[599] Thucyd. iv, 66. Strabo (ix, p. 391) gives eighteen stadia as the distance between Megara and Nisæa; Thucydidês only eight. There appears sufficient reason to prefer the latter: see Reinganum, Das alte Megaris, pp. 121-180.
[600] Thucyd. iv, 68. Ξυνέπεσε γὰρ καὶ τὸν τῶν Ἀθηναίων κήρυκα ἀφ᾽ ἑαυτοῦ γνώμης κηρύξαι, τὸν βουλόμενον ἰέναι Μεγαρέων μετὰ Ἀθηναίων θησόμενον τὰ ὅπλα.
Here we have the phrase τίθεσθαι τὰ ὅπλα employed in a case where Dr. Arnold’s explanation of it would be eminently unsuitable. There could be no thought of piling arms at a critical moment of actual fighting, with result as yet doubtful.
[601] Thucyd. iv, 69.
[602] Thucyd. i, 103; iv, 69. Καὶ οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι, τὰ μακρὰ τείχη ἀποῤῥήξαντες ἀπὸ τῆς τῶν Μεγαρέων πόλεως καὶ τὴν Νίσαιαν παραλαβόντες, τἄλλα παρεσκευάζοντο.
I cannot think, with Poppo and Göller, that the participle ἀποῤῥήξαντες is to be explained as meaning that the Athenians PULLED DOWN the portion of the Long Walls near Megara. This may have been done, but it would be an operation of no great importance; for to pull down a portion of the wall would not bar the access from the city, which it was the object of the Athenians to accomplish. “They broke off” the communication along the road between the Long Walls from the city to Nisæa, by building across or barricading the space between: similar to what is said a little above,—διοικοδομησάμενοι τὸ πρὸς Μεγαρέας, etc. Diodorus (xii, 66) abridges Thucydidês.
[603] Thucyd. iv, 73. εἰ μὲν γὰρ μὴ ὤφθησαν ἐλθόντες (Brasidas with his troops) οὐκ ἂν ἐν τύχῃ γίγνεσθαι σφίσιν, ἀλλὰ σαφῶς ἂν ὥσπερ ἡσσηθέντων στερηθῆναι εὐθὺς τῆς πόλεως.
[604] Thucyd. iv, 71.
[605] Thucyd. iv, 72.
[606] Thucyd. iv, 73.