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

τῶν τε νόμων σοφώτεροι—hence they despise the laws: a reference back to μηδὲ γνωσόμεθα etc.

τῶν τε αἰεὶ . . περιγίγνεσθαι—the τε . . τε puts the contempt for laws and the opposition to all counsel on the same footing as joint parts of their conduct. περιγίγνεσθαι, ‘to get the better’ of it, by opposing it.

ὡς ἐν ἄλλοις μείζοσιν . . γνώμην—‘as though they could not find any greater subject on which to display their talent’; the subject in debate is just the one, they think, on which they are qualified to give an opinion. (Cf. VII. 64 οὐκ ἂν ἐν ἄλλῳ μᾶλλον καιρῷ ἀποδειξἀμενος.)

ἀδυνατώτεροι δὲ . . λόγον—in form exactly parallel to the preceding clause; but τοῦ καλῶς εἰπόντος is certainly possessive gen. to λόγον, together with which it refers to τῶν αἰεὶ λεγομένων ἐς τὸ κοινόν above. To ἀδυνατώτεροι supply ἢ οἱ ξυνετώτεροι.

ἀπὸ τοῦ ἴσου—‘fair,’ free from personal bias, cf. c. 42; more often ‘on equal terms.’ For ἀγωνιστής as a ‘rhetorical prize-fighter,’ Bloomfield cites several exx. 34

ὀρθοῦνται—‘have a prosperous course’; cf. particularly II. 60 πόλιν ὀρθουμένην )( σφαλλομένην. Here ὀρθοῦνται τὰ πλείω corresponds to πολλὰ σφάλλουσι τὰς πόλεις above. There is an exactly similar passage in Soph. Antig. 673-6. (The rendering ‘judge rightly’ is certainly wrong.)