C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5

προσεδέχοντο—‘were ready to receive’, or ‘were to receive’ according to the arrangements made.

μέρος τι τῆς Ἀρκαδίας—see ch. 33. κατέστραπτο ὑπήκοον—i. 8, 3, προσεποιοῦντο ὑπηκόους τὰς ἐλάσσους πόλεις. ἄρχειν—either to rule the district in question, or absolutely to hold an empire, or act like a sovereign state. The infinitive with περιόψεσθε occurs i. 35, 3, and in several other passages there collected by Krüger. It differs from the participial construction (e.g. iv. 11, 3) inasmuch as that implies a present or accomplished fact, which is to be stopped or avenged, while the infinitive suggests a supposed possibility which is to be guarded against. Grote points out (ch. 55) that the conquest effected by Mantinea during the war was a violation of the principle of the Peloponnesian confederacy; and opposed to the general policy of Sparta, which was in favour of maintaining the independence of the little states, and thus ensuring her own influence as general leader. See note on ch. 31, 15.

ἐπειδὴ καί—besides other considerations, they had also leisure to interfere.

ὥσπερ καὶ αὐτοί—sc. δημοκρατοῦνται, so ch. 44, 10. This is the more common construction in Greek: in Latin the rule is to follow the antecedent case. Such instances as the following are quite exceptional: Liv. xlii. 37, eodem se loco esse quo Messenii atque Eíei: Tac. Ann. xii. 7, cuncta feminae obediebant, non per lasciviam, ut Messalina, rebus Romanis illudenti: ib. xiii. 19. Plautum. pari ac Nero gradu a divo Augusto, destinavisse.

ἐς θροῦν καθίστατο—‘took to talking’; ch. 30, 1: cf. ch. 7, 8. The imperfect denotes the beginning and continuance of the θροῦς, which in the first words of the next chapter is described as prevalent (καθεστῶτα, ‘on foot, established’).

νομίσαντες...καὶ ἔχοντες—note variation of tense, as in ch. 28, 10. For πλέον εἰδώς cf. vii. 49 fin. ὑπόνοια μή τι καὶ πλέον εἰδὼς ὸ Νικίας ἰσχυρίζηται. The participle as usual conveys the most important idea; ch. 1, 5: cf. iv. 27, 2, ἔχοντάς τι ἰσχυρὸν αὐτοὺς ἐνόμιζον οὐκέτι ἐπικηρυκεύεσθαι, ‘they thought they must have some strong point, as’ etc.

δι᾽ ὀργῆς ἔχοντες—ii. 60, 3, ἐμὲ δι᾽ αἰτίας ἔχετε. also ἐν ὀργῇ ἔχειν: ii. 8, 3, ὀργῇ εἷχον. ἀμφοῖν τοῖν—see note on ch. 23, 9.

τοῦτο τὸ γράμμα—the wording of this clause. γράμμα in the singular is used of a short piece of writing, e.g. of the Delphian inscription γνῶθι σεαυτόν. The strong compound διαθορυβεῖν is only found here in classical Greek.

δίκαιον γὰρ εἶναι—the infinitive depends on the sense of saying or thinking supplied from ἐς ὑποφίαν καθίστη. The words πᾶσι τοῖς ξυμμάχοις are as it were in inverted commas and are governed by δοκῇ, not γεγράφθαι. The sense is, ‘the wording of the (provision for) alteration ought to have been, (ὅ τι ἂν δοκῇ) πᾶσι τοῖς ξυμμάχοις, and not ἀμφοῖν τοῖν πολέοιν’.