Harold North Fowler, Commentary on Thucydides Book 5

Character and duration of the time of peace between the first and second war.

Ἀθήνησι: cf. c. 18. 55.

Κορίνθιοι: see c. 17. 19 and 27. 5 ff.

διεκίνουν: hardly occurs elsewhere in Attic prose. Cf. Ar. Nub. 477, διακίνει τὸν νοῦν αὐτοῦ. It seems here to denote the attempt to break up and unsettle by intrigues the agreements (τὰ πεπραγμένα) which had been made. —καὶ εὐθὺς ἄλλη ταραχή: “and besides these intrigues of the Corinthians, other disturbances began immediately (after the end of the conflict between Athens and Sparta) between the Lacedaemonians and their (former) allies.” ἄλλη refers to what precedes, not to the following καὶ ἅμα; hence St. is wrong in inserting τε after ἄλλη without Ms. authority. This is evident, for the Athenians, although they had just made an alliance with Sparta, are certainly not included among the ξύμμαχοι of 8. καὶ ἅμα introduces, as it freq. does (e.g. c. 14. 9), a new and important statement. For this was the most serious matter, that the friendly relations between Sparta and Athens were so soon disturbed.

ἃ εἴρητο: are the separate articles of the ξυγκείμενα. Cf. c. 35. 5 ff. —καὶ ἐπὶ ἓξ ἔτη καὶ δέκα μῆνας: neither beginning nor end of this period is accurately fixed. The beginning is not μετὰ τὰς σπονδάς, but μετά τὴν ξυμμαχίαν, which was formed οὐ πολλῷ ὕστερον (cf. c. 24. 9). (Grote, VI. p. 276 and note, thinks this interval between the two treaties was ‘not more than a month or two.’ Curtius, Hist. III. p. 285, thinks it was ‘a few weeks.’) The end is only loosely marked by the words ἀπέσχοντο μὴ ἐπὶ τὴν ἑκατέρων γῆν στρατεῦσαι. See App.

μή: after the neg. ἀπέσχοντο. See on iii. 32. 14; iv. 40. 5. G. 263; H. 1029.—ἔξωθεν: i.e. without invading the territory of one another, but by taking part in hostile complications with others such as are mentioned in c. 26. § 2. Among these, the war in Sicily is most important.

μετ᾽ ἀνοκωχῆς: see App.— μετά: “during the continuance,” “un der the influence of.”

ἔπειτα μέντοι: i.e. when they no longer avoided direct attacks.—ἀναγκασθέντες...κατέστησαν : the subj. must be here as in 11, Λακεδαιμόνιοι καὶ Ἀθηναῖοι. Therefore the sent. cannot refer to any single act. First the Athenians with thirty triremes ravaged the coast of Laconia in the latter part of the summer of 414 B.C. (vi. 105. 13 f.); the Lacedaemonians entered Attica to fortify Decelea early in the spring of 413 B.C. (vii. 19. § 1). This last act is probably considered as the beginning of the πόλεμος φανερός, and strictly speaking ἀναγκασθέντες λῦσαι applies only to the Lacedaemonians whose condition is described in vii. 18. § 3, 4. But the various stages in the renewal of the war overlap one another chronologically, as do the events which mark its beginning. Cf. c. 20. § 1.

ἐς πόλεμον φανερόν: the same words are used to designate the beginning of the first war in i. 23. 26.