. For ἀδεές in the rare pass. sense, cf. 1. 36. 5; Plato, Sympos. 198 A. For κινδυνεύειν meaning take up the conflict without esp. emphasis on the danger involved, cf. 1. 74. 15; 3. 5. 11; 4. 91. 10; 5. 9. 6; 7. 48. 30. Cl adopted Kr.'s conjecture ἀδεεῖ, making κινδυνεύειν depend on μὴ ἀδεεῖ εἶναι (cf. 1. 136. 3; 4. 110. 13; 5. 105. 12), and rendering: “because there is to the aggressor the anticipation that, if we come, he has to fear coming into dangerous conflict with us.” But Steup, with St., wants proof of this pregnant meaning of κινδυνεύειν, and doubts that not only he who does not fear, but also he who does not need to fear, can be called ἀδεής.

ἀμφότεροι ἀναγκάζονται...σῴζεσθαι : ἀναγκάζονται is really applicable only to ἄκων σωφρονεῖν, but the emphatic position of ἀμφότεροι seems to show that the structure of the sent. was intentional, and we may render with Jowett, must both alike submit, the one to learn moderation against his will, the other to receive at our hands a deliverance which costs him nothing. Some, like Kr., think ἀναγκάζονται has a milder sense with σῴζεσθαι (“are placed in the way to be saved”); Cl., that οἶός τέ ἐστι or the like must be supplied.—ὁ μέν, ὁ δέ: the former = ὁ ἐπιβουλεύων, the latter = ὁ οἰόμενος ἀδικήσεσθαι, in chiastic order.

ἄκων σωφρονεῖν: cf. 79. 9.—ἀπραγμόνως: Schol. χωρὶς πόνου. Cf. 4. 61. 27.

ταύτην οὖ τὴν κοινὴν...ἀσφάλειαν μὴ ἀπώσησθε : reject not, then, this common safety now present for you, as well as for the one that asks you. For τῷ δεομένῳ referring, as Cl. explains, to the Athenians, cf. 86. 18 δεόμενοι τὴν ὑπάρχουσαν ἀπ᾽ ἀλλήλων ἀμφοτέροις σωτηρίαν μὴ προδιδόναι. Most editorsunderstand τῷ δεομένῳ, “any one that asks.” Steup objects that the context here is quite different from that at 86. 18 and opposed to Cl.'s view of τῷ δεομένῳ, while κοινήν is opposed to τῷ δεομένῳ, representing, collectively, any or all that ask. Assuming that the passage is corrupt, he substitutes ἑτοίμην for κοινήν, explaining ἑτοίμην τῷ τε δεομένῳ and καὶ ὑμῖν νῦν παροῦσαν as parallel modifiers of ταύτην τὴν ἀσφάλειαν, i.e. “this safety ready for all that ask and now at hand for the Camarinaeans.” For position of τε, with this view, see on 2. 46. 1.

ἀλλ̓ ἐξισώσαντες τοῖς ἄλλοις κτἑ.: but putting yourselves on an equality with the rest, along with us, instead of always being on guard against the Syracusans, take a different course and in your turn at last plot against them in like manner, i.e. as they have plotted against you (51. § 2).—ἐξισώσαντες τοῖς ἄλλοις: i.e. the Leontines, Egestaeans, and Catanaeans (51. § 2). The verb intr., as 5. 71. 17 and Soph. El. 1194 μητρὶ δ᾽ οὐδὲν ἐξισοῖ. So Cl. St. explains, “ἐξισώσαντες, sc. τὴν ἀσφάλειαν τῷ τε δεομένῳ καὶ ὑμῖν: postquam eam utrisque aequalem (communem) reddidistis, i.e. post quam nobis pariter atque vobis tutum praesidium societate nobiscum renovata paravistis.” Taking τοῖς ἄλλοις = τοῖς Συρακοσίοις, St. brackets the latter words. So Bm. and M., see App.

ἀντεπιβουλεῦσαι: to plot in turn against. The compound is coined by Thuc. See App. on 4. 80. 4.—μεταλάβετε: take a different course. See on 18. 18; 1. 120. 16. For const. with dependent inf., cf. 1. 44. 4 μετέγνωσαν . . . μὴ ποιήσασθαι.