Charles F. Smith, Commentary on Thucydides Book 6

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There is, therefore, no reason for not fulfilling our treaty obligations to our Sicilian allies. Nor can we, if we would remain an imperial state, refrain from the expedition. Let us go, then, not only that we may abase the arrogance of the Peloponnesians, but also that we may either by the subjugation of Sicily win empire over all Hellenes or at least injure the Syracusans. Do not let yourselves be deterred by Nicias' advice, but in the spirit of your fathers allow scope to every period of life, and by stirring activity exercise and strengthen your powers. For an energetic state inactivity is ruin, and holding firmly to customs and laws is under all circumstances the greatest safety.

ὥστε τί ἂν λέγοντες...μὴ βοηθοῖμεν : what reasonable thing then can we say why we ourselves should shirk (the enterprise), or to our allies there by way of excuse why we should refuse to aid them. There is something incongruous in the arrangement of the sent. As it stands, τί λέγοντες εἰκός belongs to both members. We should have expected in the second member σκηπτοίμεθα μὴ βοηθεῖν, but as the main idea of the second clause is expressed in a finite verb (βοηθοῖμεν) to balance the main idea of the first (ἀποκνοῖμεν), so σκηπτόμενοι is felt as the antithesis to λέγοντες, as if the first ἤ stood before that ptc.—αὐτοί: antithetic to πρὸς τοὺς ἐκεῖ ξυμμά χους σκηπτόμενοι.

μἡ βοηθοῖμεν : μή because a neg. answer is implied. Kr. compares Dem. 23. 75 πῶς ἂν δίκαια ταὐτὰ καὶ μὴ γένοιτο; Xen. Mem. 3. 1. 10 τί οὐ σκοποῦμεν πῶς ἂν αὐτῶν μὴ διαμαρτάνοιμεν;

χρεών : without ἐστι as in 9; 1. 77. 13; 2. 61. 17; 7. 73. 5.

ἐπειδή γε καὶ ξυνωμόσαμεν: especially as we have actually sworn to do so. For this intensive force of καί, see Kr. Spr. 69, 32, 17. At least with the Leontines the Athenians had a sworn treaty. Cf. 19. § 1, and see App. on 6. 12.—ἀντιτιθέναι: to hold against, retort, in 2. 85. 8 and 3. 56. 16, with gen., to set against, contrast.— 4. ὅτι οὐδὲ ἐκεῖνοι: sc. ἐπήμυναν.

προσεθέμεθα αὐτούς : attached them, nobis eos adiunximus, with accus. only here in Thuc., with dat. (se alicui adiungere) freq. Cf. 80. 12; 3. 11. 20; 8. 48. 29, 87. 25.

τοῖς ἐκεῖ ἐχθροῖς ἡμῶν: i.e. τοῖς Συρακοσίοις, who were ἐχθροί, even if not in open war πολέμιοι.

οὕτως: looks forward here, being explained by the ptc. clause παραγιγνόμενοι κτἑ.

ἦρξαν : ingressive=ἀρχὴν ἐκτήσαντο.

τοῖς...ἐπικαλουμένοις : the attrib. ptc. placed after noun attended by other modifiers. See on 1. 11. 19. G. 969; Kühn. 464, 8.—ἢ βαρβάροις: referring to Nicias' reproach 11. 27 Ἐγεσταίων, ἀνδρῶν βαρβάρων.

ἐπεί : whereas. Cf. 2. 51. 21; 7. 30. 8.—φυλοκρινοῖεν οἷς χρεὼν βοηθεῖν: distinguish by race whom we should aid. Cf. Bk.'s Aneed. 1, p. 71 (referring prob. to our passage) κυρίως τὸ τὰς φυλὰς (perhaps τὰ φῦλα）τὰς ἐν ταῖς πόλεσι διακρίνειν.

βραχὺ ἄν τι προσκτώμενοι...κινδυνεύοιμεν : some editors consider that ἄν is here not merely repeated (see on 4. 18. 17), but that the first ἄν belongs to the ptc., the second only to the verb. But for the thought one ἄν would have sufficed, since only the verb requires it. See on 5. 9. 16. —περὶ αὐτῆς ταύτης: i.e. τῆς ὑπαρχούσης ἀρχῆς.

