ἀνθ᾽ ὧν μὴ κ.τ.λ.—wherefore no man should feel for them. nor think it gain that they should depart without danger to us. That is all they will do even if they win the battle; but the prize—to punish them when we have gained our desire, as we probably shall do, and to confirm for the whole of Sicily the liberty which she already enjoyed—is a glorious one. How few ventures there are in which the loss in case of failure is as small as the gain through success is great.
ἀκινδύνως—certainly not ‘without doing us further harm’ (Holden); which would involve a paradox that would scarcely be convincing to men who had suffered so much; but ‘without our having to run (a further) risk,’ as is shown by ἀγών and, above all, by κινδύνων below.
πραξάντων—sc. ἡμῶν. Beside εὖ (κακῶς, etc.) ποιεῖν, πράττειν, neut. plur. adj. are regularly used with ποιεῖν, πράττειν.
ἃ βουλόμεθα—sc. πρᾶξαι, not, as Kruger, the fate which we wish for them, but for ourselves. Victory is meant.
καὶ τῇ πάσῃ Σ.—Confirmed the charters that were yours before:— | No parleying now! In Britain is one breath Wordsworth, To the Men of Kent.
βεβαιοτέραν παραδοῦναι—the language is taken from the tenure of property. καρποῦσθαι is in contrast with the βεβαιοτέρα κτῆσις which is to be bestowed (παραδοῦναι) on them. The subject changes at παραδοῦναι.
καλὸς ὁ ἀγών—notice that ὁ ἀγών is in apposition with τὸ . . . κολασθῆναι . . . καὶ παραδοῦναι, for this is the right way of taking the words, instead of making τὸ κολασθῆναι καἱ παραδοῦναι subject and ὁ ἀγών part of the pred., as the edd say.
κινδύνων κ.τ.λ.—the speech ends with a γνώμη, or general truth, a form of close of which Thuc. is very fond. Cf. c. 77 end.
σπανιώτατοι—again we have the accumulation of superlatives noticed at c. 42.3
σφαλῆναι βλάπτοντες—σφαλλω and βλάπτω are often near neighbours.
