τοῦ χειμῶνος κ.τ.λ.—cf. ch. 56, 19: iv. 135, 1. καθῃρεῖτο—the Boeotians at once began to dismantle the fortress; see ch. 42, 8.
ἅμα...θέρους—so iv. 117, 1, ἅμα ἦρι τοῦ ἐπιγιγνομένου θέρους: vi. 8, 1, τοῦ δ̓ έπιγιγνομένου θέρους α:´μα ἦρι: χειμών and θέρος being the half-yearly periods by which Thucydides reckons.
οὐχ ἧκον—this is Krüger's conjecture for the MSS. reading ἵκοντο. One manuscript has η:᾿κοντο, which seems a confusion with the following τό. The uncompounded ἱκνέομαι does not occur in prose except sometimes in the participle; i. 99, 3, τὸ ἱκνούμενον ἀνάλωμα: Hdt. vi. 84, μᾶλλον τοῦ ίκνεομένου: id. vi. 65, ι:κνευμένως: Dem. Macart. 1072 § 66 (in an oracle).
καθαιρούμενον—imperfect, as at the end of ch. 39. τοῖς Βοιωτοῖς πρός—‘between the Boeotians and Lacedaemonians’: see note on iv. 80, 2. ἐς Λακεδαιμονίους...χωρήσῃ—πρός is more usual, as in ch. 22, 14: ἐς, according to Classen, suggests the central position and centralising influence of Sparta. It may be so; on the other hand Thucydides uses ἐς more loosely than any preposition to denote relation of every kind: see ch. 41, 6: and the note on ch. 39, 19.
ὥστε οὐδὲ...εἶναι—the infinitive does not depend on ὤστε, but is due to the oratio obliqua with ᾤοντο, the negative of oratio recta (ὥστε οὐδὲ...ἔστι) being retained. Otherwise ὥστε takes μή with the infinitive. In viii. 76, 7 we have an exact parallel to the present passage, ὤστε οὐδὲ τούτους παρὰ σφίσι χείρους εἶναι (in oratio obliqua). The usage is fully discussed and illustrated in the appendix to Shilleto's Falsa Legatio. For εἶναι=παρεῖναι, see note on iv. 8, 5.
ἐκ τῶν διαφορῶν—between Athens and Sparta. The Argives supposed that these differences were now at an end. αὐτοῖς—i.e. σφίσι: see note on ch. 32, 26.
αἱ πρὸς Λακεδαιμονίους...σπονδαί—see the end of ch. 14, etc. ἀποροῦντες ταῦτα—vii. 48, 5, τὰ μὲν ἀπορεῖν: Hdt. iv. 179, ἀπορέοντι τὴν ἐξαγωγήν. ἐν φρονήματι ὄντες—‘proudly hoping’, elatis animis sperantes (Poppo): cf. iii. 83, 4, καταφρονοῦντες κἂν προαισθέσθαι: iv. 80, 3, ὺπὸ φρονήματος, ‘from their high spirit’.
ἡγούμενοι...κράτιστα—it is open to doubt whether κράτιστα is to be taken (1) as an adjective with ἡγούμενοι, ‘thinking it the best course’, or (2) adverbially with σπονδὰς ποιησάμενοι, ‘on the best terms admissible’. In the latter case ἡγούμενοι is used, as in ii. 42, 4 (a very important passage), in the sense ‘aequum censendi’: cf. Plat. Protag. 346 B, Σιμωνίδης ἡγήσατο τύραννον ἐπαινέσαι: and see note on νομίζω, iv. 117, 1. (1) seems decidedly simpler. In i. 85, 3 κράτιστα is certainly an adjective; and such neuter plurals (e.g. δυνατά) are not uncommon; while ἄπορα νομίζοντες (iii. 16, 2) is almost an exact parallel.
