CHAPTER LXXVI
πράγματα—‘public affairs, interests’; the whole phrase means that a plot was going on to betray Boeotia.
πράσσειν is perpetually used of political intrigues; it is constructed with the dative, as in ch. 106, 12; ch. 110, 10: with
πρός, as in
i. 128,
πρὸς βασιλέα πράγματα πράσσειν: and even with
ἐς, as in
i. 132,
ἐς τοὺς Εἵλωτας πράσσειν τι.
ἀπό—‘on the part of’:
i. 17,
ἑπράχθη ἀπ᾽ αὐτῶν οὐδὲν ἔργον. As distinguished from
ὺπό, ἀπό denotes the ‘personal origin’ of anything, not the agent. It is found especially with passive verbs of doing and saying (see Shilleto on
i. 17); and in later Greek becomes more and more common with the passive generally.
τὸν κόσμον—cf.
viii. 48,
ἐκ τοῦ παρόντος κόσμου τὴν πόλιν μεταστήσας:
viii. 67,
ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ κόσμου. ὥσπερ οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι—sc.
δημοκρατοῦνται: or perhaps referring to
μετέστησαν or
ἔτρεψαν.
ἐσηγουμένου—‘being the prime mover’: with acc.
iii. 20,
ἐσηγησαμένου τὴν πεῖραν: cf.
vi. 90,
περὶ ὡν ἐμοὶ ἐσηγητέον: so generally of bringing forward proposals and the like, as in
vii. 73.
αὐτοῖς—either=
πρὀς αὑτούς ‘with them’, sc. the Athenians, or ethical dat. referring to both sides, ‘these were their schemes’. I have adopted Classen's punctuation, as
τάδε refers to what follows; otherwise we should have
ταῦτα as in line 22.
Σίφας μέν—the three points selected would command three several sides of Boeotia; Siphae was on the south coast, Chaeronea on the north-west frontier, and Delium on the eastern coast.
Μινύειον—
Hom. Il. ii. 511,
οἳ δ᾽ Ἀσπληδόν᾽ ἔναιον ἰδ᾽ Ὀρχομενὸν Μινύειον:
Theocr. xvi. 104. (
Χάριτες)
Μινύειον Ὀρχομενὸν φιλέοισαι: cf.
Pind. Ol. xiv. 4. It was the capital of the ancient clan of the Minyae; see Class. Dict. There was another Orchomenos in Arcadia.
ξυντελεῖ—‘belongs to, is dependent on’. ‘The Boeotian confederacy consisted of a number of free and sovereign states, each of which elected its Boeotarch, or member of the supreme executive government of Boeotia. The sovereign states had each a number of smaller states subject to their authority; as Chaeronea was dependent on Orchomenos; Leuctra and Siphae on Thespiae; Acraephia, Glisas, Therapne, and others, on Thebes. These smaller states were called
ξύμμοροι, or
ξυντελεῖς, to the larger ones; and were obliged to furnish troops and money, to make up the contingent of the state to which they belonged, to the general confederacy of Boeotia’ (Arnold).
ἐνεδίδοσαν—‘were to give up’; the imperfect denoting what was intended by the conspirators: cf. ch. 7, 5,
προδιδομένην: for
ἐνδίδωμι see ch. 66, 17 note.
ἔσχατον—for neut. cf.
i. 10,
Μυκῆναι μικρὸν ἦν:
i. 63, (
Ὄλυνθος)
ἐστὶ καταφανές:
i. 138,
ἐδόκει (
Λάμψακος)
πολυοινότατον τῶν τότε εἶναι. πρὸς Φανότιδι—‘hard by the district of Phanoteus’, see ch. 89, 12: the city was twenty stades from Chaeronea.
μετεῖχον—‘were in the plot’.
ἔδει—‘the Athenians were to’, sc. according to arrangement: ch. 89, 4:
ii. 84,
νῆες ἃς ἔδει ταύταις ξυμμίξαι. Δήλιον— cf.
Liv. xxxv. 51, templum est Apollinis Delium imminens mari: quinque milia passuum ab Tanagra abest. Minus quatuor milium inde in proxima Euboeae est mari traiectus. For
καταλαβεῖν see note on ch. 1, 4.
ξυμβοηθήσωσιν—of joint action. The simple verb is to be understood in the following clause with
ἕκαστοι: cf.
ii. 81,
οὔτε ξυνεβοήθουν, ἐφύλασσόν τε τὰ αὑτῶν ἕκαστοι.
ῥᾳδίως—this word affects the whole sentence generally, implying that the conspirators anticipated no difficulty in carrying out their plans; it belongs however more particularly to
καταστήσειν, line 33.
νεωτερίζοιτο—the reading adopted by almost all editors for
νεωτερίζοι, which is found in most manuscripts. Arnold thinks that
ἡ πεῖρα might be the nominative to
νεωτερίζοι ‘would effect a change’, or else that the verb might be neuter in sense. It is however invariably transitive in Thuc. For the pass. cf. ch. 41, 14.
ἑκάστοις—the disaffected in different places, who would find a refuge at hand (
διὰ βραχέος) when the three points were occupied by the Athenians. For
ἀποστροφῆς cf.
viii. 75,
ἀποστροφὴ σωτηρίας. The Athenians intended to carry out the system of establishing fortified positions in the enemy's territory, which had already proved so successful in annoying the Lacedaemonians.
κατὰ χώραν—cf. ch. 14, 32.
προσιόντων—‘joining’: cf. ch. 85, 22,
ἐμοὶ πρόσεισι. ἐς τὸ ἐπιτηδειον—cf. ch. 54, 15,
ἐπιτηδειότερον: ch. 60, 10,
ἐς τὸ ξυμφέρον καθἰστανται.
