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

βουλομένοις ταῦτ᾽ ἦν. ταῦτα can scarcely bear directly the far-off implication of the scholiast δηλαδὴ ὀλιγαρχεῖσθαι. Rather it = ‘this side of the matter,’ i.e. ‘the present conduct of the 400.’

ἐς τὰ ὅπλα ἰέναι lit. ‘to go to the arms’ (where they were stacked). Cf. c. 69, § 1, ἐπ᾽ αὐτοῖς τοῖς ὅπλοις, and inf. § 8, ἐπὶ τὰ ὅπλα φερομένους. τὰ ὅπλα becomes = the arsenal or magazine, just as τὰ ὄψα, οἱ ἰχθῦς, etc., = the fishmarket, etc.

ξυναφαιρησόμενος sc. τὸν Ἀλεξικλέα

ἕνα τῶν στρατηγῶν, ὃς ἦν κ.τ.λ. ὅστις of most MSS. would give a reason for the special selection. Of a definite person ὅστις is common in Herodotus, but the proper distinction must be maintained in Attic prose. As for vi. 3, βωμὸν ὅστις νῦν ἔξω τῆς πόλεώς ἐστιν, see commentators in loc. As in later times ὅστις and ὃς were used indiscriminately, it may be that ὅστις is due to nothing better than a copyist's error. Nevertheless as παραλαμβάνειν στρατηλγὸν ὅστις ὁμογνώμων ἔσται is Greek, so Thucydides may possibly have written παραλαβὼν στρατηγὸν ὅστις ὁμογνώμων ἦν, the statement of purpose in the choice being expressed in an unusual way.

Ἀρίσταρχος see c. 90, § 1.

τῶν ἱππέων νεανίσκοι see c. 69, § 4. The ἱππῆς belong to the second highest class in the state and are therefore of aristocratical leanings.