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.

    497/528 (page 369)
    aX^'fj^icov, TeXevraioL Be erdo-aovTO e^oz/re? to evcovvfiov Kepa<i Yl\araiee<i. diro ravT7]<; [yap] <r(pL Tr}<; p,d'^r]<;, ’AOrjvaicov dvaia^ dvayovTcov e? ra? iravrjyvpia<i ra? iv Trjai TrepreTTjpLcri yLvop,eva^, Karev^eraL 6 Krjpv^ 6 'AOrjvalo^i dpLa re 'AOrjvaLOLcrL Xeycov yive- aQai I'd dyadd Ka\ YWaTaievcTL, Tore Be Tacrcropbevoov tmv io 'Ad7]vaLcov ev tm ^lapaOdiVL eyivero roiovBe tl' to o-rpaToireBov ■. i^Laovpievov rS AItjBlkm arpaTOireBcp, to p,ev avTov pbecrov eyLveTo : eVt Td^ta<i oXlya^;, Kal TavTrj dadeveaTaTOV to crTpaTOireBov, TO Be Kepa^ eKdTepov eppcoTO 'ifK.'pOei. to? Be a(f)L BieTeTa/CTO kol 112 no bar to this interpretation, and the word apid/xeiu naturally suggests a fixed list; but surely it might equally refer to either order, the changing order of a sortition, or the fixed order of the cata- logue. Either order would be perfectly consistent with a daily change in the ijyefjLovia or irpvTav7]lT] (see note above). The fixed order of the Phylae was Erechtheis, Aigeis, Pandionis, Leontis, Akamantis, Oineis, Kekropis, Hippo- thontis, Aiantis, Antiochis. (Cp. Ap- pendix IX. § 9 fin.) According to Plutarch, Aristeid. 5, the Antiochis and the Leontis were in the centre. If the order of battle had followed not an allotted but the fixed order of the tribes, Leontis and Antiochis could not have stood together in the centre, or any- where. Lugebil discredits the whole anecdote as a mere fiction to illustrate the notorious rivalry of Themistokles and Aristeides : but the position of the two tribes would be intelligible on the hypothesis of sortition; the rivalry might have been illustrated without bringing the tribes into actual juxta- position. If the order was according to the catalogue, the following infer- ences are legitimate. Given Aiantis (Miltiades) on the right, the tribes would have succeeded as follows: Antio- chis (under Aristeides), Erechtheis, Aigeis, Pandionis, Leontis (with The- mistokles), Akamantis, Oineis (Mil- tiades !), Kekropis, Hippothontis. Given Oineis (Miltiades) on the right, there follow Kekropis, Hippothontis, Ai- antis (!), Antiochis (Aristeides), and so on, Leontis (Themistokles) being last but one. Given Oineis on the extreme left, Kekropis will be extreme right, Aiantis third, Antiochis fourth, Leontis eighth. 7, 8. avaycivTwv, cp. dvalas &v6.yovffi 5. 119 supra, ydp seclusit Stein. VOL. I •rr€VT€TT]pt<ri. The reference is prob- ably to the Panathenaia. Cp. c. 108 sup7-a. This was not the only honour done, in course of time, to the Pla- taians: on the walls of the Poikile Stoa they were recognisable, in the Marathonian fresco, by their Boeotian helmets, [Dem.] c. Neaer. 94. Cp. Appendix X. § 20. It seems well-nigh inconceivable that this passage should have been written by Herodotus after the destruction of Plataia in 427 B.c. Cp. c. 108 supra. Whether Hdt. had himself heard the prayer at one of the festivals is not clear. Cp. c. 112 infra. 11. eyiv€To toi6v8€ ti. This arrange- ment was hardly an accident. Though it explains and in a way justifies the retreat of the centre, we need not sup- pose that it was a fiction coined for the purpose, nor is it likely that the numbers of each Phyle varied very much. It is most natural to see in it a result deliberately courted by the Athenian commanders in order to strengthen the wings, and dictated by the nature of the ground (Leake) or by other considerations. Cp. Appendix X. § 37. <rrpaT(57r€8ov, ‘army.’ Cp. 5.supra. 13. oXCyas, the usual depth was iirl 6kt(1). The centre on this occasion may have been thinned down to three or four. The extra number thus set free were not, we may suppose, massed on the wings, but brought up to the front in the centre, so as to lengthen the line of battle, the order of the Phylae re- maining unbroken. Thus while the wings—perhaps three Phylae on the right and two Phylae with the Pla- taians on the left—were eight or more ranks deep, the five Phylae in the centre were, perhaps, only half as deep. But no account is made of light-armed men. 112. 1. 8uT^TaKTo, the comj)letion of 2 B