History of the Peloponnesian War

possessing, too, ships, and horses, and greatness: and as they were not able either to introduce any change, as regarded their government, to create dissension among them, by which they might have been brought over, nor to effect that by means of their forces, (though [*](κρείσσους.] I have taken this as a nominative case, with Arnold and others, rather than as an accusative, as Poppo is inclined to do in his larger edition; because the superiority of the Athenian forces at the beginning of their operations is quite evident from many other passages, even besides those referred to in Arnold's note; and the use of the participle ἐπελθόντεςat the beginning of the section is more suitable to the commencement of the siege, than to the later period of it, when the Syracusans could with truth be said to be superior to their assailants. Besides, ὄντες is found after κρείσσους in three of the MSS. With regard to the construction of ἐκ παρασκευῆς, it seems to depend upon προσάγεσθαι understood from the preceding προσήγοντο, as Bloomfield observes in the note to his translation.) they were far superior,) but had failed in most of their attempts, they were even before this event in perplexity; and after they were defeated even at sea, which they could never have expected, they were far more so still.