The English Works of Thomas Hobbes (1839) 2 vols. - Vol. 8 (56 page)

[“The Lacedæmonians or their allies.”]

[
They
said. Themistocles is speaking in the name of the Athenians. “They said, they were bold to decide upon it without them: and that in whatever on the other hand they thought fit to advise of with them, they showed themselves in counsel behind no one.”]

[παρασκευῆς: apparatus, or
means of
strength: “for that they could not, if they were not to be on equal terms in point of apparatus, advise”, c. No single word will express the exact sense in English.]

[“For they had not, forsooth, sent their ambassadors to forbid, but to offer advice for the common good. Moreover they were just at that time specially well affected to them”, c.]

[“Even at this day.”]

The walls of Athens made of chapels and tombs. Corn. Nepos, in Vita Themistoclis.

This was before a village, and now made the Athenian arsenal.

[“Considering that the spot was both convenient, having three natural havens, and would also aid them, when they were become seamen, to obtain power”. Popp. Göll. These havens were called Cantharon, Aphrodision, and Zea.]

[“For
the
stones (for building the wall) were carried by two carts, that used to pass each other on the wall”. Arnold.]

[The meaning here of ἐγγώνιοι, in itself simply “angular”, is decided by the fact that the wall is found at the present day to be built of square stones.]

[“That if, therefore, they were ever forced by land”.]

Constantinople.

[“And all” who had newly, c.]

The Ionians were all colonies of the people of Athens.

[“Convicted” of some, c.]

[“But not the least matter laid to his charge was Medising”, the which, c.]

[ϕόρος. Quia ϕόρος Græcis nomen grave et odiosum erat, pro eo deinde cœpit dici σύνταξις. Duk.]

86,250
l.
sterling. [If Boeckh has correctly estimated the Attic drachma at 5 gros 6 pfenninge, formulæ imperialis, the drachme would be equal to 8¼
d.
and the talent to 206
l.
5
s.
sterling; and four hundred and sixty talents would therefore be equal to 94,875
l.
That is, calculating the thaler at thirty–six pence English.]

Not at Athens, because they would not seem to challenge a propriety in that money.

[“Now using their authority at first, c.; by war and administration c. they came to such great power. And I have written those things and made this digression in the history, because all writers before me have pretermitted c., (for they have either c.); and Hellanicus who has touched them, has mentioned them but briefly c. Moreover they carry, c.” The history of Hellanicus is called ἡ ᾈτθίς.]

[There was one Eion in Chalcis in Thrace, a colony of the Mendæans, and another on the Strymon, a colony of the Athenians.]

[“Sold them as slaves”.]

[“In violation of the established law”: the law, that is, that all Greeks were free. Schol. Goell.]

[“And making default (when it so happened) in sending their contingent of military.” This is Goeller’s interpretation of λειποστράτιον: ἀστρατεία, desertion of military duty. The latter is said of individuals; the former, of states.]

[“For through this dread of military service, the most c. taxed themselves in money instead of sending their quota of ships: whereby the Athenian navy was increased with the funds contributed by the allies, and they, whenever they revolted, were without either means
or experience
to make war.” Bekker c., ἄπειροι: Valla, Portus, Hobbes, ἄποροι.]

[“Under the conduct of Cimon the son of Miltiades: and took and destroyed triremes of the Phœnicians, in all to the number of two hundred”.]

[“About the places of trade in the opposite part of Thrace, and the mines which they possessed”. The Thasians had some gold mines at Scapte Hyle in Thrace; but there were also mines in Thasos itself, particularly those found by the Phœnicians, between Ænyra and Cœnyra. See Herod. vi. 46, 47.]

[They were “all destroyed at Drabescus by the Thracians”. This is according to Poppo’s conjecture of ξύμπαντες for ξυμπάντων. There is the authority of Diodorus, and of Thucydides himself (iv. 102.), for the fact that these ten thousand settlers were
all
destroyed. Valla has: “omnes sunt perempti.”]

