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ἐν τῇ ἐν Πλαταιῇσι μάχῃ: a forward, though not an explicit, reference; cp. 9. 71. Hdt. regards this man with much sympathy.
ἀνέλαβε: the metaphor here is not quite lucid. τὴν ἀρχήν in 3. 73, ‘to take up again,’ to recover the supreme power; τὴν ἀρχαίαν ἀρετήν, Xenoph. Mem. 3. 5. 14. are as obvious as Aristot. Eth. N. 3. 5. 14=1114 A οὐδ᾽ ἀφέντι λίθον ἔτ᾽ αὐτὸν δυν̓ατὸν ἀναλαβεῖν. Again, Thuc. 6. 26. 2 “ἄρτι δ᾽ ἀνειλήφει ἡ” πολις έαυτὴν ἀπὸ τῆς νόσου κτλ.: Xenoph. Hell. 6. 5. 21 ἐκ γὰρ τῆς πρόσθεν ἀθυμίας ἐδόκει τι ἀνειληφέναι τὴν πόλιν κτλ. are simple enough, but do not help towards ἀναλαβεῖν τὴν αἰτίην. The way to this lies rather through two passages of Hdt., 8. 109 ἀναμάχεσθαί τε καὶ ἀναλαμβάνειν τὴν προτέρην κακότητα, and 5. 121 τοῦτο τὸ τρῶμα ἀνέλαβόν τε καὶ ἀνεμαχέσαντο (οἱ Κᾶρες); so here, τὴν αἰτίην. The word seems to have lost definite colour. λέγεται: this envoy-story is in so far better that ‘Thessaly’ is named as the (rather improbable?) bourne of the envoy, and there is no variant.
Παντίτης, however, looks painfully in his fate like a double of Othryades, the sole survivor of another three hundred from Sparta, 1. 82—save that Othryades had absolutely nothing to reproach himself with. If Pantites means ‘the allhonourable man,’ his name but makes him look the more like a fable, or a broad hint (to Aristodemos). The truth of this story would rather conflict with the opinion expressed by Hdt. in c. 229. The messenger motif had been developed with variations before the story preserved by Plutarch, Mor. 866 (=de Malig. 32), could have been devised of the relatives, one of whom rejected the king's friendly attempt to save him with the surly apophthegm: μαχατάς τοι οὐκ ἀγγελιαφόρος εἱπόμαν. But the other relative might have been Aristodemos.
ὡς ἠτίμωτο: the pluperfect would here have the strictly temporal force which it hardly has above in c. 231.
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