I don’t understand why these two verbs are juxtaposed. I seems to me that one would suffice. I think the sense that the the Boeotians are making incursions into Attica and the messenger says that they are carrying off animals and everything else in the farms and villages. Why both verbs? Or perhaps one is more suitable to animals and the other to things. Can anyone shed light on this?
It’s a common expression. Here’s Eudemus on what it means: ἄγειν καὶ φέρειν: ἄγειν ἀπάγειν ἐπὶ ἐμψύχων, φέρειν ἐπὶ ἀμψύχων. (So he agrees with your guess.)
In the Anabasis: οὐ γὰρ ἦν δυνατὸν ἅμα τε χρήματα ἄγειν καὶ φέρειν καὶ τοῖς πολεμίοις μάχεσθαι.
Thank you Joel. That’s very helpful. I think I would have understood the expression better if there had been a καὶ. In your example from Eudemus, does ἐπὶ ἐμψύχων mean “with respect to animals or animate things”?
Thank you, my friends. I am enjoying Rouse very much. However, with “made up” or adapted Greek, there is always the suspicion lurking in my mind that some turns of phrase might not be natural. I have a similar problem when I listen to French radio. Here in Canada, a perennial problem is the presence of anglicisms in French. The Québécois are very sensitive about it. They don’t like to be corrected. Some, of course, go to the opposite extreme and are overly zealous in their efforts to drive out any English words. I find I am constantly asking myself whether something is idiomatic.