Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/104

86 30 HISTORY OF GKEECE. defeated in front, they were taken in flank by the Tegeans iu.J Lacedaemonians on the right of Agis's army, and the Athenians KOU kcrlv ovf KM Karairarrj^evTar, TOV HTJ ydi/vai TTJV h/nard- The last words of this sentence present a difficulty which has perplexed nil the commentators, and which none of them have yet satisfactorily cleared up. They all admit that the expressions. TOV, TOV [IT), preceding the infin itive mood as here, signify design or purpose; tve/ia being understood. But none of them can construe the sentence satisfactorily with this meaning : accordingly they here ascribe to the words a different and exceptional mean- ing. See the notes of Poppo, Goller, and Dr. Arnold, in which notes the views of other critics are cited and discussed. Some say that TOV ^ in this place means the same as UOTE IJLTJ : others affirm, that it is identical with dtH TO pr) or with TU /J.T/. " Formula TOV, TOV jur) (say Bauer and Goller), plerumque consilium significat: interdum effectum (i. e. wore fi'rj) ; hie causam indicat (i. e. diH TO /iq, or ru ^T/)." But I agree with Dr. Arnold in thinking that the last of these three alleged mean- ings is wholly unauthorized ; while the second, which is adopted by Dr. Arnold himself, is sustained only by feeble and dubious evidence ; for the passage of Thucydides (ii, 4. TOV ///} iKfyeii-yeiv) may be as well construed, as Poppo's note thereupon suggests, without any such supposed exceptional fiense of the words. Now it seems to me quite possible to construe the words TOU pi Qdijvcu here in their regular and legitimate sense of ev e no. TOV, or consilium. Hut first an error must be cleared up which pervades the view of most of the commentators. They suppose that those Argeians, who are here affirm ed to have been " trodden under foot," were so trodden down by the Licedcc- monians in their advance. But this is in every way improbable. The Lace dsemonians were particularly slow in their motions, regular in their ranks. j.nd backward as to pursuit, qualities which are dwelt upon by Thucydides in regard to this very battle. They were not at all likely to overtake such terrified men as were only anxious to run away : moreover, if they did overtake them, they would spear them, not trample them under foot. To be trampled under foot, though possible enough from the numerous Persian cavalry (Ilerodot. vii, 173; Xenoph. Hellen. iii. 4, 12), is not the treatment which defeated soldiers meet with from victorious hostile infantry in the field, especially Lacedaemonian infantry. But it is precisely the treatment which they meet with, if they be in one of the hinder ranks, from their own panic-stricken comrades in the front rank, who find the enemy closing upon them, and rush back madly to get away from him. Of course it was the Argeians in the front rank who were seized with the most violent panic, and who thus fell back upon their own comrades in the roar ranks, c< i rthrowin^ and t reading them down to secure their own escape. It EC era*