This is a very difficult passage. Hermann has conjectured, and Poppo, Göller, and Dr. Arnold all approve, the reading παρὰ Σαλυνθίου instead of the two last words of this sentence. The passage might certainly be construed with this emendation, though there would still be an awkwardness in the position of the relative οἵπερ with regard to its antecedent, and in the position of the particle καὶ, which ought then properly to come after μετανέστησαν, and not before it. The sentence would then mean, that “the Ambrakiots and Peloponnesians, who had originally taken refuge with Salynthius, had moved away from his territory to Œniadæ,” from which place they were now to enjoy safe departure.
I think, however, that the sentence would construe equally well, or at least with no greater awkwardness, without any conjectural alteration of the text, if we suppose Οἰνιαδῶν to be not merely the name of the place, but the name of the inhabitants: and the word seems to be used in this double sense (Thucyd. ii, 100). As the word is already in the patronymic form, it would be difficult to deduce from it a new nomen gentile. Several of the Attic demes, which are in the patronymic form, present this same double meaning. If this supposition be admitted, the sentence will mean, that “safe retreat was granted to Ambrakiots and Peloponnesians from the Œniade, who also—καὶ, that is, they as well as the Ambrakiots and Peloponnesians—went up to the territory of Salynthius.” These Œniadæ were enemies of the general body of Akarnanians (ii, 100), and they may well have gone thither to help in extricating the fugitive Ambrakiots and Peloponnesians.
[499] Thucyd. iii, 114.
[500] Thucyd. iii, 114. Τὰ δὲ νῦν ἀνακείμενα ἐν τοῖς Ἀττικοῖς ἱεροῖς Δημοσθένει ἐξῃρέθησαν, τριακόσιαι πανοπλίαι, καὶ ἄγων αὐτὰς κατέπλευσε. Καὶ ἐγένετο ἅμα αὐτῷ μετὰ τὴν ἐκ τῆς Αἰτωλίας ξυμφορὰν ἀπὸ ταύτης τῆς πράξεως ἀδεεστέρα ἡ κάθοδος.
[501] Thucyd. iii, 104; Plutarch, Nikias, c. 3, 4; Diodor. xii, 58.
[502] Thucyd. iv, 2, 3.
[503] Thucyd. i, 140; ii, 11.
[504] Thucyd. iv, 26.
[505] Topography of Sphakteria and Pylus. The description given by Thucydidês, of the memorable incidents in or near Pylus and Sphakteria, is perfectly clear, intelligible, and consistent with itself, as to topography. But when we consult the topography of the scene as it stands now, we find various circumstances which cannot possibly be reconciled with Thucydidês. Both Colonel Leake (Travels in the Morea, vol. i, pp. 402-415) and Dr. Arnold (Appendix to the second and third volume of his Thucydidês, p. 444) have given plans of the coast, accompanied with valuable remarks.
The main discrepancy, between the statement of Thucydidês and the present state of the coast, is to be found in the breadth of the two channels between Sphakteria and the mainland. The southern entrance into the bay of Navarino is now between thirteen hundred and fourteen hundred yards, with a depth of water varying from five, seven, twenty-eight, thirty-three fathoms; whereas Thucydidês states it as being only a breadth adequate to admit eight or nine triremes abreast. The northern entrance is about one hundred and fifty yards in width, with a shoal or bar of sand lying across it on which there are not more than eighteen inches of water: Thucydidês tells us that it afforded room for no more than two triremes, and his narrative implies a much greater depth of water, so as to make the entrance for triremes perfectly unobstructed.