[654] Thucyd. iv, 85, 86, 87.
[655] Thucyd. iv, 108.
[656] Thucyd. iv, 88. Οἱ δὲ Ἀκάνθιοι, πολλῶν λεχθέντων πρότερον ἐπ᾽ ἀμφότερα, κρύφα διαψηφισάμενοι, διά τε τὸ ἐπαγωγὰ εἰπεῖν τὸν Βρασίδαν καὶ περὶ τοῦ καρποῦ φόβῳ, ἔγνωσαν οἱ πλείους ἀφίστασθαι Ἀθηναίων.
[657] Thucyd. iv, 88; Diodor. xii, 67.
[658] Thucyd. iv, 103. μάλιστα δὲ οἱ Ἀργίλιοι, ἐγγύς τε προσοικοῦντες καὶ ἀεί ποτε τοῖς Ἀθηναίοις ὄντες ὕποπτοι καὶ ἐπιβουλεύοντες τῷ χωρίῳ (Amphipolis).
[659] Thucyd. iv, 104. Κατέστησαν τὸν στρατὸν πρὸ ἕω ἐπὶ τὴν γέφυραν τοῦ ποταμοῦ.
Bekker’s reading of πρὸ ἕω appears to me preferable to πρόσω. The latter word really adds nothing to the meaning; whereas the fact that Brasidas got over the river before daylight is one both new and material: it is not necessarily implied in the previous words ἐκείνῃ τῇ νυκτί.
[660] Thucyd. iv, 104. Ἀπέχει δὲ τὸ πόλισμα πλέον τῆς διαβάσεως, καὶ οὐ καθεῖτο τείχη ὥσπερ νῦν, φυλακὴ δέ τις βραχεῖα καθειστήκει, etc.
Dr. Arnold, with Dobree, Poppo, and most of the commentators, translates these words: “The town (of Amphipolis) is farther off (from Argilus) than the passage of the river.” But this must be of course true, and conveys no new information, seeing that Brasidas had to cross the river to reach the town. Smith and Bloomfield are right, I think, in considering τῆς διαβάσεως as governed by ἀπέχει and not by πλέον,—“the city is at some distance from the crossing:” and the objection which Poppo makes against them, that πλέον must necessarily imply a comparison with something, cannot be sustained: for Thucydidês often uses ἐκ πλείονος (iv, 103; viii, 83), as precisely identical with ἐκ πολλοῦ (i, 68; iv, 67; v, 69); also περὶ πλείονος.
In the following chapter, on occasion of the battle of Amphipolis, some farther remarks will be found on the locality.