E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 2

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Τῆς Ἀτ. ἐς Οἰνόην—for order cf. c. 21, 1, 25, 3.

Οἰνόην—there were two roads to Attica, the one a bad one by the coast, the other an inland one, leading over Cithaeron by the Pass of the Oak's Heads (Δρυὸς Κεφαλαί) and passing Eleutherae, which is probably the site of Oenoe. In any case Oenoe was on the frontier between Attica and Boeotia and just where the road from Athens and Eleusis branched off, one way to Plataea, the other to the Peloponnese.

ὡς ἐκαθέζοντο —the imperfect implies a prolonged stay. Cf. c. 19, and see c. 3, 1.

προσβολὰς—the siege was preliminary to the invasion. See 19, 1.

παρεσκευάζοντο—for the omission of ὡς with the participle, cf. c. 91, 1.

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Αὐτῷ—follows the gender of the predicate, instead of that of the antecedent.

φρουρίῳ—because it commanded the pass. A similar importance attached to Phyle and Decelea.

ἄλλως—‘in other ways.’

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Αἰτίαν τε—to the end of the chapter is parenthetical.

ἔλαβεν ... δοκῶν ... οὐ παραινῶν—δοκῶν gives the cause of ἔλαβεν, παραινῶν the cause of δοκῶν. Cf. c. 86 ἀνθώρμουν ... γνώμην ἔχοντες ... φοβούμενοι. αὐτοῦ—of what has just been described, as often.

ἐν τῇ ξυναγωγῇ—in bello conflando. So Isocr. οἶμαι τὸν πόλεμον θεῶν τινα συναγαγεῖν. ἐπειδή τε— this τε joins ξυνελέγετο to ἐν τῇ ξυναγωγῇ. Four periods are distinguished, (1) the time when Sparta was seeking a casus belli, (2) the time when the contingents were assembling at the Isthmus, (3) the march to Oenoe, (4) the delay at Oenoe

ἥ τε—this τε belongs equally to ἐπειδὴ ξυν. ὁ στρατός, but the order is distorted for the sake of the antithesis between the three periods. Cf. c. 13, 2.

κατὰ τὴν—i.e. ἡ κατὰ τὴν ἄλλην π. σχολαιότης. Cf. Intr. p. xl.

ἄλλην—exclusive, ‘as well.’

μάλιστα δὲ—the most inelegant section in the book. The repetition of what has been said in 2 above is clumsy.

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Ἐπελθόντες ἂν—the ἂν belongs to καταλαβεῖν only; of course ἂν is constantly attracted to a partic. which forms the protasis; but sometimes the ἂν also belongs to the partic., which is part of the apodosis, as c. 53, 4 βιοὺς ἂν ... ἀντιδοῦναι. (In some cases it is not easy to decide whether the partic. belongs to prot. or apod., as Demosth. Phil. 1, 1.)

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Ἐν ... ὀργῇ—see c. 59, 2.