The English Works of Thomas Hobbes (1839) 2 vols. - Vol. 8 (52 page)

[That is, from fifty–oared vessels to triremes.]

[Triremes.]

[“And Aminocles, the shipwright of Corinth, appears to have built four ships for the Samians also.”]

By this it appears, that Thucydides outlived the whole war.

By Periander, the tyrant of Corinth, for the slaughter of his son Lycophron. See Herodotus, iii. 53. [The Scholiast has misled Hobbes: Periander did not begin till about
a. c.
630.]

[Il. 2. 570. ἀϕνειόν τε Κόρ̧ινθον.]

[“And after the Grecians had more commerce by sea, they (the Corinthians) procured the ships (before mentioned), and scoured the sea of pirates.”]

[See Herod. iii. 39, 120.]

[See post, book iii. 104.]

The Phocæans in the time of Tarquinius came into the mouth of Tiber, entered into amity with the Romans, and thence went and built Marseilles amongst the savage nations of the Ligurians and Gauls. Justin, lib. xliii. 3.

[Arnold cautions against confounding this battle with the Carthaginians, with that mentioned by Herodotus, i. 166. The building of Marseilles took place fifty–five years before the expulsion of the Phocæans by the Persians, related by Herodotus. See also Hermann’s Griech. Antiquitäten. § 78. n. 28.]

[πεντηκοντόρ̧οις. Hoc vocabulum etsi apud Homerum non obvium est, naves tamen hujus generis ab eo commemorari videntur, ut Il. ii. 719; xvi. 168. Erant autem πεντηκόντοροι ex eo navium genere, quod dicitur μονῆρες, id est, uno remorum ordine in utroque latere instructum. Quini ergo et viceni remiges in dextro, totidem in sinistro latere sedebant. Siebel, cited by Goeller.]

Medes and Persians used here promiscuously, the Medan monarchy being translated to the Persians.

Of the Corinthians, Ionians, and Phocæans. [“For these were the last navies before the invasion of Xerxes (that is, the navies next before the invasion of Xerxes) worth speaking of.”]

[And the Athenians, “and the rest, if any,” had, c.]

[“And it was at a late period that Themistocles persuaded the Athenians, making war on Ægina, c. to build,” c. Arnold, Goeller. See Herod. vii. 144.]

[See Herod. v. 99.]

[And Darius afterwards, “overcoming by the aid of the Phœnician fleet,” did the like, c.]

[“But the tyrants, as many as there were in the Grecian cities, considering only how to promote their own private interest, both as to the safety of their persons and as to their household, governed their states with a view mainly to security; and did no action,” c.]

[ὁι γἁρ̧ ἐν Σικελίᾳ. Ante hæc verba, supple (cum Schol.): “non dico de tyrannis Siciliæ: nam Siciliæ tyranni,” c. Goeller, Arnold.]

[For a long time “in every way” hindered.]

Pisistratus and his sons.

[And of the rest of Greece, “governed for the most part by tyrants even before”: that is, before Athens.]

[By the Dorians “who now inhabit it.”]

[See Herod. i. 65.]

[Herod. v. 92.]

A fleet of twelve hundred galleys, and two thousand hulks of the round manner of building. Corn. Nepos in Vita Themistoclis.

[ἀνασκευάζεσθαι: “to break up one’s establishment, and make off with it.” It is opposed to κατασκευάζεσθαι. Goeller, Arnold.]

The Athenians being admonished by the Oracle, for their safety against the Medes to put themselves within walls of wood: Themistocles interpreting the oracle, they went into their gallies.

This variance began upon this: that Cimon having been sent for to aid the Lacedæmonians against the Helots, was sent back with his Athenians out of distrust the Lacedæmonians had of their forward spirit: which the Athenians took for a disgrace. [See ch. 102.]

Hence it is, that through all this history “subjects” and “confederates” are taken for the same thing, especially with the Athenians. [“The Lacedæmonians governed their confederates, not making them tributaries, but only drawing, c.: but the Athenians (governed them) in the course of time taking into their hands the gallies of the cities, all except the Chians and Lesbians, and ordaining every of them,” c. This is the sense according to the reading of Bekker, Goeller, Arnold, c. Hobbes is mistaken in supposing that
subjects
and
confederates
are synonymous, even amongst the Athenians. The distinction is constantly made between those ξύμμαχοι that were αὐτόνομοι and those that were ὑπήκοοι. See iii. 39, vi. 69, vii. 57.]

