Note 374 — Chapter LIX · FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE SIEGE OF SYRACUSE BY NIKIAS, DOWN TO THE SECOND ATHENIAN EXPEDITION UNDER DEMOSTHENES, AND THE RESUMPTION OF THE GENERAL WAR.

Thucyd. vi, 99. Ὑποτειχίζειν δὲ ἄμεινον ἐδόκει εἶναι (τοῖς Συρακουσίοις) ᾗ ἐκεῖνοι (the Athenians) ἔμελλον ἄξειν τὸ τεῖχος· καὶ εἰ φθάσειαν, ἀποκλῄσεις γίγνεσθαι, καὶ ἅμα καὶ ἐν τούτῳ εἰ ἐπιβοηθοῖεν, μέρος ἀντιπέμπειν αὐτοὶ τῆς στρατιᾶς, καὶ φθάνειν ἂν αὐτοὶ τοῖς σταυροῖς προκαταλαμβάνοντες τὰς ἐφόδους· ἐκείνους δὲ ἂν παυομένους τοῦ ἔργου πάντας ἂν πρὸς σφᾶς τρέπεσθαι.

The Scholiast here explains τὰς ἐφόδους to mean τὰ βάσιμα; adding ὀλίγα δὲ τὰ ἐπιβαθῆναι δυνάμενα, διὰ τὸ τελματῶδες εἶναι τὸ χωρίον. Though he is here followed by the best commentators, I cannot think that his explanation is correct. He evidently supposes that this first counter-wall of the Syracusans was built—as we shall see presently that the second counter-work was—across the marsh, or low ground between the southern cliff of Epipolæ and the Great Harbor. “The ground being generally marshy (τελματῶδες) there were only a few places where it could be crossed.” But I conceive this supposition to be erroneous. The first counter-wall of the Syracusans was carried, as it seems to me, up the slope of Epipolæ, between the Athenian circle and the southern cliff: it commenced at the Syracusan newly-erected advanced wall, inclosing the Temenitês. This was all hard, firm ground, such as the Athenians could march across at any point: there might perhaps be some roughness here and there, but they would be mere exceptions to the general character of the ground.

It appears to me that τὰς ἐφόδους means simply, “the attacks of the Athenians,” without intending to denote any special assailable points; προκαταλαμβάνειν τὰς ἐφόδους, means “to get beforehand with the attacks,” (see Thucyd. i, 57, v, 30.) This is in fact the more usual meaning of ἔφοδος (compare vii, 5; vii, 43; i, 6; v, 35; vi, 63), “attack, approach, visit,” etc. There are doubtless other passages in which it means, “the way or road through which the attack was made:” in one of these, however (vii, 51), all the best editors now read ἐσόδου instead of ἐφόδου.

It will be seen that arguments have been founded upon the inadmissible sense which the Scholiast here gives to the word ἔφοδοι: see Dr. Arnold, Memoir on the Map of Syracuse, Appendix to his ed. of Thucyd. vol. iii, p. 271.