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οὐχ οἷόν τε εἶναι
—prob. Thuc. meant to say ‘it was impossible for him to delay
without experiencing’; this would require either
οὐχ οἶόν τε εἶναι διατρίβειν μέν, παθεῖν δὲ μή, or
οὐχ οἶόν τε εἶναι διατρίβοντα μὴ οὐ παθεῖν. But the words as they stand mean
it is impossible to delay and to suffer, and this, after all, is more mcisive than ‘it is impossible to delay, and then not to suffer.’
φοβερός
—with
ἀφικόμενος. The act, sense of
φοβερός,
causing terror, is the commoner. The passive meaning
timid occurs in
II. 3.4
;
IV. 128.4
;
Soph. OT 153
φοβερὰν φρένα δείματι πάλλων.
αὐτοὺς
—object of
ὠφελεῖν, the subject of which is
τὸ μεταπέμψαι.
ταῦτα
—there is a similar parenthesis followed by
ταῦτα δὲ πάντα σκοπῶν in
Andoc. I. 58
fol.
οὖν
—resumes after the long parenthesis, just as
igitur, sed, autem are commonly used, e.g. Cic.
pro Mur. 50
meministis enim, cum illius nefarii gladiatoris voces percrebruissent . . . tum igitur, his rebus auditis meministis.
τῇ πρώτῃ ἡμέρᾳ μάλιστα δεινότατος
—this is labelled as an instance of the double superl., as in Eur.
Med.
ὦ μέγιστον ἐχθίστη γύναι, but Classen rightly takes
μάλιστα closely with
τῇ πρώτη? ἡμέρᾳ, for ‘especially on the first day’; but, if he understood the passage, he did not make it clear. Why are there
three superlatives,
πρώτη?, μάλιστα, δεινότατος? Thuc. surely means that D. saw after his arrival that the nearer the day of his arrival was the greater was the awe he inspired. Hence trans. ‘realising that at present, while his arrival was quite recent, he filled the enemy with awe.’
μάλιστα
—serves to bring the two superlatives,
πρώτῃ and
δεινότατος, into relation. The whole is an example of his love of elaborate, composite, and co-ordinate expressions instead of subordinate clauses. For the use of superlatives in such expressions, cf.
II. 11.1
ἐπὶ πόλιν δυνατωτάτην νῦν ἐρχόμεθα, καὶ αὐτοὶ πλεῖστοι καὶ ἄριστοι στρατεύοντες, and perhaps the constant use of
μάλἰστα in ‘proportions,’ as in
II. 47.4
μάλιστα ἔθνη?σκον ὅσῳ καὶ μἀλιστα προσῇσαν .
ὅτι τάχος
—found also in
Herod. 9.33
, and equivalent to
ὡς τάχος=
ὡς τάχιστα.
Commentary on Thucydides: Book 7. Edgar Carew Marchant. London. 1919.
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