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

τὸ ἱερόν—Plutarch says that the A. army was anxious to seize the spoils of the temple, and that Nieias prevented the sacrilege, and purposely permitted the Syr. to occupy the Olympieum.

ξυγκομίσαντες—to burn them. νεκροὺς συγκομίζειν is the regular phrase for preparing the dead.

ἐπὶ πυρὰν ἐπιθέντες—it was the custom to burn the bodies on the field of battle, then to collect the bones and send them to Athens to be buried in the outer Cerameicus. In the case of Marathon, however, the bones were buried on the field of battle, this being regarded as a special honour. It is noticeable that Thuc. in describing this first battle of the expedition puts down the occurrences—such as the preliminary sacrifices and the details of burial—that are a part of all battles.

αὐτοῦ—on the battle-field.

ἀπέπλευσαν ἐς Κατάνην—a strange thing to do after gaining a victory. Nicias surely ought to have attacked Syracuse: for this purpose cavalry would not have been needed.

αὐτόθεν ποιεῖσθαι—i.e. from the position which they now occupied. But it is strange that they did not discover all this before taking up the position.

ἱππέας τε . . καὶ χρήματα δέ—here τε is answered by δέ, for καί strictly=‘as well.’ τε . . δέ is quite common, esp. in tragedy. καὶ . . δέ occurs several times in Thuc. Notice the chiasnius in ἐκ τῶν Ἀθηνῶν . . ἐκ τῶν αὐτόθεν . . αὐτόθεν . . καὶ παρ᾽ Ἀθηναίων. Chiasmus is very common in Thuc.

μεταπέμψωσιν—the act. means to summon to one's aid. Cf. c. 52, 1.

χρήματα—serves as object of one verb and subject of another.

καὶ σῖτον—explanation of τὰ ἄλλα, so that καί = ‘both.’

ἐς τὸ ἔαρ—expressing the time in the fnt. when the thing is to occur. Frequent in Aristophanes.