E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides Book 1

23. τε—answered by ἐπειδὴ δέ, as e.g. in 6.83. 1; 7. 81; and c. 25. 3.

24. ὅσον—only so large as.

αὐτόθεν with βιοτεύσειν, support itself in the (enemy's) country.

25. ἀφικόμενοι—on their arrival, i.e. immediately after they landed. (This passage, from this word to the end of 11.2, is much disputed.)

26. μάχῃ ἐκράτησαν—the conjecture ἐκρατήθησαν reduces the words τοῖς αἰεὶ ... ὄντες below to absurdity; and κρατοῦντες would have to be changed to κρατήσαντες. The Greeks were able to raise a rampart because they had won a victory.

τὸ γάρ—for otherwise. This rampart is not that referred to in Il. vii. 336 and 433 as built in the tenth year by the counsel of Nestor, but one built immediately after the arrival of the Greeks, though this does not necessitate inserting εὐθύς after ἄν with Dittrich. Similarly the γεωργία τῆς Χερσονήσου below is not heard of in the Il. Thuc. doubtless got these details from a poem that related the earlier events of the war. Cf. the Schol. here: ἔρυμα λέγει νῦν οὐχ ὅπερ ἐν τῇ ή λέγει Ὅμηρος γενέσθαι, ἀλλὰ πρότερον μικρότερον διὰ τὰς τῶν βαρβάρων ἐπιδρομάς. (Strabo quotes the opinion of Aristotle that the τεῖχος of Il. 7, which was so promptly destroyed by Poseidon, was in reality never built. It seems impossible that Thuc. can have had that τεῖχος in mind)

27. φαίνονται δέ — this is δέ in apodosis, and it is here apparently suggested by the contrast set up by the parenthesis: though they fortified a camp, they did not employ their whole force. This δέ generally follows a parenthesis; but not in 2.65. 1 ἐπειδὴ ὁ πόλεμος κατέστη, ὁ δὲ φαίνεται καὶ ἐν τούτῳ προγνοὺς τὴν δύναμιν

28. ἐνταῦθα—before Troy; and consequently the Trojans held out.

2. αὐτῶν—of their own accord.

[2] τὰ δέκα ἔτη—those ten years.

3. βίᾳ—in the field. They were not penned up in the city.

ὑπολειπομένοις—imperf., who at any given time were left behind.

7. ῥᾳδίως ἂν μάχῃ ... Τροίαν εἷλον — does this passage refer to ‘the two natural stages of the expedition’— battle followed by siege, or two alternative means of taking Troy,—either by pitched battle outside the gates, or by siege? Those who adopt the first, either (a) bracket the first εἷλον with Kruger as spurious, and explain the δ᾽ after πολιορκίᾳ as (a violent) apodotic δέ, or, with Kruger bracket it; or else (b) make the first εἷλον mean, not ‘capture (Troy),’ but, with Herbst, ‘defeat (the Trojans).’ Those who adopt the second with Bauer, make μάχῃ κρατοῦντες = ‘by superiority in the field,’ and not ‘being as they were superior in the field’; and πολιορκίᾳ προσκαθεζόμενοι = ‘by a regular siege,’ instead of ‘by persisting in a siege.’ But the difficulties involved in this are insuperable; for—apart from the extraordinary way in which the supposed alternative methods are expressed, and joined by δέ instead of ἤ—the sense obtained, though at first sight attractive, makes περιουσίαν ἔχοντες τροφῆς and ξυνεχῶς τὸν πόλεμον διέφερον pointless in so far as the first method— superiority in the field + assault—is concerned; it necessitates forcing the meaning by an immediate assault (κατὰ κράτος) into μάχῃ κρατοῦντες, and thus making this wholly distinct from μάχῃ ἐκράτησαν in 11.1; and it strains no less the meaning of πολιορκίᾳ προσκαθεζόμενοι. We therefore prefer the first plan, but slightly modified; if the first εἷλον is genuine, it is probably a mere anticipation of the second. Trans. If they had ... carried on the war persistently, they would easily have continued superior in the field and have taken the city, seeing that ... : if, then, they had persisted in a siege, they would have taken Troy.

προσκαθεζόμενοι governs πολιορκίᾳ.

11. ἀλλά—in contrast with περιουσίαν εἰ ἦλθον ἔχοντες τροφῆς.

τούτων—i.e. τῶν Τρωικῶν.

13. τῶν πρίν—c. 1. 1; 10. 3.

γενόμενα—though it proved.

15. κατεσχηκότος—attributive. When an attributive partic. is itself further defined—διὰ τοὺς ποιητὰς κατεσχηκότος—it is frequently placed outside the art. This idiom is by no means confined to Thuc.