The English Works of Thomas Hobbes (1839) 2 vols. - Vol. 8 (61 page)

[These “three years” occasion some disputing. Those that assume, that by τρία ἔτη is meant the time next after the defeat in Sicily, observe that from that time to the surrender of Athens to Lysander, was
ten
years. As however from Cyrus assuming the government of Asia minor (A.C. 407), to the surrender of Athens (404), was just three years; Arnold’s conclusion seems the more natural, that the period here meant is that during which Athens had to contend with the whole power of Greece, supported more effectually than before by the money of Persia.]

[“Such superabundant means had Pericles at that time, whereby he could, as he foresaw, with the utmost ease have gotten the better of the Peloponnesians alone in this war.” Goeller, Arnold. τὴν πόλιν, is omitted by the recent editors.]

[“In his private capacity”.]

[“Where was the Athenian army, besieging it”. The remaining words have been omitted by Bekker and the rest.]

[The city, “in a measure his own”. Goeller.]

A vile act of Sadocus, to gratify the Athenians because they had made him free of their city.

[“Even before this present matter.” This event of the death of Nicolaus and Aneristus, is related by Herodotus, vii. 137. The fact mentioned by him, of Aneristus running down at sea the fishermen of Tiryns, may perhaps be one of the acts of the Lacedæmonians alluded to below.]

ὅλκαδες, ships of the round form of building: for the use of merchants, not for the use of war, as were galleys and other vessels of the long form of building. [ὅλκας, from ἕλκω
to draw,
and thence
to weigh,
means a ship of burthen. It has nothing to do with the form. See ch. 97, note.]

[Ambracia is one of the many colonies founded by Corinth along the coast of the Ionian sea: comprising, besides this town, Molycreium, Chalcis in Ætolia, Solium in Acarnania, Anactorium, Leucas, Apollonia, and Corcyra. Her earliest colony of all, was Syracuse in Sicily. Mueller observes, that of the two harbours of Corinth, Lechæum in the Crisæan, and Cenchreæ in the Saronic gulf, all its colonies went out from its western port: and it was not till after the loss of her maritime dominion in these seas, which had taken place before the Persian war, and originated perhaps in the early separation of Corcyra, that she founded Potidæa on the opposite side of Greece. The constitution of Ambracia was at this time democratical: the people having seized on the sovereign power in an insurrection against Periander, occasioned by an insulting question addressed by him to his minion. See Aristot. Pol. v. 10. They were the most warlike people of that country: see iii. 68.]

[“
But
the rest
are still
” c.]

[“And both together calling in the Athenians, who sent them Phormio as their general, and thirty galleys, on his arrival they take Argos by assault and make slaves of the Ambraciotes: and the Amphilochians and Acarnanians settled Argos in common.” All this was their doing, not Phormio’s.]

[Who “departing from Naupactus” guarded, c. At this town, the name of which implies
shipbuilding,
the Heracleidæ are said to have built the rafts, on which they sailed to Antirrhium, and thence passed over the straits to Rhium. Muell. Dor. i. 3.]

[To binder the Peloponnesian pirates, “departing thence” (from Caria and Lycia), from molesting c.]

[“With one
himation
”: a garment sometimes called χλαῖνα, and proper to the men: but also worn by the Doric women. See i. 6, note.]

[“Independent”: that is, of Thebes in particular, which always claimed supremacy over Platæa. See iii. 61.]

[The Platæans here attest, the gods called to witness the oath when made: their own local gods, the inhabitants and protectors of Platæis: and the θεοὶ πατρῷοι of the Lacedæmonians. In general, θεοὶ πατρῷοι are gods progenitors of some race or family. Thus the Athenians called themselves γενῆται Απολλῶνος πατρῴου, “the
gens
of their ancestor Apollo”: because Ion, the fabulous ancestor of the Ionians, was the son of Apollo. Venus, addressed by Lucretius and Ovid as “Æneadum genitrix”, was a Dea patria of the Romans, and “Romanæ dominationis auctor”. And Lucian (Scytha, 4.) makes Anacharsis the Scythian, swear “by Acinaces and Zamolxis, our ancestral gods”: which is as much as to say, that the Scythians were the progeny of their scimitar, and a slave made by them into a god. But Apollo, though the national and peculiar god of the Dorians, was no θεὸς πατρῷος to them: because Ægimius, the founder of their race, was not descended from Apollo. But Hercules, and therefore Jupiter, would be ancestral gods of the Heracleidæ.]

