CHAPTER CXXXIII
τεῖχος περιεῖλον—ch. 51, 1.
ἐπικαλέσαντες—
v. 59,
εἴ τι ἐπικαλοῦσιν Ἀργείοις: so
i. 139.
βουλόμενοι...παρεστηκός— imperf. part., ‘they had been desirous all along’, connected with acc. absolute.
παρεστηκός requires the sense of an opportunity ‘presenting itself’; and several editors propose
παρεσχηκός, comparing ch. 85, 10:
i. 120,
εὖ παρασχόν. However in
Hdt. i. 23 we have
τῷ δὴ λέγουσι θωῦμα μέγιστον παραστῆναι, and the sound of
παρεσχηκός is certainly not in its favour. For the general use of
παρίστασθαι in Thucydides cf. ch. 61, 11.
ἐν τῇ...μάχῃ—see ch. 96, 14, where we find that the Thespians bore the brunt of the Athenian attack.
ὅ τι ἦν—Cobet would read
ὅ τί περ as the proper form: so
Plat. Rep. 492 E,
ὅ τί περ ἂν σωθῇ. ἄνθος is not found elsewhere in this sense in Attic prose:
Aesch. Prom. 420,
Ἀραβίας ἄρειον ἄνθος:
Pers. 59 etc.: cf. flos, which is common.
ἐν Ἄργει—the temple was between Argos and the ruins of Mycenae, and nearer to the latter; so that
ἐν is used of the neighbourhood, as noted on ch. 5, 5, or
Ἄργος is to be understood of the district generally.
ἐπέλαβεν—‘attained to’; lit. ‘caught up’.
ἐκ μέσου —‘midway’: for this adverbial use of
ἐκ cf.
v. 20,
ἐξ ἠμισείας, ‘in halves’. The Argives reckoned by the priestess's year of office; and we find that at the beginning of the war Chrysis had held office forty-eight years (
ii. 2).
Σκιώνη...περιετετείχιστο—Scione held out till the summer of 421. Its fate is related in
v. 32.
