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τῆς ἐτριηράρχεε Ἀσωνίδης: this trierarch too is unknown otherwise. (Should his name be Ἀσωπίδης? cp. 5. 80.)
Πυθέω τοῦ Ἰσχευόου ἐπιβατεύοντος: this gallant epibates strangely enough was on board the captor ship, a Sidonian, at Salamis (8. 92 infra). Did he himself tell the story of his deeds and his treatment? Had he any conversation with Ionian or other Greeks on the Persian side?
ἐς ὃ κατεκρεουργἠθη ἅπας, ‘until he was simply cut to pieces.’ Cp. κατακοπέντ ι 8. 92, τοὐς ἄνδρας κρεουργηο<*>ὸν διασπάσαντες 3. 13.
περιποιῆσαί μιν περὶ πλείστον ἐποιήσαντο, ‘made the greatest point of preserving him’—perhaps the Phoenicians, less chivalrous than the Persian epibatai, would have thought otherwise. The preposition and the verb, both repeated in different senses, are stylistically defective.
<*>μύρνῃσί ... κατειλίσσοντες: the evidence afforded by this story of appliances on board available for the treatment of the wounded is remarkable. Were they primarily intended for that purpose? In 2. 86 σμύρνη (myrrh) and other similar drugs (hence here, plural?) are used for embalming dead bodies, and ‘the long strips of linen cloth’ for bandaging are taken literally (or literally reproduced) in that process. But Phoenicians, much less Persians, would not want to mummify even the illustrious dead; and the fair inference is that these appliances were intended for their own wounded.
ἐκπαγλεόμενοι, a poetical word: i.q. ἐκπλήσσεσθαι, only used in these Books, 8. 92, 9. 48. Even the adj. ἔκπαγλος (=ἔκπλαγος) is only once found in Attic prose; L. & S. sub v.
περιέποντες: cp. περιέψεσθαι c. 149 supra.
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