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

Σιδοὐσσης . . . Πτελεοῦ exact positions unknown.

τείχη = castella. For the readings at this point see crit. note.

καὶ ἐκ τῆς Λέσβου is at first sight difficult, and is bracketed by P-S after Classen. The ships, it is said, would hardly keep starting from so distant a place as Lesbos, and the preceding τὰς ἐκ τοῦ Λέσβου ναῦς makes these words a kind of contradiction, the fleet having left Lesbos The latter objection is unsound. ‘Leon and D. with the Athenian ships at (ἐκ by construction praeg.) Lesbos’ does not imply that they brought away all the ships (nor perhaps were they likely to do so with Lesbian loyalty so uncertam). For the former, it may be pointed out that the distance is after all not more than forty miles, and that, while making the Oenussae, etc., the nearer starting-places, some of the ships might well be utilised to descend from Lesbos upon the W. side of Chios.

εἶχον δ᾽ ἐπιβάτας κ.τ.λ. Construe ‘and for ἐπιβάται they had some of the hoplites who were taken from the active list and were serving nnder compulsion,’ i.e. were pressed into that branch of service. The ἐπιβάται were regularly of an inferior class (θῆτες); cf. vi. 43, and note on c. 23, § 3. At this critical time the superior citizens were compelled to serve in this capacity under pain of an ἀστρατείας γραφή.

ἐκ καταλόγου Cf. vi. 43; vii. 16, 20. The list of those liable to serve excluded the θῆτες. οἱ ἐν τῷ καταλόγῳ are opposed to οἱ ἔξω τοῦ κ. and οἱ ὑπὲρ τὸν κ.