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

τῶν ἐ. Θηβαίων]—Intr. p. xxxix.

ὀγδοηκοστῇ—i.e. about June 20th.

ἀκμάζοντος—denotes the time preeeding ripeness, in Attica the end of May and the greater part of June.

ἡγεῖτο δὲ—Archidamus has been already referred to again and again as the general. But ef. c. 47, 2, 71, 1; III. 1, 1, 26, 2, 89, 1; IV. 2, 1; V. 54, 1, 57, 1; VII. 19, 1. ὴγεμὼν is the technieal word for the Peloponnesian general, cf. I. 128 Παυσανίας ὁ ἡγεμὼν τῆς Σπάρτης, and the name of the ἡγεμὼν —generally one of the kings—in command of a Spartan expedition is regularly given as a matter of form. As regards Sparta, ἡγεμὼν is regularly the title of a king or regent. Thus Brasidas is ealled only στρατηγὸς or ἄρχων.

Ἐλευ- σῖνα καὶ τὸ Θ. πεδίον—the country round Eleusis.

περὶ τοὺς Ῥειτοὺς—two salt lakes on the boundary between the land of Athens and Eleusis, at the eorner of the Thriasian plain. From Eleusis Archidamus had followed the Sacred Way.

Αἰγάλεων—instead of ‘turning off to the eastward,’ as Grote says, Archidamus probably continued along the direct road to Athens, i.e. the Saered Way, erossing the pass of Daphni, and only then turned north towards Mount Parnes. This agrees better with ἐν δεξιᾷ ἔχοντες τὸ Αἰ. (Mount Skarmanga). The question is eomplicated by the uneertainty of the position of the deme Cropia.

χρόνον πολὺν—with ἔτεμνον. ἐμμείναντες—‘having settled there.’ ἐμμένειν is regularly used of persons: thus ἐμμένω ταῖς σπονδαῖς, not αἱ σπονδαὶ ἐμμένουσιν is the ordinary idiom. For exeeptions, see c. 2, 1 not. crit.