E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides Book 1

122. 6. ξυμμάχων τε ἀπόστασις κτλ.—such as revolt of allies, which means in the main withdrawal of the revenues that give them their strength, and erection of a hostile fortress in their country. The first ‘way of war’ was followed by Brasidas in 424 B.C.: the second was not used until 413 B C. (Decelea), but the Athenians had then long feared such an attempt. The context makes it clear that ἀπόστασις implies the bringing about of revolt.

11 ἐπὶ ῥητοῖς—in accordance with fixed conditions; cf. c. 13. 1: the meaning is explained in the following words.

13. ἐν ᾧ κτλ.—and in this case, i e. ‘and this being so, he who enters on war in a calm spirit is safer, whereas he who loses control of himself over it gets more falls.’ The meaning is ‘opportunities arise in war and have to be seized as they arise: it is not well for us to get excited now in thinking out plans of campaign—such cut and dried schemes generally miscariy—but what we must do is to enter on war calmly and take opportunities as they occur.’ ὀργή means excitement, not anger here; cf. 2.11. 7: οὐκ ἐλάσσω euphemism for πλείω, i.e. probably ἢ ὁ εὑοργήτως προσομιλήσας.

[2] 17. ἑκάστοις—each state.

πρὸς ἀντιπάλους—with an enemy equal to us (and not stronger)

18. οἰστόν—the position would be easy, i.e. there would be no need for us to combine.

20. κατὰ πόλιν=(πρὸς ἡμᾶς）κατὰ πόλιν, lit. as compared with us separately city by city. For ἔτι we expect πολύ, far more powerful, since we want a strong contrast after ἱκανοὶ πρὸς ξύμπαντας. ἔτι must be regarded as a meiosis (Conradt and Steup have proposed considerable changes, but the text appears to be sound)

21. καὶ ἁθρόοι—not only as a confederacy, but every tribe and every single town.

25. ἄντικρυς δουλείαν—downright slavery; cf. viii. 64 ἡ ἄντικρυς ἐλευθερία; the adv. qualifies noun though without the art., as in vii. 81 ού ξυσταδὸν μάχαις ἐχρῶντο.

26. δ καὶ κτλ.—the very mention of which as a possibility is disgraceful (Wilkins). ὅ is τὸ δουλεύειν.

[3] 27. καὶ πόλεις κτλ.—some edd. make this a second subject to ἐνδοιασθῆναι (Kruger, Classen, Croiset), which gives an excelleut sense: but the constn. is simpler if αἰσχρόν is made pred. to this—and that so many cities should be maltreated by one. Whichever be right, the ref. must be to the misery of political slavery imposed by Athens; and cannot, in view of the next sentence, and of ήλευθέρωσαν, opp. δουλείαν, apply to the present treatment of the confederacy.

28. ἐν ᾦ—in that case; cf. 122.1;=εἰ πόλεις τοσαίδε ... κακοπαθοῖμεν.

2. ἡμεῖς δέ—this is in contiast with οἴ=οἰ μὲν γὰρ（πατέρες). αὐτό means τὴν ἐλευθερίαν implied in ἡλευθέρωσαν. ἡμῖν αὐτοῖς of course means for the Peloponnesiaus: and this clause implies ‘much less do we give freedom to all Greece’: hence there is no difficulty in supplying ἐν τῇ Ἑλλάδι to εγκαθεστάναι.

3. τύραννον δὲ ... καταλύειν—we allow a despotic state to establish itself in Greece; and yet we make a point of putting down despots in any single city. τοὺς ἐν μιᾷ, sc πόλει (which possibly has dropped out of the text), μονάρχους is opposed to τύραννον πόλιν ἐν Ἑλλάδι. The traditional policy of Sparta is alluded to.

[4] 5. ἴσμεν—sc. ἡμεῖς (of the speaker). The subject is not identical with that of ἀξιοῦμεν (the confederacy).

6. τάδε ... ἀπήλλακται—this policy is (=can possibly be) free from—viz. the policy of allowing an Athens to flourish. As it is not free from all three, it is exposed to at least one: hence there is no need for ἑνός after ξυμφορῶν: see p. 31 l. 5.

8. οὐ γὰρ δὴ πεφευγότες αὐτά—the rendering ‘we cannot suppose that you have avoided these evils only to’ etc. (Classen, Croiset, Forbes, etc), meaning by irony ‘we suspect that you have,’ cannot be right, since the previous sentence distinctly says, ‘you have not escaped all three of these ξυμφοραί.’ Hence we must transl. (with Kruger, Bohme, Steup): ‘For it is not the case that you are free from these errors in assuming that contempt which has proved ruinous to so many (δή strengthens πλείστους), and which from its tendency to trip men up, has received instead (sc. from prudent men) the opposite name of folly.’ Nothing is gained by preserving the jingle in καταφρόνησις and αφροσύνη, because (1) to a Greek writer such a jingle has some rhetorical merit; in English it is detestable and pointless; (2) though ἀφροσύνη is spoken of as the opposite (ἐναντίον) of καταφρόνησις, it is really only different, but early Greek thinkers on the meaning of terms often confuse the contiary with the contradictory. τὸ ἐναντίον ὄνομα is internal accus. to μετωνόμασται.