[“Than when their prosperity was at the greatest.” Hoc fastigium potentiæ Atheniensium referas recte ad tempora paulo ante inducias tricennales; quum Athenienses non solum insularum, sed etiam Asiæ minoris dominatum tenebant, Æginetas perdomuerant, atque Phocin, Argos, Bœotiam, et Achaiam sibi junctas habebant. Goeller. See chap. 102–115.]

[“Being hard for believing, every argument one after another.” Arnold.]

[“For men receive from one another the reports of things done before their own time, even those of their own country, all equally without trying them by the touchstone of enquiry”: (ἀβασανίστως.)]

[At the instant of the deed.]

Panathenaica, were the solemnities instituted by Theseus, in memory of that he had drawn together all the Athenians, that lived dispersed in Attica, into the city of Athens. Paus. in Arcad. [See another derivation given by Hermann; namely, the feast of the tribe Athenais, as Pandia, the feast of the tribe Dias: the Athenians being supposed to have been anciently divided into four tribes, Athenais, Dias, Posidonias, and Hephæstias. Gr. Antiq. § 93.]

[ἑκάτερον: “had each of them not single,” c. Sententia, quam scriptor reprehendit, est Herodoti, vi. 57. Goeller.]

[“And that the Pitanetan was a cohort amongst them.” Etiam his verbis tacite Herodotus perstringi creditur, qui cohortis Pitanatæ mentionem facit, ix. 53, et qui δῆμον Πιτανάτην memorat, iii. 55. Etenim ratione, quam et Græci et Romani antiquitus sequebantur, partes exercitus eædem erant ac partes populi in pace. Goeller.]

[ἐκ δὲ τῶν εἰρημένων τεκμηρ̧ίων ὅμως κ. τ. λ. This is the sentence corresponding to τὰ μὲν οὖν παλαιὰ, beginning the last chapter. “But at the same time he would not be far out, who, from the proofs I have mentioned, should judge them to be for the most part such as I have described them; and should not rather believe them to be either as poets have sung, adorning them so as to make them greater than the reality, or as prose writers have composed, more delightfully to the ear than conformably to the truth; admitting of no proof, and the greater part of them having by the aid of time taken their place amongst fables, so as to deserve no credit: and should think them here searched out by the most evident signs that can be; and sufficiently too, considering their antiquity.”]

[To have been greater “than any of those before it.”]

[λόγῳ εἷπον: quæ orationibus habitis dixerunt. Goeller. “In regular set speeches.” Arnold.]

[“It were difficult to remember accurately the very words spoken, both for me what I heard myself, and for those who at other times reported to me.”]

To the analogy and fitness of what was to be said: so that though he used not their words, yet he used the arguments that best might serve to the purpose which at any time was in hand. [Verum prout quisque mihi videbatur de præsenti qualibet causa quæ maxime in rem erant dicturus fuisse, consectanti quam proxime summam sententiæ orationum vere habitarum, sic mihi commemorata sunt. Goeller.]

[Valla and Hudson agree with Hobbes as to the sense of this passage. Goeller and Arnold give a different meaning to the words ἀρ̧κούντως ἕξει: “it will satisfy me if so many, c. shall judge this work to be profitable.”]

κτῆμα ἐς ἀεὶ. Both poets and historiographers of old recited their histories to captate glory. This emulation of glory in their writings, he calleth ἀγώνισμα.

When Xerxes invaded them. Two battles by sea, viz. one at Salamis, and the other at Mycale in Ionia. And two by land, one at Thermopylæ, and the other at Platæa. [The battle by sea was at Artemisium in Eubœa, not at Mycale in Ionia.]

[Mycalessus in Bœotia. Goell.]

[Platæa. Thyrea.]

[Potidæa, Ægina, Scione, Melos. Goeller.]

[Corcyræa, Argos, Samos. Haack, Poppo.]

[μέρ̧ος τι: a considerable part.]

[ταῦτα γὰρ̧ πάντα: “
For
all these evils entered together with this war.” In continuation of the sentence above: “But as for this war, the harm it did to Greece, c.]

[πρ̧όϕασις: “cause or occasion.” Goeller; Arnold, citing Herod. iv. 79: the Scholiast, too, explains the word by αἰτίαν. The passage may perhaps be rendered thus: “And the alleged cause for their breaking the treaty, I have therefore set down first, because, c.
For
the truest reason, though least in speech, I conceive to be, c. But the causes publicly alleged on both sides, for which breaking the treaty they went to war, were these.”]