κινδυνεύοιμεν : from third to first person in transition from general remark to special condition. Steup adopts Hude's attractive conjecture in 1. 9 ἡσυχάζοιμεν πάντως and φυλοκρινοῖμεν, thus avoiding transition here.

μὴ [ὅπως] ἔπεισι προκαταλαμβάνει : takes precaution lest he shall come on. GMT. 370. For προκαταλαμβάνειν, see on 1. 57. 15; 3. 2. 15. Pp. was first to bracket ὅπως. Cl. thought μὴ ὅπως might be understood as = ὅπως μή, but free as Thuc. is in placing strougly emphatie words before the conjunction (see on <*> 10. 5) there is no parallel in Thuc. or elsewhere for such an inversion as μὴ ὅπως. Besides μὴ ὅπως elsewhere (Xen. Cyrop. 1. 3. 10), like οὐχ ὅπως, means not only not. Some editors (e.g. Kr., Hude) transpose (ὅπως μή), others (e.g. St., Bm.) adopt Haacke's conjecture μή πως. But ὅπως was prob. a marginal explanation added to μή which crept into the text.

ταμιεύεσθαι ἐς ὅσον βουλόμεθα ἄρχειν: to calculate, reckon accurately, to what extent we will rule. ταμιεύεσθαι, a term from the counter, only here in Thuc., but cf. ταμίαν γενέσθαι 78. 14. Cf. Xen. Cyrop. 3. 3. 47 παραδόντες ἑαυτοὺς ἡμῖν ταμιεύεσθαι, ὥσθ᾽ ὁπόσοις ἂν βουλώμεθα μάχεσθαι. Strabo, 4. 196 c, prettily applies the action to the cautious warfare of the Iberians, ἐταμίευον καὶ κατεκερμάτιζον τοὺς ἀγῶνας.

ἐν τῷδε : Cl. remarks not merely = ἐν τῳ ἄρχειν (Schol.), but more pregnant ἐν τῷδε τῆς ἀρχῆς, “at the point of sway that we have reached,” as expressed also by the pf. καθέσταμεν. But that is implied in the Schol. ἐν τῷ ἄρχειν.

ἀνιέναι : let go, turn loose. Though Thuc. does not use the verb elsewhere with accus. of pers., the const. is common enough in other Attic writers.— διὰ τὸ ἀρχθῆναι ἂν ὑφ᾽ ἑτέρων: because we might come under the domination of others. Cf. 7. 62. 8 διὰ τὸ βλάπτειν ἂν τὸ τῆς ἐπιστήμης τῇ βαρύτητι τῶν νεῶν. For the bracketed words [αὐτοῖς κίνδυνον εἶναι], see App.

καὶ οὐκ...τὸ ἥσυχον : and you must not regard inaction in the same light as others.— 17. ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ: cf. ἐκ τοῦ ὁμοίου 78. 24, 87. 23; ἐκ τοῦ ἴσου 2. 3. 19.—ἐπισκεπτέον : cf. Schol. τὸ ἐπισκεπτέον ἀντὶ τοῦ ἐπιτηδευτέον τέθεικεν. The verb only here in Thuc.—τοῖς ἄλλοις: dat. with ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ. G. 1175; H. 773 a; S. 1500.—τὸ ἥσυχον: neut. adj. stronger than the abstract τὴν ἡσυχίαν. See C. F. Smith, Trans. Amer. Phil. Assoc. XXV, 75.—εἰ μὴ...μεταλήψεσθε : unless you will change your conduct also to the like. Cf. ἐς τὸ ἴσον καθιστάναι 1. 121. 15. See on μεταλάβετε 87. 23, and cf. μεταλαμβάνειν, take in exchange, 1. 120. 16. τὰ ἐπιτηδεύματα, lit. practices, the sum or consistent carrying out of which individual acts is ἐπιτήδευσις. See on 1. 32. 10; 2. 37. 11.