E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides Book 1

5. Ἴωνας—the Ionian cities of Asia Minor. νησιωτῶν—the Cyclades; cf. c. 4. Isocr. Panath. 43.

6. Ἰταλίας—i.e. the modern Calabria, the peninsula reaching to the Lius on W. and to Metapontum on E. “The chief Peloponnesian founders of Sicilian and Italian cities were the Corinthians who founded Syracuse, and through Syracuse, Camarina [Acrae and Casmenae], the Megarians who founded the Hyblaean Megara, and through Megara, Selinus: the Achaeans who founded Sybaris and Croton, some Lacedaemonians who founded Tarentum.” Forbes. But (1) Megara is not part of the Peloponnese (2.9), see next note; (2) it is not clear that Tarentum is reckoned in Italy.

8. ἔστιν ἃ χωρία—it is supposed that the colonies of Corinth in the W., Corcyra, Leucas, Ambracia, etc. are referred to. If so (1) τὸ πλεῖστον above is an exaggeration; (2) Ἑλλάς is here used for all the country ultimately inhabited by Greeks—as in Thuc.'s time: but Ἑλλάς was not so used above; (3) the vagueness of the reference to these colonies is strange. Steup gets over all these difficulties by taking ἔστιν ἃ χωρία as nom., so that the Megarian (see last note), Locrian and Chalcidian colonies would be included. This is tempting, and for the use of χωρία we might compare “τὰ τρέφοντα ἡμᾶς χωρία τῆς Ἰταλίας, ὁρῶντα ἐν ᾧ ἐσμεν” 7.14. But it must be confessed that (1) ἔστιν ἅ looks like an antithesis to τὸ πλεῖστον: (2) πάντα δὲ ταῦτα appears to refer to ἔστιν ἃ χωρία as well as to the colonies mentioned before. Perhaps Thuc. writes somewhat vaguely here.