E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides Book 1, ed. Edgar Carew Marchant, 1.1.1

1. Θουκυδίδης κτλ. loc —a formal method of opening, after the manner of the gnomic poets, not due, as Bloomfield imagined, to 'the modesty of our author.' Cf. Herod.init. ; Intr. p. xv.

ξυνέγραψε —a characteristic word of Thuc., who is known to the ancient critics as ὁ συγγραφεύς, much as Homer is ὁ ποιητής. It denotes the bringing together in one work of many occurrences— composing in its etymological sense. (How some find a reference to the hunting up of materials is not clear.)

3. ὡς ἐπολέμησαν — namely, how, i.e. showing how they waged war. Of course different from ὃν ἐπολέμησαν, which would be absurdly tautological. The aorist is called complexive.

4. ἀρξάμενος ( τοῦ ξυγγράψαι ) κτλ. —we are to understand that as soon as the war broke out Thuc. began to put down what occurred, and kept a sort of diary of the war.

εὐθὺς καθισταμένου —supply τοῦ πολέμου.

5. ἐλπίσας — expecting. On the relation of the participles here see Intr. p. xli. This first sentence is very characteristic of Thuc., in whose periods form is constantly subordinated to sense. O. Muller well says that Thuc. has two favourite forms of period, (a) the main predication, followed by clauses giving the circumstances and reasons, which may in turn be explained in similar clauses; and (b) the reasons, circumstances in participial and other clauses followed by the resulting fact or opinion, as in c. 2. 2 .

ἀξιολογώτατον τῶν π .—the illogical form of comparison, as in c. 10. 3 , cf. ‘fairest of her daughters Eve’: Tac. Ag. 34

ceterorum fugacissimi.

It is frequent in Greek.

6 τεκμαιρόμενος — inferring this, adding the grounds of the ἐλπίς These grounds are (1) ὅτι ἀκμάζοντες ..., (2) ὁρῶν ... Thus the clause with ὅτι is co-ordinate with a partic. of cause; cf. Xen. Symp. 8. 11 τεκμαίρομαι τῇ καλοκἀγαθίᾳ καὶ ὅτι σε ὁρῶ .

7. ἀκμάζοντές ... παρασκευῇ — at the height of their military power. That ᾖσαν, not ἦσαν, is the true reading there cannot be a doubt; for ἰέναι ἐς in this pregnant use see L. & S.

8. τὸ ἄλλο Ἑλληνικόν —including the Greeks outside Greece proper. Cf. τὸ ληστικόν , τὸ βαρβαρικόν, τὸ ξενικόν, and many others.

10. καὶ διανοούμενον —sc. ξυνίστασθαι, the ellipse of an infin. with διανοεὶσθαι being common, as in 124. 3 . The καί serves to bring διανοούμενον into connexion with ξυνιστάμενον; we should put ‘actually’ with τὸ μὲν εὐθύς. The Sicilian Greeks are a good example.

E.C. Marchant Commentary on Thucydides Book 1 1.1.1

ed. Edgar Carew Marchant

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