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

ἐκκλησίαν τε ... τήν τε—the double τε implies two coneurrent acts having the same object in view.

ἐποίει—‘summon.’ ἐκκλησία means the regular meeting (κυρία ἐκκλησία) which only a στρατηγὸς αὐτοκράτωρ could prevent. It was ordinarily held in each Prytany. ξύλλογος means a special meeting (συγκλητὸς ἐκκλησία). Cf. c. 59 and IV. 114, 120. These were summoned by the Prytanes at the request of the Strategi. (Gilbert, Beitr. zur innern Geschichte, p. 14, explains this passage differently.) As so many eountry people were now in Athens, all opposed to the war, it would have been very dangerous to eall a meeting.

οὐδένα—but he could not prevent the ξυστάσεις: club intrigues and sueh strained eombinations of opposed interests as oecur in times of excitement took the plaee of ordinary politics. In this hazy atmosphere the figure of Cleon looms indistinctly. (We cannot penetrate into the workings of the ἑταιρεῖαι to which Thuc. refers; but Grote is quite mistaken in saying that Cleon rose now ‘as an opposition speaker.’ He was preparing for the great attaek on Pericles that was made in 430 B.C. Intr. p. lxxvi.)

δι᾽ ἡσυχίας—c. 13, 2.