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

οἵτινες—the dat. antecedent omitted. Distinguish between οἵτινες μή and οἵτινες οὐ below.

νῆσον . . μετὰ τειχῶν—thus secure against enemies. The contrast to the previous sentence is stated in inverse order: subjection—compulsion; security—freedom. This is a common arrangement of clauses in Thuc.

ἐν ῳ—of their condition.

καὶ αὐτοί—independently of our help.

ἐπανέστησαν μᾶλλον ἢ ἀπέστησαν—an armed rising contrasted with a secession; but the application of the contrast to the circumstances of Lesbos is not exact, since ἐπανάστασις implies a dominant power, which Athens ex hypothesi was not.

μέν γε—‘secession anyhow,’ whatever be the truth about ἐπανάστασις. For the suppression of the δέ-clause after this combination cf. Aristoph. Ach. 154 τοῦτο μέν γ᾽ ἤδη σαφές. (Append. i., Neil, Aristoph. Equites).

βίαιόν τι πασχόντων—this is far-fetched; and the implied contrast about ἐπανάστασις would too obviously not hold: hence the statement of it is suppressed.

καίτοι—‘surely.’

καθ᾽ αὑτούς—‘by themselves,’ not μετὰ τῶν πολεμιωτάτων στάντες.

κτώμενοι—probably conative.