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Tuesday, September 20, 2022

21st Century Classical Greek -- section 45, a little vocabulary

Book I section 45.

τοιαύτῃ μὲν γνώμῃ οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι τοὺς Κερκυραίους προσεδέξαντο, καὶ τῶν Κορινθίων ἀπελθόντων οὐ πολὺ ὕστερον δέκα ναῦς αὐτοῖς ἀπέστειλαν βοηθούς:

[2] ἐστρατήγει δὲ αὐτῶν Λακεδαιμόνιός τε ὁ Κίμωνος καὶ Διότιμος ὁ Στρομβίχου καὶ Πρωτέας ὁ Ἐπικλέους.

[3] προεῖπον δὲ αὐτοῖς μὴ ναυμαχεῖν Κορινθίοις, ἢν μὴ ἐπὶ Κέρκυραν πλέωσι καὶ μέλλωσιν ἀποβαίνειν ἢ ἐς τῶν ἐκείνων τι χωρίων: οὕτω δὲ κωλύειν κατὰ δύναμιν. προεῖπον δὲ ταῦτα τοῦ μὴ λύειν ἕνεκα τὰς σπονδάς.

Jowett turns the bolded phrase in subsection 1 into “now”, instead of “not much later”. He moves it into subsection 2 from where it is in subsection 1, breaking the sentence after apelthonton. This is a bad break. Thucydides records the action in subsection 1; in 2 he tells who commanded this force. Then in subsection 3 he moves back to the action.

Look up στρατηγέω and ναυμαχέω in Wiktionary. You’ll see them often from here on out. Notice that in subsection 2 we have estratigei in progressive eventive: like a treaty, this is a situation being set in place.

Auton in subsection 2 is “of them”, of the Korinthians.

In subsection 3 we have koluein kata dunamin, resist as much as they could. It’s a version of dunamei plus the impersonal gerundive.

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