The Lacedæmonians employed the captives taken in war, and their posterity, in husbandry and other servile works; which was all done by this kind of men. And they were called by them Helots, because the first of them so employed were captives of the town of Helos in Laconia. [See iv. 80.]

[τῶν περιοίκων. The περίοικοι were the old Achaian inhabitants of Laconia, who after the Dorian conquest submitted to the invaders on certain conditions, by which they retained their private rights of citizenship, and also the right of voting in the public assembly. These rights however were forfeited after an unsuccessful attempt to shake off the Dorian yoke; and from henceforward they were treated as subjects rather than citizens; being eligible indeed to military commands, but with no voice in the public assembly, and of course being disqualified for the offices of Ephor or senator. They remained in this dependent condition down to the time of Augustus Cæsar, who on their making an appeal to his interference gave them the full enjoyment of civil rights, and deprived the Spartans of their exclusive ascendancy. Arnold.]

[“At
that
so well known time”.]

[“Against these
then
had the Lacedæmonians, c.:
and
the Thasians”, c. This, commonly called the third Messenian war, by occupying the Lacedæmonians, caused the surrender of the Thasians.]

[They were sent for principally for their reputation in mural assaults. “But on the siege being protracted, there appeared in them a deficiency of this skill: for else they had taken the place by assault.” Arnold, Goeller.]

The Lacedæmonians were Dorians, the Athenians Ionians.

[Upon the “fairer reason”.]

[“Immediately upon their return”.]

[They “already” bore, c.]

[“A Libyan, king of the Libyans.” Hobbes throughout renders Λίβυς by “Africa”, as often as the word occurs.]

[“After this the Peloponnesians sent over into Ægina three hundred men of arms, c.: and the Corinthians seized on the heights of Geraneia, and descended into the Megarid.” So Bekker and the rest. The seizing of these heights would naturally be the act of the party that was descending into the Megarid: lying immediately in their passage, and essential for the security of their retreat. Portus and Valla are both with Hobbes. “With other forces”, is not in the Greek.]

[The common reading was ἐκβοήσαντες, βοὴ being often used in the sense of pugna, auxilium. Bekker and the rest have ἐκβοηθήσαντες; that is, “sallying out of Megara to oppose them”. See iii. 18, where ἐκβοηθεία is used in the sense of “sallying out”.]

[“Shut them in with their heavy–armed men in front.”]

[But “the bulk” of the army.]

The Dorians, the mother nation of the Lacedæmonians, inhabited a little country on the north side of Phocis, called Doris, and Tetrapolis, from the four cities it contained; of which those here mentioned were three, and the fourth was Pindus. [Goeller observes: “vulgo de tetrapoli Dorica loquuntur, sed quartam urbem Pindum ignorant cum Thucydide Diodorus, Conon aliique.” Hermann names Acyphas as the fourth town; and says that others make out six instead of four. Gr. Antiq. § 16. 7.]

[“The Athenian fleet had already sailed round, and were ready to hinder them”.]

[“And at that very time they saw they were intending to stop them this way too”.]

[“And another thing, certain Athenians were privily inviting them”; hoping, c.]

[“And they marched upon them (the Lacedæmonians) thinking them to be at a loss by which way they should pass; and also in some measure from suspicion of an intended dissolution of the democracy”.]

[“According to the terms of their alliance”.]

[“Under the conduct of Tolmides the son of Tolmæus”.]

A city of Corinthians, near the river Evenus in Ætolia.

[“In the meanwhile the Athenians in Egypt with their allies were still persevering: and saw, c. For at first”, c.]

[Megabazus returned with the money, c.: “but sends Megabyzus the son of Zopyrus”, c. So Bekker and the rest.]

[Prosopitis, an island in the Delta. See Herod. ii. 41.]

