E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides Book 1

3. βίᾳ—in the field. They were not penned up in the city.

ὑπολειπομένοις—imperf., who at any given time were left behind.

7. ῥᾳδίως ἂν μάχῃ ... Τροίαν εἷλον — does this passage refer to ‘the two natural stages of the expedition’— battle followed by siege, or two alternative means of taking Troy,—either by pitched battle outside the gates, or by siege? Those who adopt the first, either (a) bracket the first εἷλον with Kruger as spurious, and explain the δ᾽ after πολιορκίᾳ as (a violent) apodotic δέ, or, with Kruger bracket it; or else (b) make the first εἷλον mean, not ‘capture (Troy),’ but, with Herbst, ‘defeat (the Trojans).’ Those who adopt the second with Bauer, make μάχῃ κρατοῦντες = ‘by superiority in the field,’ and not ‘being as they were superior in the field’; and πολιορκίᾳ προσκαθεζόμενοι = ‘by a regular siege,’ instead of ‘by persisting in a siege.’ But the difficulties involved in this are insuperable; for—apart from the extraordinary way in which the supposed alternative methods are expressed, and joined by δέ instead of ἤ—the sense obtained, though at first sight attractive, makes περιουσίαν ἔχοντες τροφῆς and ξυνεχῶς τὸν πόλεμον διέφερον pointless in so far as the first method— superiority in the field + assault—is concerned; it necessitates forcing the meaning by an immediate assault (κατὰ κράτος) into μάχῃ κρατοῦντες, and thus making this wholly distinct from μάχῃ ἐκράτησαν in 11.1; and it strains no less the meaning of πολιορκίᾳ προσκαθεζόμενοι. We therefore prefer the first plan, but slightly modified; if the first εἷλον is genuine, it is probably a mere anticipation of the second. Trans. If they had ... carried on the war persistently, they would easily have continued superior in the field and have taken the city, seeing that ... : if, then, they had persisted in a siege, they would have taken Troy.

προσκαθεζόμενοι governs πολιορκίᾳ.

11. ἀλλά—in contrast with περιουσίαν εἰ ἦλθον ἔχοντες τροφῆς.

τούτων—i.e. τῶν Τρωικῶν.

13. τῶν πρίν—c. 1. 1; 10. 3.

γενόμενα—though it proved.

15. κατεσχηκότος—attributive. When an attributive partic. is itself further defined—διὰ τοὺς ποιητὰς κατεσχηκότος—it is frequently placed outside the art. This idiom is by no means confined to Thuc.