C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5

ἐδέοντο Βοιωτούς—if the text be sound, we must adopt the accepted explanation, ‘they asked (the envoys) as regards the Boeotians’,=ἐδέοντο ὅπως Βοιωτοί, for δέομαι governs the genitive of the person to whom request is made. See iii. 51, 2, for an accusative supplying the subject to a clause with ὅπως. Krüger suggests ᾐτοῦντο, for which Classen would prefer ἐπήγοντο (ch. 41, 12). But even thus the following future with ὅπως is an awkward and scarcely admissible construction, and it seems as if an infinitive had dropped out dependent on ἐδέοντο and governing Βοιωτούς. Classen suspects the genuineness of the whole sentence, which he thinks may be a clumsy adaptation of ch. 39, 9.

ταὐτὰ <*>πεσταλμένοι—the dative ‘remotioris obiecti’ which would follow the active verb becomes the subject of the passive participle, while the accusative of the direct object is joined with it; so i. 126, 6, οἱ ἐπιτετραμμένοι τὴν φυλακήν. Here the accusative is further connected with the following ὥστε ἀπαγγεῖλαι. ἀπό—‘on the part of’.

ἐπὶ τὰ κοινά—‘to their respective communities’ or ‘governments’, each of which was a κοινόν (i. 89, 3 etc.). This is the plural of a collective singular; so ναυτικά, ‘fleets’: cf. iii. 82 fin. τὰ μέσα τῶν πολιτῶν, the moderate or intermediate party (τὸ μέσον) in the several states: Ar. Eth. Nic. iii. 8, 9, τὰ πολιτικὰ μένοντα ἀποθνήσκει, ‘armies (not, an army) of citizens stand their ground to the death’.

τῆς ἀρχῆς τῆς μεγίστης—possibly the ἀρτῦναι mentioned in ch. 47, 61. σφίσι=‘with us’ i.e. the Argive nation. After τουτου προχωρήσαντος the subject expands still further, πολεμεῖν κ.τ.λ. referring to the entire body of proposed allies. αν is to be taken with these last infinitives.

ὥσπερ Κορίνθιοι κ τ.λ.—see ch. 31, 28. The Mantineans had been the first to join the league, ch. 29, 1. ἤδη= iam, when this point was reached, or this advantage secured.

κοινῷ λόγῳ χρωμένους—acting and treating in common; so iv. 64, 3, of mutual conference. εἴ τινα=‘any whatever’; i. 14, 3, Ἀθηναῖοι καὶ εἴ τινες ἄλλοι: cf. ch. 35, 26. τούτων ὧνπερ—i.e. ἅπερ, with ἐπεστάλκεσαν αὐτοῖς. The φίλοι are Xenares and his adherents.