Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/430

 408 HISTORY OF GREECE. the beginning of December. He reached Argilus in the middle of the night, where the leaders at once admitted him, proclaiming their revolt from Athens. With their aid and guidance, he then hastened forward without delay to the bridge across the Stry- mon, which he reached before break of day. 1 It was guarded only by a feeble piquet, the town of Amphipolis itself being situated on the hill at some little distance higher up the river ; ? so that Brasidas, preceded by the Argilian conspirators, surprised and overpowered the guard without difficulty. Thus master of this important communication, he crossed with his army forth- with into the territory of Amphipolis, where his arrival spread the utmost dismay and terror. The governor Eukles, the magis- trates, and the citizens, were all found wholly unprepared : the lands belonging to the city were occupied by residents, with their families and property around them, calculating upon undisturbed security, as if there had been no enemy within reach. Such of these as were close to the city succeeded in running thither with their families, though leaving their property exposed, but the more distant became in person as well as in property at the mercy of the invader. Even within the. town, filled with the 1 Thucyd. iv, 104. KaTlarijaav rbv orparbv irpb tw err: TTJV yifyvpav Tii iroTa/iov. Bekker's reading of irpb ew appears to me preferable to Trpoou. 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 EKE'IV?/ rrj VVKT'L. Kadelro TEI^TJ uarcEp vvv, QvTiaicj) 6s rif fipaxeca KaftEiaT7iK.fi, etc. Dr. Arnold, with Dobree, Poppo, and most of the commentators, trans lates these words : " The town (of Amphipolis) is farther off (from Argilus) than the passage of the river." But this must be of course true, nd 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 -j$C diapaasuf as governed by u-e^et ar d not by irleov, " the city is at some distance from the crossing :'' and (he objection which Poppo makes against them, that TTASOV must necessarily imply a comparison with some- thing, cannot be sustained: for Thucydides often uses in irl.eiovoe (iv, 103; viii, 88), as precisely identical with EK noXkov (i, 68 ; iv, 67 ; v, 69) ; also In the following chapter, on occasion of the battle of Amphipolis, som? farther remarks will be found on the locality.
 * Thucyd. iv, 104. 'A^e^et .EOV T>^ dtafiaaeus, nal ov