Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/105

87 VICTORY OF AG1S. 87 here incurred serious hazard of being all cut to pieces, bad they not been effectively aided by their own cavalry close at hand. quite plain that it was the Argcians in front not the Lacedaemonians who trod down their comrades in the rear (there were probably six or eight men in every file), in order to escape themselves before the Lacedaemonians should be upon them : compare Xen. Hellenic, iv, 4, 1 1 ; (Economic, viii, 5. There are therefore in the whole scene which Thucydides describes, three distinct subjects: 1. The Lacedaemonians 2. The Argeians soldiers, who were trodden down. 3. Other Argeian soldiers, who trod them down in order to get away themselves. Out of these three he only specifies the first two : but the third is present to his mind, and is implied in his narrative, just as much as if he had written KaraTrarTj^Evraf VTC' u /, /I u v, or VTT ' U?^T//MV, as in Xenoph. Hellen. iv. 4, 11. Now it is to this third subject, implied in the narrative, but not formally specified (i. e. those Argeians who trod down their comrades in order to get away themselves), or rather to the second and third conjointly und confused- ly, that the design or purpose (consilium) in the words TOV UTJ Q&Ttrat refers. Farther, the commentators all construe TOV fj,rj df]vai r;)v lyKOTa/^iv, as if the last word were an accusative case coming after <p-&^vai and governed by it. But there is also another construction, equally good Greek, and much better for the sense. In my judgment, rrjv h/KaruATjifjiv is here the accusa- tive case coming before ^//vai and forming the subject of it. The words will thus read (EVEKO) TOV T^V kyKaTa?.r]ipiv fj.% fy-QrivaL (iitrt.'&ovaav avTolf): v in order that the actual grasp of the Lacedaemonians might not be before- hand in coming upon them ;" " might not come upon them too soon," i. e. " sooner than they could get away." And since the word ey/caru/l^t/uf is aa abstract active substantive, so, in order to get at the real meaning here, v/e may substitute the concrete words with which it correlates, i. e. Toijf i.aKeSaifj.ovLovf j'/caraAa/36vraf, subject as well as attribute, for the active participle is here essentially involved. The sentence would then read, supposing the ellipsis filled up and the meaning expressed in full and concrete words CUTIV ov KCU raf in? u7.7irj7.uv QevyovTuv (or piaZousvuv}, evEKa TOV rotif uri (jt&f/vai h/Ka~a?Mf36vTaf avrovf (roz)f fyeityovTas ) : " As soon as the Lace- daemonians approached near, the Argeians gave way at once, without stay- ing for hand-combat : and some were even trodden down by each other, or by their own comrades running away in order that the Lacedcemoniana might not be beforehand in catching them sooner than they could escape." Construing in this way the sentence as it now stands, ve have TOV /j.;) p&ffvai used in its regular and legitimate sense of purpose, or Mnsilium. Ve have moreover a plain and natural state of facts, in full ke-tping with the general narrative. Nor is there any violence put upon the words. Nothing -more is done than to expand a very elliptical sentence, and to fill up that eutire sentence which was pnscnt to the writer's own mind. To do this