Charles D. Morris, Commentary on Thucydides Book 1

ἐπεγένετο: came upon, happened, from the outside. This verb is often used of what is unexpected and disastrous, as in ii.58.8; vii.87.14; viii.96.8; and therefore of destructive natural phenomena, as in ii.4.8; 77. 20; iv.3.7; viii.34.4.

ἄλλοθι: not here local, but of circumstances, relations, aliis rerum condicionibus. Cf. Plat. Symp. 184 e, μοναχοῦ ἐνταῦθα συμπίπτει . . . ἄλλοθι δὲ οὐδαμοῦ.

μὴ αὐξηθῆναι : the Vat. Ms. has τοῦ, other Mss. τοῦ μή, before the inf. We might have had the simple inf. as in iv.67.24. GMT. 92, 1, N. 2; 95, 2; H. 1029.—καὶ Ἴωσι: should after ἄλλοις τε depend on ἐπεγένετο, but is dat. of interest with the partic. clause, and is felt again with ἐπεστράτευσε. For similar irregularity from apparent displacement of τε, cf. c. 53. 7; 77. 24; 129. 5; iii.94.17; iv.28.19; 52. 5; 85. 11; 127. 12; Hom. Ω 632. ἐπιστρατεύειν has dat. in c. 107. 25; iii.54.8; but acc. in iv.60.10; 92. 26.—προχωρησάντων...πραγμάτων : refers to the Ionians, not, as the Schol. says, to the Persians.— 3. ἡ Περσικὴ βασιλεία: in a concrete sense, the Persian empire, as in ii.97.25, of the Odrysian kingdom. The reading ἐξουσία of inferior Mss., adopted by St., P., B., v. H., is not a suitable word for an absolute monarchy.

καθελοῦσα: (see on c. 4. 6) has the double obj. Κροῖσον (B.C. 549) and ὅσα . . . θάλασσαν (sc. ἐστί, as εἰσί in ii.97.25). Cf. Hdt. i. 71 ff.—ἐντὸς Ἅλυος ποταμοῦ: on the west side of the Halys, from the point of view of the Greeks; πρὸς θάλασσαν from that of the Persians. The generic name is often thus joined with the special, which takes the attrib. position. Cf. ii.97.3; iv.102.3; vi.4.2.

Δαρεῖος δὲ κτἑ.: acc. to Hdt. i. 169, the Ionians, οἱ τὰς νήσους ἔχοντες, i.e. the Chians and Samians (c. 142), had surrendered to Cyrus. But Thuc. is probably right in placing their subjugation after the battle of Lade (B.C. 494?). Cf. Hdt. vi. 7-17.