Dyrrachium, Durazzo. The Ionian gulf, now the Gulf of Venice, called so from Iüs an Illyrian.

Illyrii, now Slavonia and Dalmatia.

Inhabitants of Corcyra, now Corfu.

[κατὰ δὴ τὸν παλαιὸν νόμον: according to
the
ancient custom. Si qui in coloniam mittebantur, armis et commeatu a civibis suis instruebantur de publico. Præterea publica iis diplomata debebantur, quæ ἀποίκια vocabant. Sed quod præcipuum est, sacra patria coloni secum asportabant, ignemque sacrum e penetrali urbis depromtum et accensum; qui quidem si casu extinctus esset, ex Prytanæo conditorum accendi eum oportebat. Moris quoque erat, ut coloniæ quotannis legatos in
majorem patriam
(μητρόπολιν) mitterent Diis patriis sacra facturos. Solenne etiam erat, ut coloniæ ab originibus suis pontifices acciperent. Quinetiam si aliquando coloni aliam coloniam aliquo deducere vellent, moris erat, ut ducem a
majore patria
postularent; ideoque Phalium ex metropoli (Corintho) arcessebant Corcyræi, ut coloniæ Epidamnum deducendæ dux esset. Duker.]

[In part of Corinthians, “and of the other Doric race.” So Bekker and the rest. Valla, as well as Hobbes, has followed the common reading.]

[“But having for many years had factions amongst them, growing, as is said, out of a war with the neighbouring barbarians, their strength was broken.” So Valla, as well as Goeller and Arnold.]

Either the Epidamnians had offended the Corcyræans, or the manner was in those times to take sanctuary, not only for crimes, but for obtaining aid in extremities; tacitly disclaiming all other help save that of the gods, and those to whom they made supplication.

[“The colony.”]

[“Showing how the first founder was a Corinthian, and declaring what answer,” c.

[The construction of Goeller (adopted by Arnold) is to make Κορ̧ινθιῳ ἀνδρ̧ὶ the dative governed by διδόντες; and the sense as follows: “nor allowed due honours to the mother country in their solemn rites, common to both mother country and colony; nor to a Corinthian in the rite of auspicating their sacrifices.” Γέρα τὰ νομιζόμενα, intelligo omnia ea, quæ honoris causa metropoli essent præstanda in solemnibus metropoli et coloniæ communibus. Hæc enim ex sacrorum ac religionum inter metropolim et colonias communione fluxisse videntur, sive jura sive officia, ut ad certa quædam solemnia, diis fere πατρ̧ώοις a metropoli instituta, quotannis coloniæ mitterent qui iis interessent (θεωρούς), et sacrificia et donaria ferrent. Illi θεωρ̧οί sacris epulis adhibebantur, et in ludis publicis sedem in theatro assignatam habebant. Vicissim, sacris coloniarum solennibus legati a metropoli missi intererant, quibus id honoris ex more habitum, ut victimæ molam aspergerent et libationem sacram facerent, et in ludis princeps locus eis daretur, (προεδρία): qui locus etiam viris ex metropoli, si qui forte aderant, principibus est tributus. Προκαταρ̧χόμενοι: verbum ἄρ̧χομαι et composita, in sacris usitata, vim habent auspicandi sacrificia et ceremonias, ac sacra faciendi. Munia autem, quæ Corcyræi viro Corinthio tribuere de more tenebantur in suis sacris, intelligo fuisse ea ipsa, quibus Græci heroicæ ætatis et posteræ, ut videtur, sacra auspicabantur. Faciebant igitur, sacra auspicantes, ea quæ ipsam immolationem antecedebant; id est, χέρνιβα, οὐλοχύτην, τριχοτομίαν, σπονδίν. Erat enim is honor præcipuus viris principibus, qui aderant, habitus, ut sacra hæc ministeria per eos facerent. Hæc igitur totius loci sententia est; “neque enim in solennitatibus communibus solita munia (id est, πρ̧οεδρ̧ίαν, ἱερξια, et sacrorum præfecturam) Corinthiis tribuebant, nec viro Corinthio in suis sacris χέρ̧νιβα, οὐλοχύτην, τρ̧ιχοτομίαν, et σπονδήν.” Goeller.]

[“And more strongly,” c.]

By Homer this isle is called Phæacia.

[To Apollonia, “being a colony of the Corinthians.”]

[κατ’ ἐπήρειαν: “out of malice;” that is, out of malice to the Epidamnians, not from a desire to gratify the exiles. Goeller.]