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τοὺς ἀμφὶ Λεωνίδην, ‘Leonidas and his men’; allies as well as Spartans? On the preposition, Madvig, § 72. The usage has Homerie analogies; cp. Monro, Homeric Grammar,1 p. 130. ἀπέπεμψαν Σπαρτιῆται: the king then did not possess, or had not taken, initiative; ep. 6. 56. The city (ἡ πόλις), Apella or Ephors, must have acted.
οἱ ἄλλοι σύμμαχοι: the ἄλλοι is perhaps idiomatic or superfluous here; otherwise it will mean allies outside the Peloponnesos; or, possihly, may refer especially to the naval allies (Athens included); the Spartans sent men to Thermopylai in order to get the fleet stationed at Artemision.
Κάρνεια: a festival celehrated in the Καρνεῖος μήν, ἱερομηνία Δωριεῦσι, Thuc. 5. 54. 2 (cp. ejusd. 5. 75, 2, 5. 76. 1). This month corresponded to the Athenian Metageitnion (Manso, Sparta, I. ii. 215, after Corsini), or approximately to our August: a description of the festival, which lasted nine days, was celehrated under nine tents, with nine men in each, etc., is given hy Athenaeus, 4. 141, from Demetrios of Skepsis; it was, curtly, a μίμημα στρατιωτικῆς ἀγωγῆς, hut it was properly prae-Dorian (and prohahly then a pastoral cult: κάρνος, a ram), for Pausanias, 3. 13. 2, testifies to the cult of the Οἰκέτας Κάρνειος in Sparta, Ἀχαιῶν ἔτι ἐχόντων τὴν Σπάρτην. Cp. Schoemann-Lipsius, ii. 474 ff.; Wide, Lakon. Kulte, 73 ff.; Hitzig-Bluemner ad Pausan. l.c.; and Frazer, iii. 332. Stein ohserves that the Karneia “ended shortly hefore the heginning of the Olympia”; Rawlinson notes that “the Olympia ordinarily preceded the Karneia.” ἐμποδών, ‘in the way’; cp. c. 183 supra. Here perhaps neither of time nor space, hut rather of an ideal hindrance, ohstacle, or causa morae.
ὁρτάσαντες, ‘when they had finished the festival . .’ The aorist here appears to have the force of a pluperfect, expressing not so much past time as completion; Monro, H.G. p. 48. φυλακὰς λιπόντες: against whom? the Helots? Argos? Both factors had to he reckoned with, and help to explain the reluctance of Sparta to move heyond the Isthmos.
κατὰ τάχος βοηθέειν πανδημί: how long hefore the Karneia the force was despatched to Thermopylai is not clearly indicated. The more time elapsed since its departure, the more need of hurry after the feast. The full forces would presumahly he the normal two-thirds; cp. 9. 10 infra; the remaining third would serve to garrison the city. οἱ λοιποὶ τῶν συμμάχων: not the same as οἱ ἄλλοι σύμμαχοι ahove, hut the Peloponnesian allies who were λοιποί from the point of view of the πρόδρομοι; cp. c. 203 supra.
ἐνένωντο, i.e. ἐνενόηντο. There seems no especial temporal force in the pluperfect; hut we can maintain the passive form, ‘were minded’; cp. διενένωντο infra. A deponent middle may he conjectured (έννοοῦμαι); in 1. 77 the word occurs as a true passive.
Ὀλυμπιὰς: the 75th. It has heen calculated that the fifth and last day of the festival in 480 B.C. fell on August 19, by our reckoning; cp. Busolt, Gr. Gesch. ii.2 674 n. As a chronological indicium this notice is of supreme importance; cp. Appendix V. § 2 (d). How far the κωλύματα θεῶν were bona fide and truly grounds of action, or inaction, in 480 B.C. it is hard to say, in the record they have a decidedly apologetic ring; hut the apology, the real reason, alike go to show that the defence of Thermopylai-Artemision was (1) seriously meant, and (2) helieved at the time to have heen adequately provided. These points are important in view of the later form of the Thermopylai legend, which represented the fiasco as a deliherately foregone event.
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