καὶ ἐν τούτῳ Κῦρος παρελαύνων αὐτὸς σὺν Πίγρητι τῷ ἑρμηνεῖ καὶ ἄλλοις τρισὶν ἢ τέτταρσι τῷ Κλεάρχῳ ἐβόα ἄγειν τὸ στράτευμα κατὰ μέσον τὸ τῶν πολεμίων, ὅτι ἐκεῖ βασιλεὺς εἴη· κἂν τοῦτʼ, ἔφη, νικῶμεν, πάνθʼ ἡμῖν πεποίηται.
Why this particular construction? Why not τὸ τῶν πολεμίων μέσον? Or maybe τὸ μέσον τῶν πολεμίων?
κατὰ μέσον τὸ τῶν πολεμίων: the preposition is needed. “He yelled to Clearchus to lead the army to the enemy’s center.” μέσος is used adjectivally as often. A little earlier we had κατὰ γὰρ μέσον τὸν σταθμὸν τοῦτον τάφρος ἦν (7.14), “In the middle of this stage was a ditch.”
So in 1.8.12 in κατὰ μέσον τὸ τῶν πολεμίων is it the adjective μέσος, η, ον that we have here? I thought it might be the neuter noun μέσον, ου in this instance…and how can one tell which is used here?
Actually I guess it’s obvious that μέσον is the adjective here since it modifies a noun phrase τὸ τῶν πολεμίων, right?