E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 6

πρὸς τὰ πεδία μᾶλλον—‘the plains’ near the sea ‘rather than’ the inland parts.

ἀφειστήκεσαν—from Syracuse. See crit. note.

αὐτόνομοι οὖσαι κτλ—‘their settlements, being independent from time immemorial, with but few exceptions immediately joined the A.’

οἰκήσεις=oppidula, κῶμαι. πλήν is here constructed as an adverb, and ὀλίγοι is masc. κατὰ σύνεσιν. Freeman thinks οἰκήσεις a strange word to apply to the Sicels of the interior, who had under Ducetius (died 440 B.C.) reached a high degree of unity. In 451 he had even defeated the combined forces of Syr. and Acragas (Diod. xi. 91). He was aided by another chief, Archonides, against whom Syr. declared war when Ducetius died. Ducetins built Menaenum, still called Mineo; and this was doubtless among the towns that joined Athens. No doubt Thuc. uses οἰκήσεις in contrast with the larger cities of the Siceliots.

κατεκόμιζον—to the coast from the interior.

εἰσὶν οἵ—in the oblique cases Thuc. much more often uses ἔστιν (ὧν, οἷς, etc.); but cf. VII. 25 ἦσαν τῶν σταυρῶν οὕς.