[684] Thucyd. iv, 117. Τοὺς γὰρ δὴ ἄνδρας περὶ πλέονος ἐποιοῦντο κομίσασθαι, ὡς ἔτι Βρασίδας εὐτύχει· καὶ ἔμελλον, ἐπὶ μεῖζον χωρήσαντος αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀντίπαλα καταστήσαντος, τῶν μὲν στέρεσθαι, τοῖς δ᾽ ἐκ τοῦ ἴσου ἀμυνόμενοι κινδυνεύειν καὶ κρατήσειν.
This is a perplexing passage, and the sense put upon it by the best commentators appears to me unsatisfactory.
Dr. Arnold observes: “The sense required must be something of this sort. If Brasidas were still more successful, the consequence would be that they would lose their men taken at Sphakteria, and after all would run the risk of not being finally victorious.” To the same purpose, substantially Haack, Poppo, Göller, etc. But surely this is a meaning which cannot have been present to the mind of Thucydidês. For how could the fact, of Brasidas being more successful, cause the Lacedæmonians to lose the chance of regaining their prisoners? The larger the acquisitions of Brasidas, the greater chance did the Lacedæmonians stand of getting back their prisoners, because they would have more to give up in exchange for them. And the meaning proposed by the commentators, inadmissible under all circumstances, is still more excluded by the very words immediately preceding in Thucydidês: “The Lacedæmonians were above all things anxious to get back their prisoners, while Brasidas was yet in full success;” (for ὡς with ἔτι must mean substantially the same as ἕως.) It is impossible immediately after this, that he can go on to say: “Yet if Brasidas became still more successful, they would lose the chance of getting the prisoners back.” Bauer and Poppo, who notice this contradiction, profess to solve it by saying, “that if Brasidas pushed his successes farther, the Athenians would be seized with such violence of hatred and indignation, that they would put the prisoners to death.” Poppo supports this by appealing to iv, 41, which passage, however, will be found to carry no proof in the case: and the hypothesis is in itself inadmissible, put up to sustain an inadmissible meaning.
Next, as to the words ἀντίπαλα καταστήσαντος (ἐπὶ μεῖζον χωρήσαντος αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀντίπαλα καταστήσαντος); Göller translates these: “Postquam Brasidas in majus profecisset, et sua arma cum potestate Atheniensium æquasset.” To the same purpose also Haack and Poppo. But if this were the meaning, it would seem to imply, that Brasidas had, as yet, done nothing and gained nothing; that his gains were all to be made during the future. Whereas the fact is distinctly the reverse, as Thucydidês himself has told us in the line preceding: Brasidas had already made immense acquisitions,—so great and serious, that the principal anxiety of the Lacedæmonians was to make use of what he had already gained as a means of getting back their prisoners, before the tide of fortune could turn against him.
Again, the last part of the sentence is considered by Dr. Arnold and other commentators as corrupt; nor is it agreed to what previous subject τοῖς δὲ is intended to refer.
So inadmissible, in my judgment, is the meaning assigned by the commentators to the general passage, that, if no other meaning could be found in the words, I should regard the whole sentence as corrupt in some way or other. But I think another meaning may be found.
I admit that the words ἐπὶ μεῖζον χωρήσαντος αὐτοῦ might signify, “if he should arrive at greater success;” upon the analogy of i, 17, and i, 118, ἐπὶ πλεῖστον ἐχώρησαν δυνάμεως—ἐπὶ μέγα ἐχώρησαν δυνάμεως. But they do not necessarily, nor even naturally, bear this signification. Χωρεῖν ἐπὶ (with accus. case) means to march upon, to aim at, to go at or go for (adopting an English colloquial equivalent), ἐχώρουν ἐπὶ τὴν ἀντικρὺς ἐλευθερίαν (Thucyd. viii, 64). The phrase might be used, whether the person of whom it was affirmed succeeded in his object or not. I conceive that in this place the words mean: “if Brasidas should go at something greater;” if he should aim at, “or march upon, greater objects;” without affirming the point, one way or the other, whether he would attain or miss what he aimed at.
Next, the words ἀντίπαλα καταστήσαντος do not refer, in my judgment, to the future gains of Brasidas, or to their magnitude and comparative avail in negotiation. The words rather mean: “if he should set out in open contest and hostility that which he had already acquired,” (thus exposing it to the chance of being lost), “if he should put himself and his already-acquired gains in battle-front against the enemy.” The meaning would be then substantially the same as καταστήσαντος ἑαυτὸν ἀντίπαλον. The two words here discussed are essentially obscure and elliptical, and every interpretation must proceed by bringing into light those ideas which they imperfectly indicate. Now, the interpretation which I suggest keeps quite as closely to the meaning of the two words as that of Haack and Göller; while it brings out a general sense, making the whole sentence, of which these two words form a part, distinct and instructive. The substantive, which would be understood along with ἀντίπαλα, would be τὰ πράγματα; or perhaps τὰ εὐτυχήματα, borrowed from the verb εὐτύχει, which immediately precedes.
In the latter part of the sentence, I think that τοῖς δὲ refers to the same subject as ἀντίπαλα: in fact, ἀπὸ τοῦ ἴσου ἀμυνόμενοι is only a fuller expression of the same general idea as ἀντίπαλα.
The whole sentence would then be construed thus: “For they were most anxious to recover their captives while Brasidas was yet in good fortune; while they were likely, if he should go at more, and put himself as he now stood into hostile contention, to remain deprived of their captives; and even in regard to their successes, to take the chance of danger or victory in equal conflict.”