T. G. Tucker, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 8

καὶ ναυτικόν answering to καὶ τὰ τῶν ξ. ἐς ἀσφ. ποεῖσθαι. Classen thinks e.g. στρατιάν τε ὡς πλείστην has fallen out before these words. Rather Thucyd. began with an undeveloped thought, e.g. παρασκευάζεσθαι καὶ ναυτικὸν καὶ τοιαῦτα ἃ τὰ τῶν ξυμμάχων ἐς ἀσφάλειαν καταστήσει. There is no ‘trajection’ of καὶ, but Thucydides inserted the participial clause parenthetically, and this diverted the construction. Otherwise καὶ ναυτικόν might mean ‘even a navy,’ i.e. not merely preparing to defend themselves against blockade, but making ready for operations of their own.

ἐς ἀσφάλειαν ποεῖσθαι ‘to secure.’ Cf. ἐς φυλακὴν ποεῖσθαι (iii. 3), ἐς τὸ συμμαχικὸν ποιεῖσθαι, Hdt. ix. 106. ἀσφαλίζεσθαι is not a classical word, but ἐς ἀσφ. ποεῖσθαι stands to that verb as ἐν ὀργῇ ποεῖσθαι to ὀργίζεσθαι.

τῶν κατὰ τὴν πόλιν in festivals, processions, etc. τι= ‘here and there,’ ‘a certain economy in.’

ἐς εὐτέλειαν Cf. c. 4, ξυστελλόμενοι ἐς εὐτέλειαν; c. 86, § 6, εἰ δε ἐς εὐτέλειάν τι ξυντέτμηται. σωφρονίσαι has something of the sense redigere (in). The present instance is different from the purely adverbial use of ἐς εὐτέλειαν=‘cheaply’ in Ar. Av. 805, εἰς εὐτέλειαν χηνὶ συγγεγραμμένῳ.

προβουλεύσουσι i.e. draw up προβουλεύματα and submit them to the assembly. Cf. Aristot. Pol. iv. 11, 9,ἀπχεῖον, οἷον ἐν ἐνίαις πολιτείαις ἐστὶν, οὓς καλοῦσι προβούλους . . . καὶ περὶ τούτων χρηματίζειν, περὶ ὧν οὗτοι προβουλεύσωσι. See Grote, vol. vii. ch. lxi. (note), who says ‘the Board was doubtless merged in the Oligarchy of the 400, like all the other magistracies of the state, and was not reconstituted after their deposition.’ This would mean that it lasted a year and a half. A πρόβουλος is a character in the Lysistrata of Aristophanes. In Arist. Rhet. iii. 18, 6, Σοφοκλῆς (not the poet) ἐρωτώμενος ὑπὸ Πεισάνδρου εἰ ἔδοξεν αὐτῷ ὥσπερ καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις προβούλοις, καταστῆσαι τοὺς τετρακοσίους, ἔφη. The same action of the πρόβουλοι is stated in Lys. 126, 10 (Eratosth.） Thucyd. does not say that the committee consisted of ten (as is generally assumed), and the ten ξυγγραφῆς of c. 67, § 1, are quite a different body.