Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/437

 CONDUCT OF THUCYDIDES. 415 especially to Amphipolis. 1 Both of them were jointly and sev- erally responsible for the proper defence of Amphipolis, with the Athenian empire and interests in that quarter, such nomination of two or more officers, coordinate and jointly responsible, being the usual habit of Athens, wherever the scale or the area of military operations was considerable, instead of naming one supreme responsible commander, with subordinate officers acting under him and responsible to him. If, then, Thucydides " was stationed at Thasos," to use the phrase of Dr. Thirlwall, this was because he chose to station himself there, in the exercise of his own discretion. Accordingly, the question which we have to put is, not whether Thucydides did all that could be done, after he received the alarming express at Thasos, which is the part of the case that he sets prominently before us, but whether he and Eukles jointly took the best general measures for the security of the Athenian empire in Thrace ; especially for Amphipolis, the first jewel of her empire. They suffer Athens to be robbed of that jewel, and how ? Had they a difficult position to defend ? Were they 1 Thucyd iv, 104. Ol d' ivavTioi role irpotiiSovai, (that is, at Amphipolis) Kparovvref T$ K?i7f&i wore pj avriKa ruf Trv/laf uvoiyea&ai, irenirovai perii Ev/cAeovf TOV GTpaTTjyov, of iic ruv 'A&ijvaiuv Trapr/v aiirolf tyvka% rov %upiov, enl TOV Irepov aTparriybv TUV tirl QpfKrjf, QOVKV- didrjv rdv 'O/lopov, of Tads gwE-ypai/j ev, bvra irepl Qdaov (Ian 6" ij vrjaof, Hapiuv unoc/cia, uirex ovaa T V 'A/i^iTro/leuf f]/j.iaeiaf qpepaf pdhiara TT^OVV) xeAeiovref afyiai /3oT)$Eiv. Here Thucydides describes himself as " the other general along with Eukles, of the region of or towards Thrace." There cannot be a clearer designation of the extensive range of his functions and duties. I adopt here the reading T&V fal Qppicr]?, the genitive case of the well- known Thucydidean phrase ra eiri 0/3^/CT/f, in preference to TOV em Gpa/cj/f ; which would mean in substance the same thing, though not so precisely, nor so suitably to the usual manner of the historian. Bloomfield, Bekker, and Goller have all introduced TUV into the text, on the authority of various MSS.: Poppo and Dr. Arnold also both express a preference for it, though they still leave rbv in the text. Moreover, the words of Thucydides himself, in the passage where h mentions his own long exile, plainly prove that he was sent out as general, not to Thasos, but to Amphipolis: (v, 26) nal S-vvepri pot cjieiiyeiv r^v k^av- tov Tij eiKooi fiera TTJV if 'A/^^tTroAiv aTparrjyiav, etc.