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.