E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides Book 1

17. (διὰ τὰς) ... ἐφόδους—their hazardous intercourse.

ξυνήθη κτλ = ξυνήθως ἐδιῃτῶντο.

19. ταῦτα ... ἔτι οὕτω νεμόμενα—the fact that in these parts of Greece men still live in this way. This predicative use of the partic. is less common in Gk. than in Lat. (see M. T. 829 b). It is most often found with prepositions, and especially in phrases indicating time, with μετά, ἐπί, ἁμά. With certain well-defined exceptions, it does not occur unless the noun and verb yield sense without the partic.; i.e. the partic, was felt to be separate from the noun.

[2] 20. ἐς πάντας ὁμοίων—lit. extending in similar form to all, like ἐς ὀλίγους οἰκεῖν in 2.37. 1. The substitution of the noun διαιτημάτων for the verb inf. τοῦ ... διαιτᾶσθαι with snitable constrn. Is characteristic of the old style.

[3] 21. ἐν τοῖς πρῶτοι—the undoubted exx of this idiom in Thuc are, besides this place (where Prof. Tucker wrongly says the evidence favours πρώτοις), 3.82. 1 (στάσις）ἐν τοῖς πρώτη ἐγένετο: 7.24. 3 μέγιστον καὶ ἐν τοῖς πρῶτον: ib. 71. 3 ἐν τοῖς χαλεπώτατα: 8.90. 1 ἐν τοῖς μάλιστα. In 7.19. 4 the MSS. give ἐν τοῖς πρώτοις (not πρῶτοι): ib. 27, ἐν τοῖς πρώτοις (not πρῶτον or πρώτη): in viii. 89 ἑν τοῖς πρώτοις (not πρῶτοι). Pre-eminence is not necessarily implied in any example, and Herbst is perhaps right in saying that prominence only is meant. If so, it may be that the nom. is due only to attraction to the subject; the principle being naturally extended to the adverb.

22. ἀνειμένῃ τῇ διαίτῃ—dat, of manner.

24. αὐτοῖς—ethic dat., very common in Thuc, where the gen. might be used.

25. εὐδαιμόνων—in the popular meaning

διὰ τὸ ἁβροδίαιτον—with φοροῦντες. For the long linen (Ionian) χιτων worn by Ionians, Carians, Lydians see Gardner and Jevons, Gk. Ant. p. 49. Cf. Aesch. Persae 41 ἁβροδιαίτων δ᾽ ἕπεται Λυδῶν ὄχλος. Aften the Persian wars the short (Dorian) χιτών of wool was substituted for it.

οὐ πολὺς χρόνος ἐπειδή—no long time ago. ἀφ᾽ οὖ, ἐξ οὗ, ἐπεί, ὡς, ὅτε are all found in such phrases.

27. χρυσῶν τεττίγων seem to be pins with figures of grasshoppers at the end. Several might be used, apparently, for one κρώβυλος, like hairpins. Helbig, however, thinks that metal spiral ornaments through which the ‘tail’ of the hair was passed are meant, and Studniczka supports this view; but it does not seem probable. The κρώβυλος—which doubtless took different forms—is perhaps to be recognised on ancient monuments, since Xen. Anab. 5. 4. 13 speaks of leather helmets adorned with a κρώβυλος and resembling a tiara (the various forms of which are well known). εἴρω, twist, favours ‘coil’; but, if the pins had a bend in them, we can understand ἔνερσις. (The v.l. ἐν ἔρσει is prob. a false division like ἐν τομῇ for ἐντομῆ, c. 93. 5.) Cf. Aristoph. Eq. 1325, Nub. 984.

28. ἀφ᾽ οὗ—from this circumstance It is likely that Thuc. is mistaken in saying that the Athenians carried the fashion to Asia Minor, and that it spread rather from the Ionians (Carrans, Lydians) to the Athenians. Cf. Herod. 5.88.

1. ἐπὶ πολύ—temporal.

[4] μετρίᾳ—this may mean that the Dorians too for a time had worn the ‘Ionian’ dress; but more probably Thuc. in μετρίᾳ and ἐς τὸν νῦν τρόπον thought rather of the Athenians, and meant merely that the Spartans originated the ‘Dorian’ χιτών.

4. ἰσοδίαιτοι with πρὸς τοὺς πολλούς, τὰ μείζω, which is unusual for τὰ πλείω, is thought to refer to the fact that land was the sole form of wealth in early Sparta.

[5] 6. ἐς τὸ φανερὸν ἀποδύντες —ες τὸ φ. is a standing phrase for ‘openly,’ ‘in public,’ with verbs of motion, or suggestive of motion. The simplest form of phrase is such as ἐς τὸ φ. ἐνεγκεῖν (Hyperid. I. v. 3), but Thuc., as so often, strains the use of the prep.

λίπα—with oil, frequent in Homer. It is generally explained as instrumental case, but K. W Kruger calls it internal accus.

μετὰ τοῦ—in company with, i.e. ‘when they ...,’ as 3.59. 3 βίου κίνδυνος ἐλλὺς μετ᾽ αὐτοῦ (sc. τοῦ τελευτᾶν λόγου).

7. ἠλείψαντο—reflexive mid. like λούομαι, ὁπλίζομαι, and other words of the toilet.

8. διαζώματα—Il. 23, 683 ζῶμα δέ οἱ πρῶτον παρακάββαλεν.

10. πέπαυται—sc. τὸ διαζωματα ἔχοντας ἀγωνιζεσθαι.

The order is ἔτι δὲ καὶ νῦν ἐν τοῖς β ἔστιν οἷς (= ἐνίοις), καὶ μάλιστα（ἐν）τοῖς Ἀσιανοῖς. In the nom. plur, always εἰσὶν οἴ, αἵ; in oblique cases always ἔστιυ ὧν etc. in Thuc, unless words intervene, as in vii. 25 ἦσαν τῶν σταυρῶν οὕς.

12. ἆθλα τίθεται καί = ἄθλων τιθεμένων.

13. πολλὰ ... ὁμοιότροπα—internal accus. to διαιτώμενον.