Abstract

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Thucydides: The Peloponnesian WarSimon HornblowerSteven Lattimore, trans. Thucydides: The Peloponnesian War. With introduction and notes. Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett, 1998. xxii + 513 pp. 4 maps. Cloth, $39.95; paper, $12.95.This translation is generally faithful and readable, with many excellent notes. It is clearly the product of much labor and valuable thought. In accuracy (with the exceptions noted below) it is superior to Warner, though less faithful than Hobbes. However, it is marred by omissions and garbling of names, which should be put right urgently in a reprinting, and the emphasis of the notes is uneven in important respects.1. Omissions: whole chunks of Greek are sometimes omitted.a. The worst, because longest, instance is 5.111.4: an entire eight–line paragraph of Greek has disappeared from the translation of the Melian Dialogue, containing among other things the Athenians' "moderate proposal" that the Melians should agree to accept tributary status.b. At 3.105.2 has disappeared from the translation, which is in fact ungrammatical English at this point ("set up camp at in Amphilochia").c. At 4.121.1 the interesting words have not been translated (did the people of Skione "go up to greet" Brasidas or did they "offer him first–fruits"?). [End Page 646]d. At 6.9.2, Nikias' first speech at Athens before the Sicilian expedition,, is not translated.e. At 7.71.5 (great sea battle in Syracuse harbor) is not translated.2. Proper names garbled: names of persons and places are regularly garbled or got wrong. This is specially regrettable in a book which rightly sees names as important, without however considering how the evidence of epigraphy might bear on the question. See for instance the ingenious note on "Philokrates son of Demeas" on p. 301 (Th. 5.116), or that on the patronymics on p. 414 (note on 8.5), or that on Euphemos ("Good speaker" as Lattimore renders it, though "auspicious" might be closer) on p. 346 (Th. 6.81–87). Here, however, "almost certainly" is much too strong for the various identifications suggested, in view of the commonness of the name Euphemos at Athens; see the entry in vol. II (1994) of the Lexicon of Greek Personal Names (1987–), a work never cited by Lattimore. In the following list I give Lattimore's page numbers with Thucydidean references in parentheses:27 (1.52) for "Leagoras" read "Leogoras"; 52 (1.107) for "Kitinion" read "Kytinion"; 67 (1.139) for "Milesippos" read "Melesippos" (correct at 2.12); 80 (2.12) for "Diaokritos" read "Diakritos"; 84 (2.19) for "Rhetoi" read "Rheitoi"; 108 (2.66) for "Anaristos" read "Aneristos"; 125 (2.96) for "Triballio" read "Triballoi"; 142 (3.26) for "Kleombrotos" read "Kleomenes"; 144 (3.31) for "Tein" read "Teian"; 175 (3.93) for "Kenion" read "Kenaion"; 214, 261, and 274 (4.56, 5.14, and 5.41) for "Kynosouria" read "Kynouria"; 224 (4.78) for "Striophokos" read the good epigraphically attested Thessalian name "Strophakos"; 225 (4.78) for "Phagion" read "Phakion"; 238 (4.107) for "Gelepsis" read "Galepsos"; 242 (4.118) for "Tomeos" read "Tomeus"; 254 (5.1 and in footnote) for "Pharnakos" read "Pharnakes"; 263 (5.18) for "Spartalos" read "Spartolos," and for "Ptoleon" read "Pteleon"; 308 (6.4) for "Krataimones" read "Krataimenes," and for "Anaxilos" read "Anaxilas"; 310 (6.8) for "Laches" read "Lamachos"; 335 (6.59) for "Hippokles" read "Hippoklos"; 339 (6.65) for "Symaistos" read "Symaithos"; 339 (6.66) for "Anopos" read "Anapos," as also at pp. 355 (6.96) and 381 (7.42), but note that at p. 402 (7.78) the name has come out as "Anopis"; 359 (6.105) for "Laispodios" read "Laispodias"; 386 (7.50) for "Kyrnaians" read "Kyrenaians"; 416 (8.10 n.) for "Speraion" read "Speiraion"; 431 (8.44) for "Kamieros" read "Kameiros"; 465 (8.101) for "Lektos" read "Lekton." Most of these names are, oddly enough, given correctly in the index. "Anapos" is correct on map 3.3. Omission of variant readings of proper names: since Lattimore does sometimes discuss textual variants and emendations, I give some other places where it would have been helpful to flag a variant.a. P. 224 (4.76): Ptoiodoros is...