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

ἀδικοῦμεν—‘are guilty,’ as often.

κοινά—‘common to.’ Plataea had remained outside the Boeotian league as reconstituted in 446 B.C., and of course had no representatives in the General Assembly of the league which met at Thebes.

καταστῆσαι—‘bring you into line with.’

πλείω παραβαλλόμενοι—they were οὐ τῶν ἀδυνατωτάτων (II. 3); cf. § 2. For the verb cf. c. 14, 1.

φιλίως, οὐ πολεμίως κομίσαντες—cf. the αὐτοί and πολέμιοι of § 2, and c. 66 οὐ πολεμίως ἐπράσσομεν which show that the adverbs cannot apply merely to the Plat. and mean ‘with friendly, and not hostile intent to their fellow-citizens’; but must refer to the Theb. For this reason, and because κομίσαντες lacks an obj., Steup reads φιλίους and πολεμίους. But ‘in a friendly manner’ implies here ‘us as friends of Plataea,’ and κομίζειν is used like δέχεσθαι. It is not necessary to have an obj. expressed; cf. ἐπεκαλέσαντο above. The rest of the sentence shows that there is an intentional vagueness in the terms chosen: it was ‘a friendly transaction.’

ὑμῶν—partitive, in unusual position; cf. c. 22, 5. μηκέτι μᾶλλον γενέσθαι—χείρους and ἀμείνους have a political meaning here, and are scarcely felt as comparatives: hence μᾶλλον is natural; ‘should henceforth not get more so.’

σωφρονισταὶ . . οἰκειοῦντες—adopting Weil's view that γνώμης and σωμἀτων must be under the same governance, and that there must he a real antithesis between ἁλλοτριοῦντες and οἰκειοῦντες, tr. ‘seeking to regulate opinion and persons, not alienating their city (handing it over to strangers), but bringing it home to the union of their kinsmen’ (the Boeotian confederacy). It is usual to take τῶν σωμἀτων with τὴν πόλιν, ‘not depriving the city of your persons’: this is very strange for τὰ σώματα τῆς πόλεως ἀλλοτριοῦντες. σωφρονισταί of the party opposed to extreme democracy; cf. c. 82, 8. (For the antithesis of σῶμα and γνώμη, Andoc. de Red. 24.)

ἐχθροὺς . . ἐνσπόνδους—“sc. ὑμᾶς; not breaking your peaceful relations with any state, e.g. Athens, but putting you in them on a footing with every other state, i.e. Thebes. Plataea was still, as they sophistically say, to enjoy the σπονδαί, but not on conditions peculiar to herself. ἅπασι depends on ὁμοίως” (Prof. Lamberton).