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

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Καί τινα—the principal sentence.

Πλειστοάνακτα —when Euboea and Megara revolted from Athens 445 B.C., and Pericles had crossed to Euboea, Pleistoanax invaded Attica, but retreated after ravaging the Thriasian plain, as Pericles returned.

μεμνημένοι. .ὅτε...ἀνεχώρησε—‘remembering the time when.’ Cf. c. 54, 4 μνήμη ἐγένετο . ὅτε (ὁ θεὸς) ἀνεῖλε. Eur. Hec. 112 οἶσθ᾽ ὅτε χρυσέοις ἐφάνη ξὺν ὅπλοις. Only ὅτε is used in prose to mark a date. See c. 98, 1. So ‘audivi eum eum diceret.’

ἐσβαλὼν ... οὐκέτι προελθὼν— both temporal; cf. c. 68, 3, 71, 2, where also the time of the first precedes that of the second.

ἐς Ἐ. καὶ Θριῶζε—i.e. ἐς Ἐ. καὶ τὸ Θριάσιον πεδίον. ἐς τὸ π. οὐκέτι—‘without advancing further.’ Cf. I. 114 τὸ πλἐον οὐκέτι προελθόντες. With the eomparative the -έτι is superfluous, but idiomatic.

ἡ φυγὴ—Thuc. writes as though he had mentioned this before, but nothing is said about it in I. 114, and it is again referred to incidentally V. 16. It must have been a very famous event.

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Ὡς εἰκὸς—with ἐφαίνετο. ἐν τῷ ἐμφανεῖ—)(ἐν τῷ ἀφανεῖ I. 136. ἐν in an adverbial phrase is eommon.

πλὴν —here an adverb. Cf. c. 34. So ad = ὡς, Livy XXI. 22, 3 ad mille oetingenti, though that use is limited to cases in whieh mille or millia intervenes.

τὰ Μηδικὰ—‘at the time of the Persian war.’ Cf. I. 3, 4 τὰ πρὸ Ἕλληνος. Adverbial aceusative, as in τὸ πρῶτον. μὴ περιορᾶν—distinguish (a) οὐκ ἐδόκει περιορᾶν, ‘it did not seem good to overlook it,’ (b) ἐδόκει οὐ περιορᾶν, ‘it seemed that they were not overlooking it,’ (c) ἐδόκει μὴ περιορᾶν, ‘it seemed better not to,’ i.e. ‘they determined not to,’ implying ‘preferenee or deprecation.’ Rutherford. Syntax, p. 132.

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Κατὰ ξ. γ.—so γίγνομαι is often used with participial expressions. Cf. c. 3 ἐκ τοῦ ἴσου γίγνεσθαι. The style here beeomes more animated, the conflicting passions being described, as usual, in short eo-ordinate sentences.

οἱ μὲν— apposition to the universal subject. Cf. c. 16, 1.

παντοίους, ὡς ἀκροᾶσθαι—i.e. every man, to whatever side he belonged, eould quote his own oraele-monger.

ὥρμητο—with infin., as in c. 59. παρὰ—c. 72, 2.

παντί τε—this τε sums up the preeeding three.

στρατηγὸς ὢν—Pericles being στρατηγὸς αὐτοκράτωρ (speeially given unlimited powers) could prevent any of his colleagues from leading them out.

ὑπεξαγάγοι— cause assigned by the people. Hence optative.