Tuesday, May 10, 2022
Invaders
Thucydides 7.68.2 (tr. Jeremy Mynott):
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That they are our enemies, and the worst of enemies, you all know: they came to our land to enslave us; and had they succeeded they would have inflicted the most terrible suffering on our men, gross indignities on our women and children, and on the city as a whole the ultimate brand of shame.A.W. Gomme et al. ad loc.:
ὡς δὲ ἐχθροὶ καὶ ἔχθιστοι, πάντες ἴστε, οἵ γε ἐπὶ τὴν ἡμετέραν ἦλθον δουλωσόμενοι, ἐν ᾧ, εἰ κατώρθωσαν, ἀνδράσι μὲν ἂν τἄλγιστα προσέθεσαν, παισὶ δὲ καὶ γυναιξὶ τὰ ἀπρεπέστατα, πόλει δὲ τῇ πάσῃ τὴν αἰσχίστην ἐπίκλησιν.
he means that, as happened at Melos (v.116.4), the men would have been killed, the women and children enslaved, and the site of the city would have passed into alien hands (cf. 64.1 n.); the αἰσχίστη ἐπίκλησις is probably ἀνάστατος (cf. vi.76.2).ἀνάστατος is an adjective, meaning "removed, driven out, ruined...devastated, destroyed...emptied, left bare" (Franco Montanari, The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek).