[ὁι ἕλειοι; “qui in palustribus (βουκολίοις) habitabant, inter Taniticum et Pelusiacum ostia Nili. Vocatur quoque inferior Ægypti pars ἕλος, inclusa Bolbitino et Sebennytico ostiis. Quæ regio insularis hoc loco intelligenda videtur.” Gottleber.]

[Taking them
as
their confederates. Goeller.]

Famous for the battle between Jul. Cæsar and Cn. Pompeius.

[“So far as was consistent with not straying far from where the arms were piled”: that is, from the camp.]

[“To Sicyon”.]

[“Marched to Œniadæ”.]

[The words “after
this
”, which would fix the date of this treaty, about which there are many different opinions, are wanting in the Greek.]

[“In the army”, not in the Greek.]

[And when “off Salamis”, c. Bekker and the rest omit the “Cyprians”.]

[Because the noble families of the Delphians were of Dorian origin. Arnold. Hermann observes, that, as belonging to their race, this oracle had at all times exercised a peculiar influence over the internal concerns of the Dorians; hence the sanction given by it to the constitution of Lycurgus. Gr. Antiq. §23.]

[“And having taken Chæroneia, they departed, leaving a garrison in it”. So Bekker and the rest, leaving out the remainder.]

[Κορωνεία. The field of battle at Chæroneia is so connected with the plain of Coroneia, that the scene of more than one battle is assigned, sometimes to the one, sometimes to the other. Mueller. Amongst others that fell at this battle, was Clinias, the father of Alcibiades.]

[By ὁι ἄλλοι παντές: “and all the rest,” are meant the Locrian exiles, and some also from Phocis; Phocis and Locris, as well as Bœotia, being lost to the Athenians by the battle of Coronea; which revolution, the commons of Phocis being well–affected to Athens (iii. 95), could be effected only by the return of the exiles and consequent ascendency of the aristocratical party. Arnold.]

[“They invaded and wasted Attica as far as Eleusis and the Thriasian plain”. Θριάσιον πεδίον campus erat, ut nonnullis videtur, inter Eleusinem, Eleutheras, Castiam, Rhetos, et Daphnen monasterium. Goeller.]

[“Under the conduct of Pericles.”]

[Opinions differ as to the meaning of Ἀχαΐα. Arnold understands by it the country of that name. The connexion, he says, between Athens and the Achaians was natural: the latter being alienated from Lacedæmon by difference of race as well as of government. Their ancestors had been expelled from Laconia and Argolis by the Dorians: and the twelve states of Achaia were all democratical in their government. And he supports his opinion by that of Thirlwall. Goeller is persuaded that it is the name of some unknown town: referring to iv. 21, where Cleon requires Lacedæmon to restore “Nisæa, Pegæ, Trœzene, and Achaia”; an insane demand, if he meant the province of Achaia. Od. Mueller understands by it some small town in Megaris.]

[The garrison was left in Samos, not over the hostages.]

[παρὰ σϕίσιν: in Samos.]

[“At the island of Tragia”.]

[That is, by a wall on three sides, and the ships on the fourth.]

[ϛρ̧ατοπέδῳ. The naval camp pitched on the sea–shore, the constant accompaniment of all naval expeditions of the Greeks. Their ships being totally unprovided with accommodation for eating or sleeping on board, they had always a camp with a regular market established on shore, where the men took their meals and slept. The ships were drawn up on the beach in front of this camp, and protected against surprise by a certain number of ships which lay afloat off the camp, ready manned, as a guard. Sometimes a stockade was made in the sea in front of the ships so drawn up, or a palisade or a similar fortification was raised on the shore. These precautions the Athenians appear on this occasion to have neglected. Arnold.]

[And overcame “those that were launched to meet them”.]

Not the writer of the history.

[μεταξὺ, “intervenient”, omitted by Bekker and the rest.]

[διέγνωστο: “it
had
already been decreed, c.: but still they sent to Delphi to inquire”, c.]