E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 3

τὴν ἐς τὴν Ἀττικὴν ἐσβολήν—‘as regards the suggested (c. 13, 4) iuvasion.’ ἐσβολήν is the ‘accusative of anticipation,’ for which cf. I. 33, 3 τὸν δὲ πόλεμον . . εἴ τις ὑμῶν μὴ οἴεται ἔσεσθαι. In both these instances the verb that follows (ποιησόμενοι, ἔσεσθαι) of course supplies a governing word to the accus. as in V. 36 τὸ Πάνακτον ἐδέοντο Βοιωτοὺς ὅπως παραδώσουσι, and in general. But sometimes the accus. has no strict regimen, but the constr. is changed in the dependent clause, as in the well-known case Aristoph. Av. 1269 δεινόν γε τὸν κήρυκα . . εἰ μηδέποτε νοστήσει πάλιν.

παροῦσι . . ἔφραζον ‘gave them orders while they were on the spot,’ i.e. did not wait to send round after the delegates had left.

κατὰ τάχος and

τοῖς δύο μέρεσιν belong to ίέναι: cf. II. 10 ξυνῆ̣σαν τὰ δύο μέρη . . ἐς τὸν Ἰσθμόν. The dat. is sociative, as constantly with words like στρατός and ναῦς. The subject of ἔφραζον and ἀφίκοντο is ‘the Lacedaemonians’ only. 3/4ths=τὰ τρία μέρη; but 3/8ths=τῶν ὀκτὼ τὰ τρία μέρη. ὡς ποιησόμενοι belongs to ἁφίκοντο as well as to ἔφραζον.

καὶ (‘and then’)

ὁλκοὺς (cf. ἐφ-ολκίον, a boat towed, νεωλκεῖν, to beach a vessel with a ὁλκός. The instrument for pushing heavy weights was called ἕλιξ, but it was not invented till Archimedes)

παρεσκεύαζον—the ships which had been used against Phormio in the Corinthian gulf (at Lechaeum) were to be hauled over the Isthmus along the track, called δίολκος, to the Saronic gulf. The ships must have been put on some kind of truck. The exact nature of the ὁλκοί is unknown; possibly they were rollers fixed in the δίολκος. ὑπερφέρειν, διαφέρειν, διακομίζειν and διέλκειν are used of this.