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

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πρώτῳ κελεύσματι has almost a technieal, or proverbial, sound, like our ‘first bid,’ ‘first time of asking,’ etc.; cp. 4. 141 (where the article occurs); also Thuc. 2. 92. 1, where the ἕν must have been the πρῶτον κέλευσμα.

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οἷα οὐκ ἀξιεύμενος κτλ. To sit on the king's throne was treason, and punishable with death; Q. Curtins 8. 4. 17 and reff. ap. Rawlinson. The anecdote of the man who sat upon Alexander's throne is told by Arrian, Anab. 7. 24. 3: τοὺς δὲ οὐκ ἀναστῆσαι μὲν αὐτὸν ὲκ τοῦ θρόνου κατὰ δή τινα νόμον Περσικόν: περιρρηξαμένους δὲ τύπτεσθαι τά τε στὴθη καὶ τὰ πρόσωπα ὡς ἐπὶ μεγάλῳ κακῷ.

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εἴπας ... τὸ κελευόμενον, ‘before obeying the order spake as follows.’

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ἀνθρώπων κακῶν ὁμιλίαι: cp. Plato, Rep. 8. 550; 1 Cor. 15. 33 φθείρουσιν ἤθη χρήσθ᾽ ὁμιλίαι κακαί (au iambic trimeter, quoted from Menander's Thais: Fr. 211, ed. Meineke). Gnomic wisdom.

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φασί. Whose theory was this, that if only the wicked winds would leave the good sea to itself, it would be man's best friend? Stein understands Gobryas to be speaking as a landsman, unacquainted with the sea (and the winds?); but the passage is hardly so dramatic as that: rather is it quite undramatic and Herodotean. The theory is eminently Greek (not par exemple Phoenician!) and is found—as Stein points out—in Solon Fr. 12

ὲξ ἀνέμων δὲ θάλασσα ταράσσεται: ἢν δέ τις αὐτὴν μἡ κινῇ, πάντων ἐστι δικαιοτάτη,

a proof, in Plutarch's eyes (Solon, 3), that Solon was, in natural philosophy, ἁπλοῦς λίαν καὶ ἀρχαῖος. Cp. further parallels (quoted Bergk, P. L. ii.4 p. 41), esp. Polyb. 9. 29, Dionys. 17. 12, of the analogy between the People and the quiet steady sea, the Demagogues and the Wind (perhaps this was Solon's original point; ep. Psalm 65. 7).

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ὡς κακὸν εἴη διδάσκειν ... δίζησθαι . . ἔχειν. Another ‘gnome,’ rather clumsily expressed. The three consecutive infinitives may be paralleled 5. 12: ἐπιθυμῆσαι ... ἐντείλασθαι ... ποιῆσαι.

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ἐῶντα. Though Hdt. uses both ὄνειρος and ὄνειρον, the abrupt change of gender here is very harsh. Cp. App. Crit. supra.

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ὦ παῖ. Artabanos grows a trifle familiar; he had begun ὦ βασιλεῦ, cp. l. 4 supra. The rationale of dreams here given is refuted by the sequel, which proves the supernatural charaeter of the visitation, at least in this instance: how far there is conscious purpose in all this on the historian's part ean scarcely be determined; perhaps Hdt.'s own view on the question was indeterminate. τά, the relative, can hardly refer strictly to ὀνειράτων (heteroelite pl. from ὄνειρον） but more vaguely ‘regarding things which . .’ Valckenaer appropriately cites the poet Attius apud Ciceron. De divin. 1. 22 “res, quae in vita usurpant homines, eogitant curant vident, | quaeque agunt vigilantes agitantque, ea si eui in somno accidunt, | minus mirum est, sed di rem tantam hand temere improviso offerunt.”

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τὸ κάρτα, vel maxime: 1. 71, 3. 104, 4. 181.

εἰ δὲ ἄρα μή ἐστι shows the normal syntax; cp. εἰ οὐ below. ἄρα marks the less probable alternative; cp. 8. 109.

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οὐδὲν μᾶλλον ... ἢ οὐ (bis): a superfluous but idiomatic negative; cp. 4. 118, 5. 94. Artabanos is sound ou the clothes-philosophy: ‘cucullns non facit monachum.’

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ἐς τοσοῦτό γε εὐηθείης ἀνήκει, ‘has reached such a pitch of simplicity,’ innocence. For εὐήθεια cp. 1. 60, 3. 140, Thuc. 3. 45. 7, Plato, Rep. 348 c (in the mouth of Thrasymachos δικαιοδύνην=γενναίαν εὐήθειαν). For ἀνήκειν cp. cc. 9, 10 supra, 134, 237 infra; and in a literal or material sense c. 60 infra.

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εἰ δὲ ἐμέ, after μαθητέον ἔσται: ‘whether it will hold me of no account,’ naturally followed by οὐ: but just below, εἰ ... οὐκ οἷά τε, as οὐκ οἷά τε coalesce to form a single idea (ἀδύνατα); cp. c. 10 1. 73 supra.

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δεδόκηται. The form occurs in Pindar, Aristophanes, Euripides, and is of course more regular (as from δοκέω） thau the commoner δέδογμαι, c. 12 supra, δοκήσει 4. 74; but cp. App. Crit.