Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/451

 PACIFIC DISPOSITIONS. 429 Mid the recovery of the prisoners ; their pacific dispositions being especially instigated by king Pleistoanax, whose peculiar The two words here discussed arc 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 Goller; while it brings out a general sense, making the whole sentence, of which these two words form a part, distinct and instructive. The substan- tive, which would be understood along with avmro/la, would be TU npiy- para: or perhaps ra eiirt^^uara, borrowed from the verb evrv^ei, which immediately precedes. In the latter part of the sentence, I think that ro?f Je refers to the same subject as uvn-rra^a : in fact, uirb rov laov afivv6fj.Evoi is only a fuller expression of the same general idea as avrnra/la. 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." The sense here brought out is distinct and rational ; and I think it lies fairly in the words. Thucydides does not intend to represent the Lacedae- monians as feeling, that if Brasidas should really gain more than he had gained already, such further acquisition would be a disadvantage to them, nd prevent them from recovering their captives. lie represents them as preferring the certainty of those acquisitions which Brasidas had already nade, to the chance and hazard of his aiming at greater ; which could not bo done without endangering that which was now secure, and not only secure, but sufficient, if properly managed, to procure the restoration of the captives. Poppo refers rote <5e to the Athenians : Goller refers it to the remaining Spartan military force, apart from the captives who were detained at Athens. The latter reference seems to me inadmissible, for Tolf <5e must signify some persons or things which have been before specified or indi- cated ; and that which Goller supposes it to mean has not been before indi cated. To refer it to the Athenians, with Poppo and Haack, in his second edition, we should have to look a great way back for the subject, and there is, moreover, a difficulty in construing ufj.vv6fj.evoi with the dative case. Otherwise, this reference would be- admissible ; though I think it better to refer TOIS tie to the same subject as uvrinaXa. In the phrase Ktvdvv evecv, or Kivdwevaeiv, for there seems no sufficient reason why this old reading should be altered, ical KpaTr/aeiv, the particle /cat has a disjunctive sense, of which there are analogous examples ; see Kiihner, Griechischc Gmmmatik, sect. 726, signifying, substantially, the same as $ : and exam