C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5

τέκτονες—timber was used in such works; vi. 99, 1, λίθους καὶ ξύλα ξυμφοροῦντες, of the besieging Athenians at Syracuse. τειχιζόντων—αἰσθάνομαι is found with the genitive i. 57, 4 etc., but only here with the genitive participle: the accusative construction is common, as in ch. 37, 18.

αὐτοῖς—probably with ὑπῆρχε ‘they had to start with’ but the dative might also be taken with πρασσόμενον. Indeed its construction is affected by both words, in accordance with a common Thucydidean order. ἐκ τοῦ Ἄργους αὐτόθεν—ii. 25, 3, αὐτόθεν ἐκ τῆς περιοικίδος Ἠλείων: Hdt. viii. 64, αὐτόθεν ἐκ Σαλαμῖνος.

οὐ προὐχώρησεν ἔτι—‘came to nothing further’. Ὑσιάς —near the border of Arcadia on the road to Tegea

ὅτι—gives the reason for δῃώσαντες, the participle as usual being the emphatic word. We may compare the clause in the treaty, ch. 47, 17, ἣν δὲ δῃώσαντες οἴχωνται. σφῶν—i. 30, 3, σφῶν οἱ ξύμμαχοι ἐπόνουν: so iv. 13, 2, αὐτῶν οἱ ἄνδρες ἀπελαμβάνοντο. The position of the pronoun gives it an emphatic force, ‘they found them receiving, they were aggrieved by their receiving their exiles’, cf. Buttmann on Dem. Meid. 520, § 17, τὸν διδάσκαλον διέφθειρέ μου. κατῴκηντο—i. 120, 2, κατῳκημένους: ii. 96, 1, ὄσα μέρη κατῴκητο. This use of the perfect and pluperfect is peculiar to Thucydides and Herodotus.

κατέκλῃσαν—‘blockaded’, they stopped any coasting trade which might be carried on in the winter; τοῦτ᾽ ἔστι τῶν εἰσαγωγίμων τῆς θαλάσσης αὐτοὺς ἀπέκλῃσαν (schol.): i. 117, 2, ἐλθόντος τοῦ Περικλέους κατεκλῄσθησαν. This passage and the scholiast's explanation seem enough to support the reading. κατελήισαν with Μακεδονίας, partitive genitive, and ἐλῄισαν have been suggested; but the compound is only found in the middle and that in late authors, and the active of the simple verb is too far from the manuscript reading. According to the best manuscripts it occurs in iii 85, 1, and iv. 41, 2, but even there Classen adopts the middle. Most manuscripts have Μακεδονίας Περδίκκαν: which can scarcely mean ‘Perdiccas (king) of Macedonia’, no similar instance being known. Another explanation connects the genitive with κατέκλῃσαν on the analogy of Soph. Aj. 1274, ἐρκέων ἐγκεκλημένους, ‘shut up within your bulwarks’. Μακεδονίᾳ has also been conjectured ‘shut him up with’ i.e. ‘in Macedonia’. Two inferior manuscripts have Μακεδονίαν, and probably this or Μακέδονας should be adopted, the scholiast's αὐτούς being in favour of the latter. Περδίκκᾳ, depending on ἐπικαλοῦντες, should then be read in accordance with Goeller's suggestion; cf. ch. 59, 29.

ξυνωμοσίαν—see ch. 80, 11. παρασκευασαμένων—we are told nothing of this intended expedition. It could scarcely have been before Cleon's death, as Perdiccas up to that time had been faithful to the Athenians since he broke with Brasidas in 423; see ch. 6, 6, and iv. 132, 1. Besides, it is mentioned after the ξυνωμοσία.

ἔψευστο—‘had belied’, i.e. failed in; iii. 66, 3, τὴν ψευσθεῖσαν ὑπὁσχεσιν: Hdt. vi. 32, οὐκ ἐψεύσαντο τὰς ἀπειλάς. So Hom., Eur. and Xen.

ἡ στρατιά—this would imply that the troops were actually sent; or the army at any rate embodied. Perhaps στρατεία should be read; but διελύθη, ‘was broken up’, goes more naturally with στρατιά.

ἀπάραντος—elsewhere ἀπαίρω is to start, or put to sea, as in iv. 26, 4: iv. 46, 1. Possibly it may here be used to mean ‘by his defection’, which is the sense required. Most editors however believe it to be corrupt. Poppo suggests ἀποστάντος: Classen ου<*> παρόντος, ἀπατήσαντος etc.