E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 2

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Τεκμήριον δέ—Thuc. disregards the Athenian legends, as suited only to poetry. Deposing the picturesque and enthroning the reasonable, he judges the remote past solely hy the indisputable evidence supplied by the present. For the use of τεκμήρια and σημεῖα, non-forensic πίστεις like ἐνθυμήματα (c. 11, 8) and γνῶμαι (c. 11, 9), cf. 39, 2, 41, 2, 50, 2.

καὶ ἄλλων—the lost allusion to the most ancient temple of Athene, namely the shrine of Athene Polias attached to the Erectheum and containing the venerable wooden figure of the goddess (ξόανον) and occupying the site of her struggle with Poseidon, would have been the best evidence that the original site of the city was the Acropolis.

τὰ ἔξω—the early temples not on the Acropolis lie at the south of it, viz. the Olympieium at the S.E., begun by Pisistratus, remarkable for its size, and only finished under Hadrian; the Pythium, or temple of Apollo πατρῷος, of which there are no remains, Pausanias says it was close to the Olympieium; the shrine of the Earth-Mother, situated within the τέμενος of the Olympieium; and that of Dionysus in the low ground near the Ilissus. The Pisistratids probably did much to make these temples popular.

τὰ ἀρχαιότερα—the Anthesteria, held in Anthesterion (11th to 13th). The first day was called ἡ Πιθοιγία, the second Χόες, the third Χύτροι. Aristoph. Ran. 215, Eur. I. T. 960, Harpoc. and Suidas s.v. χόες. [

τῇ δωδεκάτῃ]—gives one day only, and with it Ἀνθεστηριῶνος μηνός would be required. The date of the χόες seems inserted from the same source from which Harpocration drew.

ποιεῖται—passive of ποιοῦσι, not of ποιοῦνται. See 2 above, and c. 11, 4.

οἱ ἀπ᾽ Ἀ.—i.e. οἱ ἄποικοι τῶν Ἀθηναίων. νομίζουσι —‘are accustomed to do.’ Cf. 5 below, c. 38, 1.