χρόνῳ, dat. of circumstance with παλαιοί, old in respect of their years, i.e. "aged." The phrase (an unusual one) does not seem to be intensive, as Campbell makes it, "very old" (“γονῇ γενναῖε” in O. T. 1469 is not similar), but simply pleonastic, as in Od. 13.432 “παλαιοῦ... γέροντος”, an old man of many years. ἐπίσκοποι here=speculatores, explorers, but in Ant. 217 overseers, watchers, and ib. 1148 of Dionysus, "master" (of mystic rites).
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Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part II: The Oedipus Coloneus. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1899.
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