Harold North Fowler, Commentary on Thucydides Book 5

Λεῦκτρα: can be only the Areadian Leuctra, since it is described as πρὸς τὸ Λύκαιον (another Leuctra was in Laconia, near the mouth of the Pamisus). At this time the Lacedaemonians counted it among their possessions, although it was situated in the μεθορία, and they wished to cross the border from this point. It afterwards belonged to the territory of Megalopolis. See Curtius, Pelopon. I. p. 293 and p. 336, note 9.

αἱ πόλεις: αἱ Λακωνικαί, Schol., doubtless correctly. At first only the perioeci were called out (πανδημεί, 2). καὶ τοῖς ξυμμάχοις περιήγγειλαν, 7, applies only to the later campaign.

τὰ διαβατήρια: sc. ἱερά. Cf. c. 116. 3. The sacrifice offered to Zeus by the Spartan kings before crossing the border; freq. in Xen. Hell. (iii. 4. 3; iv. 7. 2; v. 3. 14; 4. 37 and 47), who describes it, de Rep. Lac. 13. 2 ff.

προυχώρει: cf. Xen. Hell. iii. 4. 3, ἐξῆλθε. Elsewhere in Thuc., c. 55. 15 and c. 116. 3, and Xen. ll.cc., ἐγένετο.

μετὰ τὸν μέλλοντα : sc. μῆνα. The Laconian month Καρνεῖος corre sponds to the Att. Μεταγειτνιών as the second month of summer, nearly our August.

ἱερομηνία: see App.

τετράδι φθίνοντος: i.e. on the 27th of the month.

ἄγοντες τὴν ἡμέραν ταύτην πάντα τὸν χρόνον: with this punctuation (comma after πάντα τὸν χρόνον, not before), which is that adopted by Bekker, Grote, VI. p. 336, explains: ‘keeping that day during the whole time’; i.e. they called every day the 27th as long as they were in Epidaurian territory, and in that way postponed the following month as long as they pleased. Madvig (Advv. Critt. I. p. 324) gives the same explanation: Argivi fraude minime sane subtili utentes, ne mense Carneo, ut adversarii, quiescere cogerentur, per totum tempus unum diem se agere finexerunt eodemque omnes numero nomineque signarunt, τριακάδα [rather τετράδα] φθίνοντος mensis qui Carneum praecedebat appellantes. He compares with this a similar trick told of Alexander by Plut. Alex. 16. Grote reminds us that the Argives once tried a similar trick against the Lacedaemonians. Cf. Xen. Hell. iv. 7. 1 f. (Schütz, Ztschr. für d. Gymn. Wesen 1, 31, p. 258, thinks it means “marching this day all the time,” i.e. ‘they employed the whole day in marching.’）

τινες οἱ μέν: Kr. explains this by saying that τινες shows that οἱ μέν . . . οἱ δέ do not include all the allies, some of whom may actually have come. This seems prob. from c. 55. 6, τοὺς δ᾽ Ἐπιδαυρίους καὶ τοὺς ξυμμάχους. (Cl. explains τινες οἱ μέν as equiv to οἱ μέν τινες, but suggests that οἱ μέν may be a copyist's addition.)