Reginald Walter Macan, Herodotus, The Seventh, Eighth, & Ninth Books with Introduction and Commentary

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κατέλιπε δὲ ἄνδρα τοιόνδε Μασκάμην γενόμενον. ‘He left Maskames behind him as governor, who (afterwards) proved himself a man of such quality that . .’ Maskames' heroism was exhibited subsequent to his appointment. This chapter introduces us deep into the Pentekontaetia, and generates some serious diffieulties both in regard to the history of that period and in regard to the composition of Hdt.'s Logi, which can hardly be resolved except on the supposition that we have in this chapter strata deposited at various times, or else glosses inserted by a later hand. Cp. Introduction, § 9.

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πάντων: the commentators (Wesseling, Baehr, Blakesley, Stein, etc.) would restrict this to governors in Thrace and Hellespont, as 1. 135, 3. 160 show that annual gifts were received by others. But Hdt. here makes no such exception. To bracket μούνῳ does not quite avoid the contradiction: but is Hdt. incapable of inconsistency? Or must he have had in mind, or even have composed the passages conflicting with this statement, when this passage was first penned? Cp. Introdnction, § 8.

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ὡς δὲ ... ἐκγόνοισι breaks the connexion, and is in any case very like a gloss, but might be a late addition from the author's hand: late, for though Artaxerxes came to the throne in 465 B.C., the statement presupposes not merely the death of Xerxes, but the death of Maskames, and the maintenance of the custom for some time.

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τοῖσι Μασκαμείοισι ἐκγόνοισι: is this patronymic adjective an ‘Aiolism’? Is it Herodotean?

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ὕπαρχοι ... πανταχῇ. They can hardly all have been ‘satraps,’ nor, if the Persian suzerainty was so widespread, can there well have been no satrap among them. Doriskos may have been the Daskyleion of Thrace.

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πάντες ... ἐξαιρέθησαν. At the time of writing all the Persian garrisons had heen cleared out of Thrace by the Athenians and their allies (Ἑλλήνων), with the exception of the governor in Doriskos. Was there still then a Persian governor in Doriskos when this passage was written? or had he too cleared out, or been cleared out though not ὑπὸ Ἑλλήνων? No set (οὐδαμοί) of Greeks (or men?) had as yet (κω) succeeded in turning out Maskames, the governor in Doriskos, though many made the attempt. This κω suggests that Maskames is there in Doriskos still, so far as the writer knows. If he had evacuated it, under pressure from Thrakians (as has been suggested), why does not Hdt. say so?

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διὰ τοῦτο δή οἱ ... αἰεὶ ἐν Πέρσῃσι looks as though Maskames were alive, and still in Doriskos, though Xerxes is apparently dead. ὁ βασιλεύων ἀεί, ‘the king for the time being,’ in any case can only cover Artaxerxes—if the passage is from the hand of Hdt. If not, then indeed Maskames may be dead, or live only in his children, or descendants (ἔκγονοι); and the passage might be from the same hand as the sentenee ὣς δὲ ... ἐκγόνοισι above. In any case there is an awkward inconsequence between ἐκγόνοισι there and οί here— which supports the view that this chapter was not originally written once for all as it now stands; see Introduction, § 9.