Charles D. Morris, Commentary on Thucydides Book 1

ἐπεί: since, for. The causes which impeded the development of Hellenic power continued, in some respects, in operation even after the Trojan war; and this fact is a further indication of the truth of the inference in c. 11. § 3.—ἡ Ἑλλὰς...αὐξηθῆναι : Greece was still subject to changes and the establishment of new states, so that it did not get rest (aor. as in c. 3. 8) and so increase. See App.

χρονία: (elsewhere in Thuc. of two terminations) pred. adj. used adv., after a long time. Cf. c. 4. 1; 141. 30; ii.49.29; vi.31.16. G. 138, N. 7; H. 619.

καὶ στάσεις...ἐγίγνοντο : the καί in correlation with the previous τε shows that the στάσεις here spoken of are not, with the Schol., to be regarded as results of the Trojan war, but are the movements, presently mentioned, which were caused by the pressure of the Thessalians. ὡς ἐπὶ πολύ, as a rule, in many instances. See App.

ἀφ̓ ὧν...ἔκτιζον : ἀπό, in consequence of, of the remote, not the immediate, cause. Cf. c. 17. 4; 24. 10. Since ἐκπίπτειν is regularly used as the pass. to ἐκβάλλειν, to express the forced departure of a defeated faction, Cobet wishes to read ὑφ̓ for ἀφ̓. An indef. subj., men, must be supplied. τάς with πόλεις implies those of which current tradition makes report. But Madvig conjectures νέας, and v. H. ἄλλας.

οἱ νῦν: i.e. those occupying the present land of Boeotia.—ἑξηκοστῷ ἔτει: acc. to the common date of the fall of Troy, B.C. 1124.

Ἄρνης: the old home of the Aeolian Boeotians near the Gulf of Pagasae. The Boeotian Arne mentioned Hom. B 507, of doubtful position, probably near Coronea, was named from it.—ἀναστάντες: the regular term for forcible removal. The act. in ii.27.1.

ᾤκισαν: St. reads ᾤκησαν (also B., Kr., v. H.) on the ground that οἰκίσαι de regionum vel urbium aut primis aut novis incolis dicitur—οἰκῆσαι quod in universum sedes collocare significat, de condendis urbibus dicinequit. Cl. admits this distinction, but retains ᾤκισαν, because, though Thuc. conceived some Boeotians to have settled earlier in Boeotia, the ones now spoken of must be regarded as novi incolae.—ἦν δὲ...ἐστράτευσαν : an attempt to reconcile Hom. B 494 ff., which mentions Boeotians who went to the Trojan war, with the tradition that the Aeolic migration into Boeotia took place sixty years after it. But an ἀποδασμός could not fill all the places mentioned in the catalogue as Boeotian; and this so far confirms the judgment of recent criticism, that the νεῶν κατάλογος is one of the latest additions to the Iliad. In ἀφ᾽ ὧν the reference is to the collective ἀποδασμός.

Δωριῆς τε : the particles τε . . . τε unite Βοιωτοὶ κτἑ. and Δωριῆς κτἑ. on an equal footing (c. 8. 14), as illustrations of the want of stability in Hellas.

ἔσχον: aor. as in c. 3. 8. This is the only second aor. which appears to be used ingressively, “the pres. which is ‘process’ of holding connoting ‘state.’ See note on Pind. Ol. 11. 10.” B. L. G.

οὐκέτι ἀνισταμένη: partic. impf., being no longer subject to these violent changes of inhabitants.

ᾤκισαν: with acc. of persons, here and in vi.4.8; rare in prose. Cf. Pind. Is. VIII. 22; Soph. O. C. 785; Eur. Hec. 1022; I. A. 1293.—Ἰταλίας: used by Thuc. only of the peninsula south of the river Laus and Metapontum; cf. vi.2.19; vii.33.21; whereas Campania belongs to Ὀπικία, vi.4.25; and therefore τὸ πλεῖστον may be taken in its proper sense.

τῆς τε ἄλλης Ἑλλάδος κτἑ.: see on c. 1. 6. Notice the rare use of τε to connect two single notions. See on c. 60. 8. Kühn. 519, 2. The many settlements of the Corinthians in the islands and on the coast of the Ionian gulf are referred to.

πάντα δὲ ταῦτα κτἑ.: these words refer to the settlements made after the migrations above mentioned had ceased.