E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides Book 1

12. ἐν ἔτεσι πεντήκοντα—i.e. between 480 and 431 B.C Perhaps it is in order to round off the period to fifty years exactly that Thuc. here says μεταξὺ τῆς Ξέρξου ὰναχωρήσεως whereas at c 89 he began ἐπειδὴ Μῆδοι ἀνεχώρησαν—which is a different event.

14. ἐν οῖς—since the period begun at c. 97. In such a summary as Thuc. here gives we need not look for absolute accuracy in the details: he is giving the useful landmarks in the chronology. Think of the retreat of Xerxes, he says, and think of the beginning of the war, you have just fifty years, and a convenient plan for remembering how the power of Sparta among the alhes was lost and that of Athens was gained.

16. αὐτοί—Athens, independently of her empire.

18. ἐπὶ βραχύ—to a small extent, ec. 90; 107; 112; 114.

19. ὄντες μὲν πρὸ τοῦ μὴ ταχεῖς—the μή is unusual: ‘it is as if he had said ὡς εἰκὸς μὲν ἦν καὶ πρὸ τοῦ μὴ ταχεῖς ὄντας’ (Croiset). i.e Thuc. wants to represent a general cause persons who had been slow before would naturally be slack in such a case: this connexion of cause and effect is well brought out by the μή. Cf. next note hut one. (Goodwin, M.T. 685 offers a curious explanation.)

21. τὸ δέ τι—see c. 107. 4.

τολέμοις οὶκείοις—the use of the plur. where only the Messenian War is meant shows that Thuc. is still representing the eause as a general one that would naturally have the effect mentioned.

22. πρὶν δή, ‘until at length,’ with past indic. often introduces the decisive event.

23. τῆς ξυμμαχίας—esp. the Corinthians.

26. καθαιρετέα—fem.