Volume 1

Herodotus : the fourth, fifth, and sixth books / With introduction, notes, appendices, indices, maps by Reginald Walter Macan.

  • Herodotus
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Herodotus : the fourth, fifth, and sixth books / With introduction, notes, appendices, indices, maps by Reginald Walter Macan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    480/528 (page 352)
    VI ipoi, TL (f)evyovr€<; ot^ecr^e, ovk eTriT'^Sea Karayvovre^ Kar ifiev; eyo3 yap Kal avrb<; iirl roaovro ye (f>poveco Kai pbOL €k ^aai\eo<i &Be eTrecTTaXraL, ev rp ')(u>pp ol Bvo 6eol eyevovro, ravrpv p,pBev cnveadaL, p,r)re avrpv rpv '^(oppv pbpre tov<; olKpropaf; avTrj^. vvv 10 (hv Kal airuTe eirl to, vpierepa avroiv koX rpv vpaov vep,ea6e.'' ravra p,ev eTreKppvKevaaTO rolat ApXloLcn, piera Be XL/Savcorov 98 rpipKoaua raXavra Karavrjaa'^ eirl rov ySw/ioO eOvpiLpcre. AaTL<; p.ev Bp ravra iroLpcra^ errXee ap,a r<p arparS eirl rpv 'l^perpuav irpoira, ap,a ayop^evo^ Kal ''\ava<; Kal AtoXea?. pbera Be rovrov the ideas of Peisistratos (Thuc. 3. 104, cp. 5. 63, 69 supra), and Hippias, ex- pelled from Athens by Delphi (5. 63 supra), and abandoned by Sparta (5. 93 supra), was not likely to overlook the use to be made of Delos, after his restoration. If there is any force in TjySpeve here, it should mean that the speech was addressed to the men of Delos assembled. 7. €K pacriXeos ^Se lirlo-TaXTai. The policy of the Persian Empire was tolerant towards the deities of the conquered, and there is no sign of iconoclasm, or of a religious propaganda under the Achaemenids. The opposite idea arose mainly from a misinterpreta- tion of the story of the pseudo-Smerdis in the light of the Behistun inscription (e.g. Rawlinson, Hdt. Appendix, Bk. iii. Essay ii. vol. ii.® pp. 548 fif.). Evidences more recently discovered (the Kyreian inscriptions from Babylon, inscriptions of Kambyses and Dareios himself in Egypt) have led to a more correct estimate. (Cp. Ed. Meyer, Gesch. d. AUerth. i. p. 608.) The treatment of Delos (and Delphi) is more significant than the destruction of Athens, in this connexion. Even in regard to Athens the anecdotes show that there was no crusade against the gods of Greece. Cp. 7. 43, 8. 54, etc. Over and above this general policy of toleration the Asiatics would be at no loss to identify Apollo and Artemis with their own Sun and Moon divinities. The offering of Datis on the Delian altar would please all pious lonians, and even a genuine act of devotion may have been not wholly devoid of a political purpose. 12. TptT)K6(n,a raXavra, 300 T. weight of frankincense would be in- credible, though that is what Hdt. seems to say, without specifying whether the talents are Attic or other : 300 T. worth hardly less incredible. Hultsch, Mitrologie-, p. 129 rational- ises the statement to the effect that in the sense of the Persian [Mede?] who made the offering, the 300 ‘ weights ’ of frankincense, each of which amounted to {hetrug) a shekel \i.e. light Baby- lonian shekel], might be regarded as equivalent in worth to so many shekels of gold, i.e. darics. “On this hypothesis the value of the offering amounted to exactly one Talent of silver.” Cp. Ridgway, Origin of Currency, p. 6. This may explain the origin of Hdt.’s blunder, but it does not cancel it. 98. 3. TrpwTa. Why the advance was made first on Eretria, why Euboea rather than the medizing Aigina was to be made the basis of operations against Attica, it is not easy to deter- mine. Perhaps the prejudices, or even the superstitions of Hippias, were con- sulted, he leading the Persians not merely to Marathon (c. 102 infra) but to Euboea, whence he had already ‘returned’ once in triumph with his father, 1. 91. Perhaps the mediz- ing party in Eretria (cc. 100, 101 4?i/m) were already in communication with the Barbarians. Perhaps the advance on Euboea and the east coast was calcnlated to lull the alarms of the Peloponnesians and to retard their assistance ; if so, the calculation was realised. The attack on Attica Avas made from the same side as if the Mede had advanced from Thrace and Macedon. Possibly the Aiginetans were expected to do something for the Per- sian, on the other side. Kal ’Twvas Kal AloX^as. The Dorians, as usual, conspicuous by their absence. Cp. c. 32 supra.