Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/271

253 SECOND 5YRACUSAN COUNTER- WORK. 253 bnlr.k of ihe southern cliff, which rendered it unassailable in liank. Kikias was warned of the necessity of becoming master of this cliff, so as to deprive them of this resource in future. Accordingly, without staying to finish his blockading wall, regu- larly and continuously from the Circle southward, across the slope of Epipolae, he left the Circle under a guard, and marched across at once to take possession of the southern cliff, at, the point where the blockading wall was intended to reach it. This point of the southern cliff he immediately fortified as a defensive position, whereby he accomplished two objects. First, he prevented the Syracusans from again employing the cliff as a flank defence for a second counter-wall. 1 Next, he acquired the means of provid- ing a safe and easy road of communication between the high ground of Epipoloe and the low marshy ground beneath, which divided Epipoloe from the Great Harbor, and across which the Athenian wall of circumvallation must necessarily be presently 1 Thucyd. vi, 101. T?? 6" varEpaia inrb TOV KVK^.OV eTei%i&v ot, 'A$//- valoi TOV uptjftvbv TOV vwep TOV tvlovf, of ruv 'Eirnro?(.uv TavTij Trpbf TOV uzyav Tiif^iva opa, KOI j~cp ai>Tolf f3pa.xvTa.TOp kyiyvcTO K.a.Tafta<3L 6iu TOV 6fj.ii7.cv Kal TOV !Aoi>f ef TOV Mfieva TO TTepiTei%icr/i.a. I give in the text what I believe to he the meaning of this sentence, though the words unb TOV KvnTiov are not clear, and have been differently construed. Goller, in his first edition, had construed them as if it stood up get [J.EVOI uirb TOV KVK^OV : as if the fortification now begun on the cliff was continuous and in actual junction with the Circle. In his second edi- tion, he seems to relinquish this opinion, and to translate them in a manner similar to Dr. Arnold, who considers them as equivalent to unb TOV KVKMV 6p/ZG>fj.evoL, but not at all implying that the fresh work performed was con- tinuous with the Circle, which he believes not to have been the fact. If thus construed, the words would imply, " starting from the Circle as a base of operations." Agreeing with Dr. Arnold in his conception of the evnt signified. I incline, in construing the words, to proceed upon the analogy of two or three passages in Thucyd. i, 7 ; i, 46 ; i, 99; vi, 64 A.I 6e rraiaial iii TTJV TnyoTEtav ETrnrohv uvTta^oiiaav un b & a/I uaa ij f jUa/l/lov 'Eor tie 2.1/j.ijv, Kal -Kokiq viri-p avTov KtiTai UTTC iv rrj 'E%aiuTi6i TJJ$ Qca-rrpuTi^of, 'EQiipri. In these passages drrd is used in the same sense as we find aTtodev, iv, 125, signifying "apart from, at some distance from ;' ; but not implying any accompanying idea of motion, or proceeding from, cither literal or metaphorical. " Tha Athenians began to fortify, at scnn distance from their Circle, tb clitT above the inarch," &,<>..