Στρατιωτικώτερον—i.e. ἐπὶ στρατείαν μᾶλλον. Cf. c. 87, 2. They intended to make descents on the coast of Acarnania, cf. c. 80, 1.
κομιζομένων—belongs in sense to ἀντιπαραπλέοντας far more than to ἑώρων αὐτοὺς which only makes a periphrasis for ἀντιπαρέπλεον. Cf. εἶχον ἐμπείρους c. 4, 2.
Πατρῶν—now the largest town in Peloponnese, but its importance only dates from the 1st century A.D. Its greatest distinction is that here the patriots in 1821 first rose against the Turks.
διαβάλλοντες— = διαβαίνοντες. This intrans. use elsew here only in Herod. and poets.
Χαλκίδος—on the coast of Aetolia, now Varassova, at the mouth of the Euenus, now Phidhari. It had belonged to Corinth, but had been taken by the Athenians 456 B.C. It lay at the foot of the mountain of the same name.
Εὐήνου—Ovid, Met. 9, 104 fol. relates how Hercules slew Nessus here.
ἀφορμισάμενοι—‘though they had slipped from their moorings in the night’; in order to elude the Athenians, the fleet tried to cross over to Acarnania before daybreak. The battle took place soon after dawn, c. 84, 2. ἔλαθον precedes κατεῖδον in time, and is plup. in sense.
πορθμόν—i.e. in the middle of the Gulf of Patrae, in the open, as Phormio had planned; and therefore between Patrae and Chalcis.