[“Neither side in the way of war. And this will satisfy us”.]

[Lest the Athenians coming “should not permit them (to remain neutral): or that the Thebans,
as
comprehended” c. Göll.]

[No “alteration”. The Platæans, pressed by the Thebans, offered themselves (A.C.520) to Cleomenes, king of Sparta: who told them, the Lacedæmonians were too far off to aid them in case of invasion, and bade them go to the Athenians; intending to embroil the latter with the Thebans. The Platæans thereupon sat down as suppliants at the altar of the twelve gods, whereat the Athenians were sacrificing, and gave themselves to the Athenians. Herod. vi. 108. This is the league here appealed to.]

[“Whosoever
possess
the land Platæis.” Plura loca scriptorum veterum, in quibus urbes vel regiones ἔχειν dicuntur Dii, in quorum tutela eæ sunt, lege apud Spanheim. hymn. ad Pallad. Duk.]

[“Against the
city.
”]

[“They built up the mound on both sides, by placing against them a wooden frame–work to serve for walls, and keep the earth from falling much away”. ϕορμηδὸν, a frame like mat–work, the timbers crossing each other at right angles. See iv. 48. The palisade was made with δένδρ̧εσιν,
fruit–trees;
which grow in in the plain. The frame was made with
timber trees,
ξύλα; which there grow only on the tops of the hills. Arnold.]

[This is the Scholiast’s sense of ξεναγοὶ. But all seem agreed that it means here, “Lacedæmonian commanders of the contingents of the several allied states.” See Muell. Dor. iii. 12, Hermann, Antiq. § 34. In fact, what mercenaries had the Lacedæmonians, or any of their allies, at this time? ξυνεϕεστῶτες means “joined in that command with the officers of each state”: Goeller.]

[“The mound
was raised
”.]

[Hides,
both raw and dressed.
]

[That the mound was not built close to the wall, appears from ch. 77; where the interval between the two is said to be filled with faggots. But its sides must have been somewhat inclined, in order to resist the pressure outwards. So that the foot of the mound extended to the wall.]

[When they found it out, “ramming clay into cases of wattled reeds, they cast them into the hole, that it might not moulder and be carried away like the earth.”]

[“From the
low
(or, city) wall.]

[“And shook down a considerable part of it.” Goeller]

[“Seeing their engines availed not, and that a wall was raised against their mound, and thinking it impossible to take the city under present difficulties, began preparing to enclose it with a wall.” Valla.]

[“They cast them from the mound first into the space between it and the wall; which by so many hands being quickly filled, they heaped them up in the rest of the city also, as far as ever they could reach from the height of the mound.”]

[“For within, they could not get near a grat part of the city”: or, “there was a large part of the city, within which they could not approach. And had the wind c.
But,
as it is reported, there fell at this time much rain” c.]

[These words, τὸ δὲ λοιπὸν ἀϕέντες, “and dismissing the rest,” are considered doubtful, and included in brackets, by Bekker and the rest. They would hardly expose a part of their forces with the unfinished wall to an attack of the Athenians. Poppo.]

[σιτοποιοὶ: “to make their bread.” This office appears to have been assigned to the women amongst the ancient Romans as well as the Greeks. Duker. See Od. xx. 110.]

[One reading is προπεμψάντων. Bekker and the rest, προσπεμψάντων.]

[“Come to an engagement”.]

[Crusis, part of Mygdonia, according to Stephanus Byzantinus: and described by Herodotus, vii. 123, under the name of Crossæa, as part of the coast between the peninsular of Pallene and the head of the gulf of Therma. Arnold.]

[The men of arms of the Chalcideans were overcome by the Athenians:
but
the horsemen of the Chalcideans overcame the horsemen of the Athenians. “Now the Chalcideans had some few targettiers from Crusis; and
just as the battle was over
came to their help others from Olynthus”.]

[“And that the Chalcideans had
not the worst
before”.]

[σκευοϕόροις: the
baggage:
usually rendered by Hobbes, “the carriages”.]

