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

ὀργῶντες Vat. has ὀργῶντας, but the attracted nom. is the Greek idiom. Cf ii. 65, ὀρεγόμενοι τοῦ πρῶτος ἔκαστος γίγνεσθαι; Aes. Ag. 1588, μοῖραν ηὕρετ᾽ ἀσφαλῆ τὸ μὴ θανὼν πατρῷον αἱμάξαι πέδον. ὀργᾶν is mostly a poetical or late word. It occurs iv. 108, and in ii. 21 ὤργητο is a variant for ὤρμητο. The meaning is not ὀργιζόμενοι, but ‘judging by their excited feelings’ (Jowett). Cf. the use of ὀργαί inf. c. 83, § 3.

μηδ᾽ ὑπολείπειν λόγον αὐτοῖς Cf. Antiph. Tetr. B. β᾽. (661), οὐδεὶς ἡμῖν λόγος ὑπελείπετο μὴ φονέας εἶναι; Isoc. Pan. 146, μηδένα λόγον ὑπολείπειν τοῖς εἰθισμένοις τὴν τῶν Περσῶν ἀνδρίαν ἐπαινεῖν. Commentators (Arn., Cl, P-S, etc.) give to λόγον the sense ‘calculation,’ i.e. ‘left no room in their estimate’; but the word κρίνειν and the expressions ὑπολείπειν πρόφασιν, etc., make rather for the metaphorical turn, ‘they tried them in a prejudiced court and left them not even the plea that . . .’ The plea of the Athenians would be οἷοί τε ἐσόμεθα τό γ᾽ ἐπιὸν θέρος (‘at least for the next campaign’) περιγενέσθαι. The γε is retained when the plea is refused.