E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 6

στρατόπεδον—often used for an army stationed in a permanent camp.

ἀπροσδόκητοι—active: ‘were not at this moment expecting an immediate engagement.’

ἀπεληλύθεσαν—sc. ἐς τὴν πόλιν.

οἱ δέ—‘others,’ who were returning from Cataua (c. 65, 3), or coming from Syracuse. There was no time to form up regularly.

ἐς ὅσον . . ἀντέχοι—iterative opt., referring to several battles (οὔτ᾽ ἐν ταὐτῃ οὕτ᾽ ἐν ταῖς ἅλλαις).

τῷ δὲ ἐλλείποντι αὐτῆς—‘owing to its short-comings they unwillingly abandoned their inteutions as well.’

ὅμως δέ—answering ἀπροσδόκητοι μἐν. οὐκ ἂν οἰόμενοι . . ἀμύνασθαι is concessive, the ἄν belonging both to ἐπελθεῖν and ἀμύνασθαι: ‘though they did not think that the A. would make an attack on them and that they would suddenly be forced to defend themselves.’ (According to this version οἰόμενοι ἂν ἀμύνασθαι ἀναγκαζόμενοι is the construction. The edd. make ἀναγκαζόμενοι govern ἀμύνασθαι, and Stahl, seeing that by that construction ἀναγκαζόμενοι ἀμύνασθαι ought to be causal, not concessive, is reduced to bracketing οὐκ ἂν οἰόμενοι . . καί as spurious.)

ἀναγκαζόμενοι—‘by compulsion.’ They had thought to choose their own time

οἱ λιθοβόλοι—Wasse and Bloomfield quote several passages to show that these men threw stones and are therefore distinct from slingers.

οἷα—sc. ποιεῖν. Cf. II. 54 οἷα εἰκὸς ἀνεμνήσθησαν, and ὡς εἰκός.

ἐποίουν τροπάς—‘put one another to flight.’ ποιεῖν τροπήν is to ‘cause a flight’ where the enemy returns to fight; ποιεῖσθαι τ. is ‘to defeat’ outright.

μάντεις—some are known to have gone with the A. to Sicily.

ὀτρύνω and its cmpds. are Ionic.

τῆς ἰδίας—governed by περί, and applying to σωτηρίας and ἐλευθερίας. See II. 44, quoted on c. 55, 3.

τὸ μὲν αὐτίκα, τὸ δὲ μέλλον—‘present . . future.’ With τὸ μέλλον cf. τὸ ἀρχαῖον, τὸ παλαιόν, τὸ λοιπόν.

περί τε τῆς ἀλλοτρίας—sc. μαχούμενοι, on which also depends σχεῖν, the addition being due to the contrast with τὴν οἰκείαν μὴ βλάψαι. Cf. I. 50 πρὸς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἐτράποντο φονεύειν μᾶλλον ἢ ζωγρεῖν.

οἱ αὐτόνομοι—see c. 68, 2. The force of the distinction between the independent and dependent allies is this: for the former love of country was a principal object; for the latter the chief object was safety at the moment, and it might be that by a victory their country would become more worth living in.

ἀνελπίστου=ἣ ἀνέλπιστος ἦν.

ἔπειτα δέ κτλ—‘and a secondary motive was the possibility that by helping to subdue others they might find their subjeetion to Athens (αὐτοῖς) less oppressive.’

ἄλλο τι is object to ξυγκαταστρεψάμενον, to which supply τὸ ὑπήκοον. The return to the neut. sing. is influenced by τι ἄλλο, which stands for τινας ἄλλους.