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.

    507/528 (page 379)
    EPATO I he'^Orjvau €K <ye av tovtcov aairlha eVt roiovrco Xoycp. avehe-)(6T] 5 . p,6V y^p CLCTTTl^, KCil TOVTO OVK 6CTT4 aWcO? €L7r€LV' iyeV€TO y^p' 09 pikvTOi r)v 0 avaBe^a^, ovk €^a> irpoacdrepw €L7T€LV tovtcov. 01 Be 'A\Kp,6covLBaL Tjcrav p,ev koX to, aveKaOev XapLirpol iv 125 TrjaL 'KOrjvrjcri, utto Be AX/c/j,e(ovo<; Kal avTi^ ISleyaKXeo^ eyevovTO KoX KapTa XapLTrpoL. tovto /xev yap ’AXK/uiecov 6 Me^ya/cAeo? TolcTL €K ^apBicov AvBolaL irapa Kpotcrou aircKveopbevoLcn eirl to 'y^prjCTTJ^pLov TO iv AeXcfiOLcn crypurp'^KTcop re eylveTO Kal auveXdpu- 5 ^ave irpo9vpico<^, Kal pLLV KpoZcro? TrvOofievo^ tcov AvBcov tcov e? TO, '^pTjaT'^pLa (poLTeovTcov ecovTov ev Troteeiv pbeTaTrepbireTaL e? ^dpBL<i, aTTiKOpbevov Be BcopeeTau 'y^pvaS tov dv BvvrjTaL t<o ecovTOV (TcopLaTL e^eveiKacrOaL ecrdTra^. 6 Be ^AXK/xecov 7rpb<; t^v Bcope^v iovcrav ToiavTrjv TOtdBe eTrLTrjBevcra^ irpocrecpepe' ivBv^ 10 a ‘ dynasty ’ at Athens, they would make a composition with less formidable rivals, or even with the foreign foe. Hdt.’s express judgment is largely dis- credited by the facts which he has him- self preserved in regard to the relations of the Alkmaiouidae to Kroisos, to Kleisthenes, to Peisistratos, to Delphi and to Sparta. If this passage is, in- deed, his, it may confirm our distrust of his political judgment. Cp. Intro- duction, § 22. X070S aip€€i, cp. 4. 127 supra, eirl ToiovTw Xdyo) comes in somewhat awk- wardly ; Hdt. ’s logic being at fault here may have corrupted his rhetoric. 6. ey^vcTo -yap. H. Delbriick {Die Perserkriege, pp. 59 ff.) has inoposed to cancel the whole shield episode : but it appears as one of the most posi- tively attested incidents of the Mara- thonian campaign. It must fairly be utilised in any attempted reconstruction or rationalisation of the whole story. See Ajjpendix X. §§ 8, 34. 7. o dvaS^^as. To have ascribed the act of treachery to one of the relations or partisans of the Peisistratids still in Athens would surely have been very obvious, if the case against ‘ the Alk- maionids ’ had not been very strong. 126. 1. ’AXKp.€wv£8at. There follows here an excursus on theAlkmaionids, the occasion of which may perhaps be found in the relationship of Perikles (c. 131 infra) to the house. The proper repre- sentatives of the family in the time of Hdt. hardly sustained its old reputa- tion, and perhaps owed their continued importance chiefly to their marriage con- nexions (through Agaristo mother of Perikles, Dinomache wife of Kleinias, mother of Alkibiades, cp. 8. 17, Isodike, wife of Kimon). The sons of Alkmaion are less prominent in later story: the Euryptolemos son of Peisianax, who figures towards the close of the Peloponnesian war (Xen. Hell. 1. 4, 19 etc.), was a member of the family. Cp. Petersen, Quacstiones pp. 76 ff. The gold of Kroisos was not the beginning of the fortune of the family. Its members were already in- fluential at Delphi (here, and cp. Plutarch, Solon 11, ’K6. ttoX. c. 19), and already responsible for the Kylonian d'yos 5. 71 supra. Relations between the Alkmaionids and the Mermnadae need be doubted as little as relations with Delphi, though their obvious significance is not realised by the stor}'’- teller, and the favours of Kroisos are made a comedy. The chronological data, however, are confused. On the remoter origines of the house, see Toeptfer, Attisch. Oeneal. 225 ff. 3. ’AXk|j.^cov 6 Mc-yaKX^os. If Alk- maion assisted Lydian envoys at Delphi they were sent by Alyattes (cp. 1. 25) rather than by Kroisos, for the marriage of Megakles and Agariste took place before Kroisos ascended the throne, circa 560 B.c. Kleisthenes of Sikyou died circa 570 b.c. If any member of the house supported Kroisos it was Megakles. The Marmor PaHum dates the mission of Kroisos to Delphi 556 B.c. But Kroisos may have sent more than once to Delphi surely. 7. <|>oit€(5vt(«)v =‘frequentium,’ c. 137 infra. But cp. icpoLreov /j.v7](rrrjpei c. 126 infra.