Arrian\'s \"Ektaxis kat\' Alanon\" transl issue

[Macedon]

I think that the translation should read as Arrian forbidding the archers to extend because the line will become weaker.

Why would that make more sense? He is writing a theoretical approach to a battle, and his words may be to the reader alones (I will extend the line, even though it may become weaker). As archers go, an extended formation does not make it weaker - archers are hardly a unit that can be stronger when densely packed. It's where they shoot that matters. It would make sense to extend a formation of archers, so as to cover every part of the enemy formation and thus support the troops in front of them.

Because of the structure of the sentence and the Greek used.


2. εἰ δὲ ἐπιστραφέντες ἐς κύκλους ὑπὲρ τὰ κέρατα παρελαύνειν ἐθέλοιεν, ἀνατείνεσθαι μὲν <ἐς> τὰ ὑπερδεξιώτερα ἔτι τὰ κέρατα αὐτῆς τῆς ψιλῆς τοξείας· ὡς οὐ δοκιμάζω μήποτε ἀσθενῆ τῇ ἀνατάσει τὰ κέρατα γινόμενα ἰδόντες δι’ αὐτῶν ὤσαιντο καὶ διακόψαιεν τὸ πεζικόν. (30.3)

For example, the "ὡς οὐ δοκιμάζω" part sounds very strange and looks like a subordinate clause in need of an independent one. This is what makes me bet on the ano teleia being a mistake. The rest of the sentence is also very direct and allows little sense for someone to order exactly what it warns against ("μήποτε" / in case) without even mentioning any of the positives that such a maneuver would produce. Plus, I cannot even be sure that such a translation would be different than the one "normally" given to this part of the text. I admit of having used only 1 book and 1 internet source. This is why I think that we should look into other translations too.