Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/84

66 -g HISTORY OF GREECK. invoked the aid of their allies: who, however, had already been summoned by Sparta for the succeeding month, and did noi choose, any more than the Spartans, to move during the Kar- neian month itself. Some allies, however, perhaps the Corin- thians, came as far as the Epidaurian border, but did not feel themselves strong enough to lend aid by entering the territory alone. 1 1 Thucyd. v, 54. 'ApytZoi S 1 uvaxupijauv-uv ai>T(Jv (the Lacedaemonians), rov irpb TOV K.apveiov firjvbf l^E^'&ovTef rerpdoi ti&ivovTOf, Kai ayovref T TJV i] ue pav T avr TJV TT uv TO. T ov XP OV ov > t'Ofpahov if rrjv 'E i- davpiav KOI e 6 )/ o v v. 'Eiridavpioi 6e ~ovf vn/iu%ovf exEKaXoiivTO- uv 'A uev TUV fj.7/va trpoixbaaiaav-o, ol de Kal If fir&opiav Tqf '. In explaining this passage, I venture to depart from the views of all the commentators ; with the less scruple, as it seems to me that even the best of them are here embarrassed and unsatisfactory. The meaning which I give to the words is the most strict and literal possible : " The Argeians, having set out on the 26th of the month before Karneius, and keeping that day during the whole time, invaded the Epidaurian territory, and went on ravaging it." By " during the whole time" is meant, during the whole time that this expedition lasted. That is, in my judg- ment, they kept the twenty-sixth day of the antecedent month for a whole fortnight or so ; they called each successive day by the same name ; they stopped the computed march of time ; the twenty-seventh was never admit- ted to have arrived. Dr. Thirlwall translates it (Hist. Gr. vol. iii, ch. xxiv. p. 331 : " They began their march on a day which they had always been used to keep holy." But surely the words TTUVTO TOV %pbvov must denote some definite interval of time, and can hardly be construed as equivalent to uei. Moreover the words, as Dr. Thirlwall construes them, introduce a new fact which has no visible bearing en the main affirmation of the sen tence. The meaning which I give may perhaps be called in question on the ground that such tampering with the calendar is too absurd and childish to have been really committed. Yet it is not more absurd than the two votes of the Athenian assembly (in 290 B.C.), who being in the month of Mnnv- chior., first passed a vote that that month should be the month Anthesterion ; next, that it should be the month Boedromion ; in order that Demetrius Poliorketes might be initiated both in the lesser and greater mysteries of Demtter. both at cnce and at the same time. Demetrius arrived at Athens in the month Hunychion, and went through both ceremonies with little 01 nc delay; the religions scruple, and the dignity of the Two Goddesses being saved by altering the name of the month twice (Plutarch, Demetrius, r. 26).