τοῦ μὲν . . . τοῦ δὲ—apposition to διεφθαρμένου.
πιστεύσας μᾶλλον— “N. had always been, as far as his duty allowed him, a friend of Sparta.” Freeman .
χρήσασθαι . . . ὅ τι βούλονται—regular formula for an unconditional surrender.
φονεύοντας—an Ionic word, found often in tragedy and Herod., and four times in Thuc. See Rutherford, New Phryn. p. 15.
ἀπεκρύψαντο—sc. οἱ Συρακόσιοι, hid for their own purposes, to keep or to sell.
τοὺς διωξομένους—the fut. partic. with art.—not a very common construction—refers to no definite person.
τὸ . . . ἁθροισθὲν—for the neut. cf. c. 43.7.
ἐς τὸ κοινὸν—just as τὸ κοινὸν is used of the state treasury, since the prisoners became state property.
ἀπὸ ξυμβάσεως—cf. c. 82.2 ὁμολογία γίγνεται. In the case of Demosth. there were definite terms and his men surrendered to the state.
ἐντῷ . . . πολέμῳ τούτῳ—there have been from early times two ways of understanding this passage: (1) the scholiast thinks that Thuc. is comparing the disaster at the Assinarus with those of the Pel. war generally: accordingly he thinks Σικελικῷ is wrong. So Kruger, Stahl: (2) Valla understands him to be comparing this disaster with other battles of the Sicilian war. The scholiast is probably right, since there is no other instance of great carnage, φόνος or σφαγή, in the Sicihan war with which the last disaster could be aptly compared; and as Thuc. was writing the history of the Sicilian expedition, not as a separate work, but as part of his general history, it is strange that he should speak of the Sicilian campaigns only in giving an idea of the extent of the loss. (Arnold says ‘it is as if an historian of the French campaign in Russia were to say of their loss at the Beresina, “that it was greater than on any other occasion throughout this Russian campaign.”’ But, after the losses of 1812, that statement would convey an idea of awful slaughter, whereas this does not.)
παραυτίκα—these were some cavalry, who under command of Callistratus made their escape to Catana. Pausanias 7.16.4.
ἐς Κατάνην—among these were Tydeus, afterwards one of the generals at Aegospotami, and the son of Polystratus for whom Lysias wrote the speech ὑπὲρ Πολυστράτου. They continued to fight for Catana against Syr. Lys. 20.24.
