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

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οἱ ξυλλεγέντες τῶν ἐν τῇ ξυνωμοσίᾳ. It is agreed that ξυμμαχίᾳ of MSS. cannot be defended, and at least the sense is given by Haacke's ξυνωμοσίᾳ, about which the only difficulty lies in accounting for the corruption. In c. 39, § 2; c. 33, § 1; c 85, § 1, there are variant misreadings of ναυμαχία for ναυαρχία. If in such obvious instances a confusion of the kind could occur, a corresponding confusion of ξυμμαχίᾳ for ξυναρχίᾳ is quite probable in one less obvious. οἱ ξυλλεγέντες τῶν ἐν τῇ ξυναρχίᾳ is conceivable Greek for ‘such of the joint commanders as were assembled.’ The various ἄρχοντες (τριήραρχοι, c. 47, § 2, and στρατηγοί) who belonged to the plot were ξύναρχοι and their command a ξυναρχία. Cf. οἱ ἐν τέλει, οἱ ἐν τοῖς πράγμασι. But Thucydides does not elsewhere use this rather artificial combination, and from c. 48, § 3, on the whole it appears to me probable that the corruption went one step further still, the original word being ξυνορκίᾳ ( = ξυνωμοσίᾳ) which passed through ξυναρχίᾳ into ξυμμαχίᾳ.

οἱ ξυλλεγέντες τῶν κ.τ.λ. not all the conspirators being present. Cf. c. 48, § 3, ἐν τῷ πλέονι τοῦ ἑταιρικοῦ.

Πείσανδρον of Acharnae, nicknamed ὁ ὀνοκίνδιος (‘donkey driver’), and a favourite butt of the comedians as a fat coward. Arist. Av. 1556, Pac. 395, and cf. Xen. Symp. ii. 14. Suidas quotes a proverb Πεισάνδρου δειλότερος.

τῆς τοῦ ἐκεῖ δήμου not τῆς ἐκεῖ τοῦ δήμου. Part of the δῆμος has already been won over, viz. the part at Samos. The bulk of the δῆμος is left at Athens.