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71.
3. ταύτης—subject: τοιαύτης πόλεως pred., lit. this (city) that is opposed to you being such a city.
4. διαμέλλετε—persist in ... .
5. οἴεσθε κτλ.—you think that peace lasts longest not for those who in using their forces confine themselves to what is right, but (none the less) by their resolution show that, if wronged, they will not put up with it: instead of that, you deal out fair treatment with the object of not annoying others and, where you defend yourselves, of avoiding harm to yourselves. (1) τὸ ἴσον νέμετε represents δίκαια πράσσετε with slight modification: ‘fair treatment to you means (a) not provoking others and (b) overlooking a wrong if you find that self-defence will entail suffering on you.’ (2) ἐπιτρέπειν as practised by Sparta is explained as an attempt μὴ λυπεῖν τε ... βλάπτεσθαι. (All other explanations seem (1) to render ἀμυνόμενοι μὴ β as if it were μὴ ἀ. β, (2) to strain the meaning of τὸ ἴσον νέμετε: νέμω is not ‘control’ here; cf. p. 103 l. 25.
9. ἀλλ᾽ ἐπὶ κτλ.—there is anacoluthon here, since strictly we ought to have ἀλλ̓（ἐκείνοις）οἳ ἂν ... νέμωσι corresponding to οὐ τούτοις κτλ But the ehange greatly heightens the effect.
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11. μόλις δ᾽ ἄν—even if A. were as conservative as you, it would be almost impossible μὴ λυπεῖν τε ἄλλους καὶ αὐτοὶ ἀμυνόμενοι μὴ βλάπτεσθαι.
12. νῦν δέ—but in fact.
14. πρὸς αὐτούς—as compared with theirs.
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ὥσπερ κτλ. — full form: ὥσπερ τέχνης (‘in an art’) τα ἐπιγιγνόμενα (‘what is new’) κρατεῖν ἀνάγκη, οὕτω καὶ ἐπιτηδευμάτων κτλ τέχνης is possessiie, with τὰ ἐ.
16. τὰ ἀκίνητα νόμιμα—alluding to the conservative νόμιμα of Lycurgus: τάδε ... κατέστησεν ὁ Λυκοῦργος ἐν τῇ Σπάρτῃ νόμιμα Xen. Lac. Pol. 7. 1.
17. πρὸς πολλὰ ... ἰέναι—those on whose resources there are many demands need constantly to think out new devices; cf. ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι, plan something untried before, Herod. 2.2. 3; 119. 2.
20. ἐπὶ πλέον ὑμῶν—more than yours; cf. l. 14.
μέχρι ... τοῦδε ὡρίσθω — cf. Aeschin. 3.24 μέχρι τοῦδε εἰρήσθω μοι so far and no farther, ‘let this be the limit of.’ Strictly we have a fusion of—
(1) ‘So far let your slowness have proceeded,’
(2) ‘Here let your slowness end.’
Cf. on p. 69 l. 26.
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22. ὑπεδέξασθε—see c. 58. 1.
26. ἑτέραν—i.e. πρὸς τοὺς Ἀργείους, says the Scholiast. Such an alliance was formed between Corinth and Argos in 421 B.C.
28. πρός—in the eyes of.
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29. τῶν αἰσθανομένων—intelligent men. The rendering ‘men who take notice of our actions’ does not suit the context. All Greece must ‘note’ an alliance formed by Corinth; not any special part of Greece; but ἀνθρώπων τῶν αἰσθανομένων could hardly mean τῶν Ἑλλήνων here. Those who look below the surfaee of things will not eondemn Corinth. αἰσθάνομαι is abs., as in 5.26 αἰσθανόμενος τῇ ἡλικίᾳ. That this limitation of ἀνθρώπων does not stand in the same relation to the noun as τῶν ὁρκίων stands to θεῶν is not a valid objection in Thuc.
1. ἐρημίαν—isolation.
ἄλλοις—in quest of an alliance.
2. οἷς ἂν ξυνομόσωσι — the parties to a ξυμμαχία have ‘the same friends and enemies’: hence the point.
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3. μενοῦμεν—remain firm, pregnant sense fixed by ὑμῶν.
5. ξυνηθεστέρους — sc. ὑμῶν (not ὑμῶν προθύμων ὄντων, as with οὔτε γὰρ κτλ.).
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7. μὴ ἐλάσσω—proleptic. ἐξηγοῦμαι of exercising ἡγεμονία in a league appears to take aceus. or dat.
Commentary on Thucydides Book 1. E. C. Marchant. 1905. London. MacMillan and Company, Ltd.
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