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

μᾶλλον—sc. ὠμὴ προχωρῆσαι.

ἐν τοῖς πρώτην—see on c. 17, 1.

ὡς εἰπεῖν—qualifying a sweeping statement (never apologizing for a metaphor): ‘I might almost say,’ ‘almost.’

τὸ Ἑλληνικόν—c. 57, 2.

ἐπάγεσθαι—“sense” constr., διαφορῶν οὐσῶν implying ‘attempting.’

καὶ ἐν μὲν εἰρήνῃ . . ἐπορίζοντο—the transition from μέν+partic. to δέ+finite verb here is considered perhaps the most extraordinary anacoluthon in Thuc. It is quite different from cases like c. 81, 4, since there is here no finite verb for the μέν-clause. To put a comma only at Λακεδαιμονίους instead of the usual full stop helps to some degree. ἐτόλμων for ἑτοἱμων (Vollgraff and Classen) is a conjecture worth notice.

οὐκ ἂν ἐχόντων—sc. αὐτῶν, the leaders of both parties in any given state.

ἑτοίμων—sc. ὄντων, an unusual ellipse except when the adj.+omitted partic. is supplementary to a verb, as in τετύχηκε τὸ ἐπιτήδευμα ἄλογον, sc. ὄν, I. 23.

αὐτούς—Athenians or Lac., as the ease might be.

πολεμουμένων—mase. from πολεμόω, of the Ath. and Lac. (to refer this to the two political parties is very strained).

καὶ ξυμμαχίας ἅμα . . αἱ ἐπαγωγαί—i.e. καὶ αἱ ἐπαγωγαὶ ἅμα ξυμμαχίας. The point of καὶ άμα is that parties no longer carried on their rivalry amongst themselves at home, but readily called in the help of allies too. ἐπαγωγαί is ‘opportunities for calling in.’ ἑκατέροις is ambiguous: it may be (1) by the Ath. and Lac., agent to ἐπορίζοντο, or (2) to either party in a state <*> then τοῖς . . βουλομένοις will be in limiting apposition to it. In either case τοῖς . . βουλομένοις is probably not dat. of agent.

τῇ . . προσποιήσει—the two ideas are parts of one whole, so that one art. suffices. The dat is that of motive, esp. common in Thuc., mostly with single words such as φιλίᾳ, ἔχθει, εὐνοίᾳ Thompson, At Syn. p. 150. σφίσιν αὐτοῖς is governed by προσποιήσει, ib. p. 155. The whole sentence has the appearance of a series of notes that have not been put into their final form.