Volume 1

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

Herodotus.

Date:: 1895

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

499/528 (page 371)

$fc'9 TToXe/xtov? ixP'WCLVTo, TTpoiTOL Be avea-^^ovTo eaOrjrd re 'MrjBiK^v 6peovre<i Kai rov<; dvBpa<; ravrrjv ‘^crdTjjjbevov'i' rew? Be yv rolau Kai TO ovvofia to MTjSfUl' <p6^o<i aKovcrai. jj,a'^ojJb€V(ov 113 ev T(p ^lapadcbi'i '^povo^ eycvero ttoXXo?, xal to fiev ixecrov Tov arparoTreBov ivUcov oi ^dp^apoi, ttj Uepaai, re avrol Kal SaKai ererd^aTO' Kara rovro pLev Bi] evLKcov ol ^dp^apoi koli p7]^avTe<; eBlcoKov e? rrjv pLeaoyaiav, to Be Kepa^ CKdrepov evLKcov s 'AOrjualoL re Kal TlXaTaiee<;' vLKO)vre^ Be to pLev rerpapipuevov t5>v ^ap^dpwv (^evyeuv ecov, tol(tl Be to pieaov p-q^aab avroiv avv- ayayovre^i rd Kepea apbcfiorepa ipbd'^ovro, Kal eviKcov 'AOqvalob. (f>evyoucrL Be rolai Tleparjab eiirovTo /co7ttoi/t69, e? o e? rqv 6d\aaaav d'lrbKopbevob Trvp re atreov Kal irreXapb^dvovro roiv lo vecov. Kal rovro pbev ev rovTw rS rrovm 6 7ro\epbap'^o<i Bba- 114 (^deiperai, dvqp yev6pbevo<; dyaOo^, diro S' edave rwv arparqywv SrqcTLXeci)<i 6 (dpaavXeco' rovro Be J^vveyecpo'^ 6 Eo^op/coi/o? described by Rawlinson (i.® p. 78) as “an indefensible statement,” and ad- mitted as evidence of an undue partial- ity towards the Athenians on the side of Hdt. Without denying the partial- ity, it may be suggested that this remark, or something like it, occurred in his Athenian sources, and is not to be put down to the historian in the first instance (cp. a converse case 5. 97). Rawlinson 1. c. gives a list of the in- stantiae contradictoriae. Cp. Appendix X. § 4. 113. 2. xpovos TToXXos. The phrase must be taken as decisive, though vague. The Athenians had no notion of re- presenting the battle of Marathon as a irp6<TKpov(Tfjut ppaxu (Plutarch, Mor. 862). See Ajmendix X. § 35. 3. iLEpo-at Kal SdKai, the flower of the Asiatic army, posted, as was ap- parently usual with the Persians, in the centre (see Rawlinson, note ad 1.), though a different arrangement was adopted by Mardonios at Plataia, 9. 31. The disposition of the forces was not impromptu or irregular. The battle is here represented as a pitched battle (^Teraxaro). By ‘ Sakae ’ would have to be understood ‘Scyths,’ not European but Asiatic. See Appendix I. § 8. Cp. 7. 64, where Asiatic Sakae are reckoned among the foot-soldiers. At Thermo- pylae the picked troops are Medes, Kissians, and Persians, 7. 210, 211. 6. p.€<T(iYaiav, ‘inland,’ cp. 4. 100 supra. Not of course the p,ea-6yaia tech- nically so-called, which was separated from rb irediov by Hymettos, and to reach which by the nearest way the fly- ing Athenians would have had to pass between Pentelikos and the sea. The expression seems to imply that the Athenian front was to the sea. Cp. 1. 9 infra and Appendix X. §§ 34, 35. 6. TO |j.4v T€Tpafjinevov ktX. This manoeuvre seems too intelligent and successful not to have been the result of design and preparation: the com- manders, or at least Kallimachos, Mil- tiades, and perhaps others, were fully prepared for the event. Cp. Appendix X. § 37.^ 8. TOL K^pea, (/3) omits dficpdrepa, which is superfluous. For alr€ov iiifra van Herwerden suggests dybeov. 114. 1. €V TovTw T<S irdvw. It has been asserted that the main incidents of the battle as described by Herodotus are just those which were depicted in the Poikile Stoa (Stein, note ad L). The assertion is tempting, but hardly accurate : see Appendix X. § 28. All the passages in which this picture is mentioned in the ancient authorities are brought together by Overbeck, Antiken iSchriftqucllen, pp. 200 f., 210 (Leipzig 1868). 3. 2TH]<rC\€(os. It is unfortunate that nothing more is known of him. Kvvfycipos, brother of Aischylos. Pliny, N. IT. 35, 57, speaks of him as one of the duces, but from the silence of$