C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5

αὐτοί—thus avoiding the appearance of compulsion, and excluding their late allies from any credit for the surrender.

οὐ δυνάμενοι—see note on διενοεῖτο, ch. 80, 12. ξυνέβησαν—for 30 years, according to Xen. Hell. v. 2, 2. τὴν ἀρχὴν...τῶν πόλεων—see ch. 29, ch. 33 etc. These cities were given up in accordance with the provision of the treaty, ch. 79, 5.

καὶ Λακεδαιμόνιοι—this sentence is a curious example of appositional construction, the subject being first contracted with αὐτοὶ οἱ Λακεδαιμόνιοι and again expanded with ξυναμφότεροι. The clause beginning τά τ᾽ ἐν Σικυῶνι is in fact semiparenthetical, and the meaning is that the Lacedaemonians before marching with the Argives to Argos, went by themselves to Sicyon. The Argive χίλιοι seem those mentioned in ch. 67, 15; most of them escaping the slaughter of Mantinea (ch. 73, 22).

ἐς ὀλίγους...κατέστησαν—i e. set up an oligarchical government; ii. 37, 1, διὰ τὸ μὴ ἐς ὀλίγους ἀλλ̓ ἐς πλείονας οἰκεῖν: viii. 53, 4, ἐς ὀλίγους μᾶλλον τὰς ἀρχὰς ποιήσομεν: viii. 89, 3, τοῦ ἄγαν ἐς ὀλίγους ἐλθεῖν. In viii. 38, 3, the manuscripts have τῆς πόλεως ἐς ὀλίγον κατεχομένης, where the meaning required is ‘being reduced to an oligarchy’. No similar instance of ἐς ὀλίγον is forthcoming, and Classen and Stahl adopt Dobree's correction ἐς ὀλίγους.

μᾶλλον—Krüger seems right in understanding ἢ ἐς πλείονας. Most editors understand ἢ πρότερον: but Krüger observes that this would require a more emphatic position of μᾶλλον, such as before ἐς. Grote points out that Sicyon had always been oligarchic and favourable to Sparta; but a democratic party may have been making head.

κατέλυσαν—see ch. 76, 7. ἐπιτηδεία—‘favourable to their interests’. This was the Lacedaemonian system; see i. 19, 1, οἰ μὲν Λακεδαιμόνιοι οὐχ ὑποτελεῖς ἔχοντες φόρου τοῦς ξυμμάχους ἠγοῦντο, κατ᾽ ὀλιγαρχίαν δὲ σφίσιν αὐτοῖς μόνον ἐπιτηδείως ὅπως πολιτεύσωσι θεραπεύοντες.