[The regular term of this command at Sparta, at least a few years later, was one year. See viii. 20, 25. It was an office of great power and dignity, and is spoken of by Aristotle as a sort of second royalty. Pol. ii. 7. Arnold.]

[“But were led by Photyus and Nicanor, of the race which exclusively had the government, with the command for a year”. The ἀρχικὸν γένος is exemplified in the Heracleidæ at Sparta, the Alcmæonidæ at Athens in the time of the aristocracy, the Bacchidæ at Corinth, c. Arnold.]

[“Arrived
too late
”.]

[“They
rifled
Limnæa c”.]

[αὐτοβοεὶ:
at the first onset
always rendered by Hobbes, “by their clamour”.]

[Aware “of their approach”.]

[“From a distance”.]

[“Without their
armour
”.]

[“In haste”.]

[“And their secretly bringing to (at Patræ) in the night, did not escape the notice of the Athenians”. This was a stratagem of the Corinthians, that they might slip across the gulf when the Athenians had shot too far a–head.]

[διὰ βραχέος: “might
quickly
be out and at hand c.” Swift vessels would be of no use for getting through a narrow passage.]

[“Expected”.]

[“Listened neither to orders nor to the
keleustes
”. It was the duty of the κελευστὴς to sing to the rowers that they might keep time, and to cheer and encourage them in their work (see vii. 70). The Scholiast on Aristoph. Acharn. says, they had also to see that the men baked their bread, and contributed fairly to the mess, and that none of the rations were improperly disposed of. Arnold. ἀναϕέρειν, “to bear up their oars”, probably means “to avoid
catching crabs
”, as the nautical phrase is.]

[“And afterwards disabled all, wheresoever they went”]

[“And Dyme in Achaia”.
In Achaia
is added, to distinguish Dyme from the town in Thrace.]

[“And taken up most c.”]

[“From Dyme and Patræ
to
Cyllene”.]

[See ch. 80.]

[“Sent to Cnemus, to be of his council in the direction of the fleet, Timocrates c”. See v. 63.]

[“For this affair appeared to the Lacedæmonians (the more so, that this was their first essay in fighting at sea) to be much against reason”. Their first trial, that is, with the Athenians: for they had a fleet before this.]

[Who being arrived, “joined with Cnemus in intimating” c.]

[
Now
is an addition: the enmity was of long standing between Athens and the Cydonians, not only as Dorians, but as Æginetans. Long before the great Doric migration, Dorians had found their way from their early settlements at the foot of Olympus to Crete. Ulysses (Od. xix. 174.) describes the ninety cities of Crete as inhabited by natives, Achæans, Cydones, three–tribed Dorians, and Pelasgians. Cydonia itself was built, according to Herodotus, by Samians, that is, by Ionians: who in six years (A.C. 519) were expelled by Æginetans. He relates the origin of the enmity between Ægina and Athens: better explained, perhaps, by the jealousy of two adjacent naval and commercial powers. The difficulty of doubling the promontory of Malea, made Ægina the channel of the trade with Peloponnesus: which on her subjugation betook itself to Cythera (iv. 53). The extent of her trade may be judged of by the fact, that money was first stamped in Ægina (A.C. 749, Müll. Dor. ii. App. ix.): and that until A.C. 369, when superseded by the Athenian, her coin was the standard in Greece, Crete, and Italy. Not long before the invasion of Darius, the Athenians were no match at sea for the Æginetans, and for the purpose of an attack Corinth gave them twenty ships: and they still were beaten. It was not till they could command the navies of their allies (i. 96), that they were able to remove the λήμην τοῦ Πειραιῶς,
the eye–sore of the Peiræus.
The Æginetans were accused by them before the Spartans, of following the example of all the islanders, in offering earth and water, there being no allied fleet to defend them, to Darius: but were adjudged afterwards, nevertheless, to have surpassed all the Grecians in valour at the battle of Salamis. On the morning of that battle, the allies sent to Ægina, the birth–place of the Æacidæ, to invoke the aid of the heros of that family. Herod. iii. 59; v. 82; vi. 49, 89; viii. 64. The dread therefore of a formidable rival in renown as well as in power, was the real cause of the implacable hatred displayed by the Athenians here and in chap. 27.]