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

τὰς μάχας...ποιοῦνται—this sentence is an excellent example of article and substantive with ποιεῖσθαι: see note on iv. 13, 1. ‘The Lacedaemonians fight long and refuse to move until they have put an enemy to flight, but, having once defeated him, they do not follow him far or long’ (Jowett). χρονίους—so vi. 31, 5: but in i. 12, 1 the feminine is χρονία. τῷ μένειν—‘by standing their ground’.

καί—we might expect ἤ, as in vii. 86, 5 τοιαύτῃ ἢ ὅτι ἐγγύτατα τούτων αἰτίᾳ: but Arnold is right in comparing i. 22, 4, τοιαῦτα καὶ παραπλήσια: so i. 143, 3: vii. 15, 2, παραπλήσιον καὶ οὐ πολλῷ πλέον: vii. 42, 2, ἴσον καὶ παραπλήσιον̀. καί has in fact a sort of corrective force=‘I mean’, ‘that is to say’, as noted in ch. 20, 4. ἤ on the other hand, meaning ‘or else’, would imply some uncertainty as to the facts.

πλείστου. δή—see note on ch. 60, 16, for δή with the superlative. For the genitive of time ‘within which’, see ch. 14, 16: Plat. Gorg. 448 A, οὐδείς με ἠρώτηκε καινὸν οὐδέν, οὐδὲ πολλῶν ἐτῶν.

ξυνελθοῦσα—with μάχη=commissa; constructed with ὐπό as being virtually passive. Somewhat similar is i. 15, 2, πόλεμος οὐδεὶς ξυνέστη; cf. Hdt. vii. 144, οὗτος ὁ πόλεμος συστάς. Poppo quotes μάχη συνῃει καρτερά from Josephus, Ant. Iud. xvii. 10 (12), 2.

προθέμενοι—apparently=θέμενοι τὰ ὅπλα πρό, ‘taking up their position before’: see note on iv. 44, 1, ἔθεντο τὰ ὅπλα. For constr. cf. Eur. Iph. T. 1218, πέπλον ὀμμάτων προθέσθαι. A guard was posted, to oblige the enemy to ask leave to bury the dead, which was a confession of defeat; so φυλακὴν καταλιπόντες (iv. 97, 1). Kruger and others take it to mean ‘displaying the arms of the dead’, like ii. 34, 2, τὰ ὀστᾶ προτίθενται, but they cite no instances of such a practice.

ἵστασαν—Classen considers that the imperfect is used here because the trophy was not completed till the enemy owned his defeat. But ἵστασαν is used again in vi. 70, 3; and probably (like ἐσκύλευον) merely denotes what the victors ‘went on to do’ or ‘began to do’ next. The aorists which follow imply the completion of all that had to be done.

Αἰγινήταις—Athenian ἔποικοι, the inhabitants having been removed in 431 (ii. 27, 1). ἀμφότεροι—Laches and Nicostratus (ch. 61, 1).

ἐταλαιπώρησαν—ch. 73, 8. καί—emphatic: there may have been some loss, but it was not ‘also’ (besides occurring) worth taking into account: so iv. 48, 5, οὐ γὰρ ἔτι ἦν ὑπόλοιπον τῶν ἑτέρων ὅ τι καὶ ἀξιόλογον: i. 15, 2, πόλεμος, ὅθεν τις καὶ δύναμις παρεγένετο, οὐδεὶς ξυνέστη: ii. 54, 5, οὐκ ἐσῆλθεν ὄ τι ἄξιον καὶ εἰπεῖν.

ἀπογενέσθαι—ii. 34, 1, τὰ ὀστᾶ τῶν ἀπογενομένων: ii. 51, 7, τὰς ὁλοφύρσεις τῶν ἀπογιγνομένων: ii. 98, 2, of loss to an army generally, as opposed to προσγίγνεσθαι: Hdt. v. 4 γινόμενος καὶ ἀπογινόμενος, of births and death. αὐτῶν, according to Poppo, depends on πυθέσθαι, but the sense seems rather to connect it with some statement of number. It can scarcely depend on ἀλήθειαν, but it may be taken with τριακοσίους, the clause with μὲν being thus subordinate in sense to that with δέ.