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τοῖς δὲ ναύταις
—
Sailors, I urge, nay more, I entreat you, not to be in any way too overcome by your misfortunes; you have now better arrangements above, and a greater number of ships. Think, I beg you, how well worth preserving is the pleasant feeling that, being thought Athenians so long even if you are not so, by your knowledge of our language and your imitation of our institutions you were admired in Greece, and—as far as advantages go—had as great a share as we in our empire, while, in the matter of respect from onr subjects and immunity from wrong, you had much more than we. This § appears to start with the 3rd pers., which is changed for the 2nd in
ἐθαυμάζεσθε (l. 18); but the Gk. orators habitually mingle statements about people with direct address to them in this way.
τῷδε
—i.e.
ἐν τῷ περαινεῖν.
τὴν ἡδονὴν
—the pleasure which he describes in the rel. clause following.
οἳ
—the antecedent,
ὑμῖν, is omitted. The sentence
ἀξία ἐστὶν ἡ ἡδονὴ διασώσασθαι οἳ . . . ἐθαυμάζεσθε is constructed like
τὸ δ’ εὐτυχές, οἳ ἂν . . . λάχωσιν in
II. 44.1
.
Ἀθηναῖοι νομιζόμενοι
— he means the
ξένοι and
μέτοικοι serving as
ναῦται; at the same time he lays stress on the influence of the Athenian
ὄχλος ναυτικός. So in
[Xen.]
Ath. Pol. 2
οἱ κυβερνῆται καὶ οἱ κελευσταὶ καὶ . . . οἱ πρῳρᾶται καὶ οἱ ναυπηγοί, οὗτοί εἰσιν οἱ τὴν δύναμιν περιτιθέντες τῇ πόλει πολὺ μᾶλλον ἢ οἱ ὁπλῖται καὶ οἱ γενναῖοι καὶ οἱ χρηστοί. There was promotion from the lowest position as a rower to the highest as
κυβερνήτης. There would be few true-born Athenians amongst the
ναῦται now owing to the disasters in Sicily. Prob. many
θῆτες, who ordinarily served as sailois, were employed as hoplites. 18,
τῇ ἐπιστήμῃ
—causal with
θαυμάζω, as
IV. 85.3
, with
φοβοῦμαι
II. 89.6
.
τῶν τρόπων
—the private habits as contrasted with the
πολιτεία, the public institutions, of Athens. The A. prided themselves both on their
πολιτεία and on their
τρόποι .
ἐθαυμάζεσθε κατὰ τὴν Ἑλλάδα
—Thuc., owing to his own exile and his travels, would have good reason to know the fact and to appreciate the value of the
ἡδονή.
ἔς τε τὸ φοβερὸν τοι—ς ὑπηκόοις
—some of the
μετοικοι whom N. is supposed to be addressing must have been
by origin
υπήκοοι, so that Thuc. prob. means that those of them who had served in the A. fleet were regarded with awe in their own cities.
φοβερὸν=‘causing fear’; cf. on c.
42.3
.
πολὺ πλεῖον
—chiasmns with
οὐκ ἔλασσον. This passage, besides containing an exaggeration (see crit. note), seems rather lacking both in taste and in tact, even when we remember that most of the doubtful supporters of A. had deserted. But it must be remembered that none of the speeches in Thuc., and least of all the military harangues, could possibly have been delivered. Sce Appendix I.
Commentary on Thucydides: Book 7. Edgar Carew Marchant. London. 1919.
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