E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides Book 1

Ἑλλάς here is used as in c. 6, for the Greek nation—ἡ Ἑ. ἐσιδηροφόρει—and this explains (a) the use of μετανίστατο, (b) the accus. ἡσυχάσασαν, for which, as it refers to the subject of the main verb, ἡσυχάσασα would be expected. Ἑλλάς takes a slightly different meaning after the ὥστε. A similar change of meaning may be detected in 7.34. 6 ναυμαχήσαντες δὲ ἀντίπαλα καὶ ὡς αὐτοὺς ἑκατέρους ἀξιοῦν νικᾶν, where the ὡς-clause is general in sense, the way in which both sides lay claim to victory.

17. ὥστε μὴ ἡ. αὐξηθῆναι—the μή belongs to both partic. and infin., and ὥστε ... αὐξηθῆναι expresses ἀχρηματία.

[2] 20. ἐνεόχμωσε = enewte/rise In sense this is pluperf. The verb occurs in Herod, but only here in Attic. Thuc. thought of the fate of Agamemnon, Teucer, and other heroes.

καὶ στάσεις—two things are not clear, (1) whether the disturbances alluded to are intended to be connected with the return from Troy, or merely to be an explanation of ὥστε μὴ ἡσυχάσασαν αὐ.; (2) how Βοιωτοί τε γάρ is connected with what precedes. The passage is commonly referred to as though γάρ introduced an illustration of the στάσεις, but Steup (who thinks γάρ spurious) rightly points out that we hear nothing of στάσις in the matter of the migrations referred to. If γάρ is retained, we must assume that the migrations are introduced as an illustration of the general unrest that continued; i e. the γάρ refers rather to 12.1 than to the immediately preceding sentence.

21. ὡς ἐπὶ πολύ—for the most part, ‘in most cases.’

ἀφ᾽ ὧν—as the result of which, referring to στάσεις.

22. τὰς πόλεις—prob. the article is distributive=cities in each instance (Others, ‘the well-known cities’: but this is rightly objected to by several edd as a strange assumption of knowledge and as clashing awkwardly with ἐν ταῖς πόλεσιν)

[3] 23. οἱ νῦν—meaning not that the Boeotians had changed their name, but the Boeotians ‘as we know them now,’ i.e. as inhabiting all Boeotia, instead of dwelling partly in Thessaly and partly in Boeotia.

ἑξηκοστῷ ἔτει—the instances seem to be chosen in order to show that disturbances continued for a long period after the war.

μετὰ Ἰλίου ἅλωσιν—the art. replaced by a gen., as in διὰ χρόνου πλῆθος c. 1. 2.

26. ἀποδασμός—i.e. a part that had voluntarily separated from the main body, not ἀνάσταντες, like the rest. The word only here in Attic; but cf. “Φωκέες ἀποδάσμιοι” Hdt. 1.146.1.

27. ἀφ᾽ ὧν—the plur. κατὰ σύνεσιν. The ref. is to Il. 2.494, where the Boeotians, however, possess the chief cities of Boeotia.

2. ἔσχον—cf. σχεῖν, c. 9. 2.

[4] 3 ἡσυχάσασα βεβαίως—gaining unbroken rest and no longer subject to violent changes. Notice the ingressive aor. and imperf. combined.

5. Ἴωνας—the Ionian cities of Asia Minor. νησιωτῶν—the Cyclades; cf. c. 4. Isocr. Panath. 43.

6. Ἰταλίας—i.e. the modern Calabria, the peninsula reaching to the Lius on W. and to Metapontum on E. “The chief Peloponnesian founders of Sicilian and Italian cities were the Corinthians who founded Syracuse, and through Syracuse, Camarina [Acrae and Casmenae], the Megarians who founded the Hyblaean Megara, and through Megara, Selinus: the Achaeans who founded Sybaris and Croton, some Lacedaemonians who founded Tarentum.” Forbes. But (1) Megara is not part of the Peloponnese (2.9), see next note; (2) it is not clear that Tarentum is reckoned in Italy.

8. ἔστιν ἃ χωρία—it is supposed that the colonies of Corinth in the W., Corcyra, Leucas, Ambracia, etc. are referred to. If so (1) τὸ πλεῖστον above is an exaggeration; (2) Ἑλλάς is here used for all the country ultimately inhabited by Greeks—as in Thuc.'s time: but Ἑλλάς was not so used above; (3) the vagueness of the reference to these colonies is strange. Steup gets over all these difficulties by taking ἔστιν ἃ χωρία as nom., so that the Megarian (see last note), Locrian and Chalcidian colonies would be included. This is tempting, and for the use of χωρία we might compare “τὰ τρέφοντα ἡμᾶς χωρία τῆς Ἰταλίας, ὁρῶντα ἐν ᾧ ἐσμεν” 7.14. But it must be confessed that (1) ἔστιν ἅ looks like an antithesis to τὸ πλεῖστον: (2) πάντα δὲ ταῦτα appears to refer to ἔστιν ἃ χωρία as well as to the colonies mentioned before. Perhaps Thuc. writes somewhat vaguely here.