Note 669 — Chapter LIII · EIGHTH YEAR OF THE WAR.

Thucyd. iv, 104. Οἱ δ᾽ ἐναντίοι τοῖς προδιδοῦσι (that is, at Amphipolis) κρατοῦντες τῷ πλήθει ὥστε μὴ αὐτίκα τὰς πύλας ἀνοίγεσθαι, πέμπουσι μετὰ Εὐκλέους τοῦ στρατηγοῦ, ὃς ἐκ τῶν Ἀθηναίων παρῆν αὐτοῖς φύλαξ τοῦ χωρίου, ἐπὶ τὸν ἕτερον στρατηγὸν τῶν ἐπὶ Θρᾴκης, Θουκυδίδην τὸν Ὀλόρου, ὃς τάδε ξυνέγραψεν, ὄντα περὶ Θάσον (ἔστι δ᾽ ἡ νῆσος, Παρίων ἀποικία, ἀπέχουσα τῆς Ἀμφιπόλεως ἡμισείας ἡμέρας μάλιστα πλοῦν) κελεύοντες σφίσι βοηθεῖν.

Here Thucydidês describes himself as “the other general along with Euklês, of the region of or towards Thrace.” There cannot be a clearer designation of the extensive range of his functions and duties.

I adopt here the reading τῶν ἐπὶ Θρᾴκης, the genitive case of the well-known Thucydidean phrase τὰ ἐπὶ Θρᾴκης, in preference to τὸν ἐπὶ Θρᾴκης; which would mean in substance the same thing, though not so precisely, nor so suitably to the usual manner of the historian. Bloomfield, Bekker, and Göller have all introduced τῶν into the text, on the authority of various MSS.: Poppo and Dr. Arnold also both express a preference for it, though they still leave τὸν in the text.

Moreover, the words of Thucydidês himself, in the passage where he mentions his own long exile, plainly prove that he was sent out as general, not to Thasos, but to Amphipolis: (v, 26) καὶ ξυνέβη μοι φεύγειν τὴν ἐμαυτοῦ ἔτη εἴκοσι μετὰ τὴν ἐς Ἀμφίπολιν στρατηγίαν, etc.