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.

    523/528 (page 395)
    eTTLcrTa^evoi rovro elvai ahvvarov ’yeveaOaL. 97 r^ap 'Attlk7] 7rpo<? VOTOV KeeraL ttoWov tt}? Aijp,vov. Tore p,ev roLavra' erecn Se 140 Kupra TToWotarL varepov tovtcov, co? 77 'Kepcr6vr}ao<; rj eir ^EA,A,77cr- 7T0VT(p iyevero vtto ^AOrjvatoLcrL, MtXTiaS779 0 Kt/xcoi/o? iryatecoif avepLcov KareaTijKorwv vrjl Karavvcra^i ’EXaioOi/ro? rod iv Xep- arovrja-w e? Aypuvov TTporjyopeve i^ievaL i/c rrj<i vrjaov rotcn HeXacr- 5 yolcn, ava/jupLv^cTKcov cr^ea? to '^prjo'T'ppLov, to ovSapLa ^Xmaav a(f)LcrL ol neXao‘'yot eTrcTeXeecrdat. ^ticpaccmee^; pbev vvv eireiOovTo, 14. irpbs v6rov iroXXdv, about 140 miles. Rawlinson thinks a trireme might have achieved the voyage avT-q- fiepdv, but not pop^rj aviptxp. Mr. Tozer {Islands of the Aegean, p. 236) reports the interesting observation that with a north wind the current of the Helles- pont sets wdth great force towards Lemnos, but towards Imbros when the wind is S. Still, one or other of the terms would have been superfluous in the original situation, when v/jLeripT] stood for Attica : and ^op^Tq dvip,(p has the more primitive look. 140. 1. ^€0-1.8^ Kapra iroXXoio-i. About 500 according to the ordinary computa- tion. The chronological and other re- lations between the Persian acquisition of Lemnos (5. 2Qsupra)&u6. the ‘Athenian,’ are not stated, nor is the problem present to the mind of Hdt., the two stories being told in different connexions, and from different sources: but, if the voyage of Miltiades was subsequent to the visitation of Otanes, then it may have been from the Persians that Milti- ades wrested the island. But see infra. The case is a fresh illustration of the use made for political purposes of the mythical and legendary tradi- tions. Cp. c. 138. 1. 6 supra. 3. VTTO ’A9r]va£oi<ri. Athenian vanity (Blakesley) represents the occu- pation of the Chersonese by the Phi- laids as done for Athens. But cp. cc. 36, 39 supra, and Appendix IV. § 9. Whatever the motive, the result was practically as vanity might have desired. Perhaps this acquisition of Lemnos ‘ for the Athenians ’ had already done duty at the first trial of Miltiades. But cp. cc. 104, 136 supra. It is impossible to follow Blakesley (note ad 1.) in re- ferring the passage which he quotes from Charax {apijd Steph. Byz. suh v. ’lltpaiffTla) to a surrender of the city of Hephaistia by Miltiades to the Athen- ians. Hdt. seems to imply that He- phaistia surrendered and that Myrina afterwards stood a siege. Steph. Byz. drawing on Charax records that Myrina was besieged and captured and that Hephaistia then surrendered. By an emendation of Valckenaer’s, Hermon is made tyrant of Hephaistia and sur- renders it. The date of the annexation is to be placed during the Ionian revolt {pace Ed. Meyer, Forschungen, p. 16). Cp. 5. 26 supra. But the island of course passed again out of the control of Athens, or of Miltiades, cp. c. 31 supra, and Lemnians served in the fleet of Xerxes, though the Athenian connexion was not without effect, cp. 8. 11. Later, the connexion with Lem- nos and Imbros became specially close, (Cp. Tozer, op. cit. pp. 237 f.) 4. ’EXaiovvTos. On the extreme south-(west) point of the Chersonese. Strabo, 331, fr. 52 (ed. Teubn. ii. p. 47 0): only about 40 stadia distant from Sigeion in the Troad. 6. It was rather the vTrb\T]\jyLS of their ancestors which should have been kept in mind. On dvapup.vii<TKeLV rcvd ri, cp. L. & S. sub v. 7. 'H^ai-o'TUes . . Mvp!,vatoi. He- phaistia and Myi’ina were the two towns on the island, N. and W., the former named after the god to whom the volcanic Lemnos was sacred (cp. II. 1. 594). Myrina, however (the modern Ka.stro), “occupies a striking position which marks it out as the natural capital of the island ” (Tozer, op. c. p. 240). The only remains of the town now, “a splendid piece of cyclopcan masonry” {ib. p. 246). The position of Hephaistia, Tozer observes p. 268, was convenient for commerce, but not defen- sively strong. It appears in the Athen- ian Tribute - lists to have paid nearly twice as much as Myrina (not to be confused with Myrina by Kyme). On the traditional volcanic claims of Lem- nos, consult Tozer, op. c.