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στήλας . . . δύο. H. uses ‘Assyrian’ (Ἀσσύρια) for any cuneiform writing (here for Persian), which of course he could not read.

For the custom of putting up a bilingual inscription in the languages of the ruling race and of the subjects concerned cf. the inscriptions on the Red Sea Canal (ii. 158 n.). For the lists of subject races cf. App. VII. 1.

ἐξηριθμήθησαν. The figure 700,000 was a conventional one for the levy en masse of Persia (cf. Isoc. Panath. 49 for the soldiers in Xerxes' army), as is the number ‘600’ for a Persian fleet; cf. vi. 9 (Lade), 95 (Marathon); ‘700,000’ is of course impossible (cf. Munro, J. H. S. xxii. 294 seq. for the whole subject).

στήλῃσι. Ctesias (xvii, p. 68) calls them βωμόν, and attributes the destruction to the Chalcedonians; but H. speaks as an eyewitness.

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