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

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οἶα κτλ. The first motive ascribed to Mardonios (νεωτέρων ἔργων ἐπιθυμίη) might suit democratic leanings (cp. 6. 43) rather than military measures; the second is presumably inferential, his ambition to be governor of Hellas, a rôle which would bulk more largely in the eyes of a Greek (cp. case of Pausanias, 5. 32) than in the eyes of a Persian. ἔργων here is not substantially different from πρηγμάτων. So often (i.) ἔργον = πράξις (e.g. ἔ. άποδέξασθαι c. 139 infra, et passim). The word is also used (ii.) of material objects, or ‘works’ (1. 51 Θεοδώρου τοῦ Σαμίου ἔργον et al.; cp. 1. 36 τὰ τῶν Μυσῶν ἔ.). (iii.) In some passages we get almost the meaning ‘use’ or ‘function’; cp. 1. 17 and 114.

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κατεργάσατό τε καὶ ἀνέπεισε. Perhaps ‘he succeeded in persuading’ (a hendiadys) rather than either (a） κατεργάσατο ἃ ἐβούλετο or (b) κατεργάσατο τὸν Ξέρξεα καὶ ἀνέπεισε αὐτόν, though the use of the word in 9. 108 (οὐκ ἐδύνατο κατεργασθῆναι sc. ἡ γυνή） supports interpretation (b). The Herodotean uses of this word are remarkable (cp. Index Verb.). In the next sentence ἄλλα is subject of συνέλαβε, and Ξέρξην of πείθεσθαι.

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τοῦτο μὲν ... τοῦτο δέ, without specific reference to ἄλλα, ‘in the first place, ... in the second.’

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ἄγγελοι=πρέσβεις, cp. c. 1, l. 6 supra.

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οἱ δὲ Ἀλευάδαι ... βασιλέες. On the ‘Aleuads’ cp. cc. 130, 172 infra, and 9. 1, 58. Hdt. would hardly be right in describing them here as ‘kings’; but I am half inclined to regard the phrase as a gloss (with Blakesley), cp. 5. 63. If it stands, it will not favour the view that Hdt. himself had visited Thessaly (cp. c. 129 infra). Hdt. appears to be unacquainted with the government of Thessaly, and even with the title of ταγός. The Alenads were evidently partyleaders; cp. c. 172.

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Πεισιστρατιδέων οἱ ἀναβεβηκότες. These anonymous ‘Peisistratids’ are rather a mystery. Dikaios, 8. 65, may have been one; cp. also 8. 54. But what of Hippias, whom Hdt. at least has not expressly slam at Marathon (cp. Cicero, ad Att. 9. 10. 3)? The omission to account for Hippias (after 6. 107), and the whole tone and character of this notice of the Peisistratidai (after the place occupied by their story in Bks. 5, 6), support the view that Bk. 7 is of prior composition; cp. Introduction, §§ 7, 8. Hdt. gives no date for the ‘anabasis.’

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λόγων ἐχόμενοι, as c. 5 supra. Cp. Index Verb. ἔχεσθαι.

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προσωρέγοντό (τι ἔτι πλέον οἱ): an nnusual word and expression; cp. ἐπορέγεσθαι in 9. 34 (of something beyond προτείνεσθαι); rendered “plied him” (Blakesley), “worked upon him” (Rawlinson), “instabant regi eumque urgebant” (Baehr).

Ὀνομάκριτον ... Μουσαίου. The friendship of Hipparchos with the Athenian soothsayer and oracle-monger is characteristic and significant of the tyrannic family (cp 5. 93, etc.). Lasos of Hermione, or Hermion (cp. 8. 73 infra), a ‘Dryopian,’ with a special interest perhaps in Lemnos and the Lemnians (cp. 8. 73), may have been a rival professor at the Athenian court. Pausan. 1. 22. 7 extends the forgeries of Onomakritos, and reduces the genuine remains of Musaios to one Hymn to Demeter for the Attic Lykomidai. Onomakritos may, perhaps, be connected with the spread of ‘the Orphic religion’; cp. Bury, Hist. of Greece, i. (1902) 339. Lasos was “a lyric and dithyrambic poet of the highest repute” (R.), of whom Aristophanes makes jocular mention as rival of Simonides (Wasps, 1410f.). A fragment of his Hymn to Demeter is preserved in Athenaeus; cp. Bergk, Poetae Lyrici, iii.4 (1882), pp. 376 f.

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ἐπ᾽ αὐτοφώρῳ ἁλούς: a technical (Athenian) expression, here not quite accurately used. (He was not filching but forging. Still, forgery is a kind of theft!) Cp. 6. 72 and 137.

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ἀφανιζοίατο. Baehr disapproves of Naber's suggestion ἀφανιεοίατο (future), the pres. opt. having a future signification; Stein observes that ἀφανίζονται may have stood oracularly in the actual verse, cp. cc. 140, 220 infra. Why Onomakritos should have foretold destruction for the islands off Lemnos does not appear. Baehr observes that (1) the holy isle of Chryse is intended; (2) the region is volcanic. Perhaps the prophecy has some bearing on the Peisistratid policy in the Hellespontine region (cp. Bury, Hist. of Greece, i. 208), whether as warning or encouragement. Plutarch. de Pythiae orac. 11 (Mor. 399), preserves an oracle predicting the appearance of an island in the sea, and the victory of the inferior over the superior power: a conjunction interpreted to refer to the rising of the islet between Thera and Therasia and the Roman victory over Philip of Macedon in 197 B.C.

κατὰ τῆς θαλάσσης. The accusative might have been expected, but cp. c. 235 infra.

ἐξήλασέ μιν ὁ Ἵππαρχος. The expulsion must be dated before midsummer 514 B.C., cp. 5. 55. Hipparchos might perhaps be said to have effected it, even without being himself actually ‘tyrant’; but cp. my note ad l.c.

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ὅκως, neither modal nor final, but simply temporal and iterative (opt.); a frequent use in Hdt. (v. L. & S. sub v. A. I. 7). Cp. note to 8. 14 infra.

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εἰ μὲν ... τῶν μὲν ... ὁ δέ. The sequence and antithesis are not quite strict, but the subject of the sentence is expressed and emphasized by the particle, in accordance with a common device of Hdt.'s; cp. Index Verb. s.v. δέ.

ἐνέοι semel: aliis locis εἴη (Baehr).

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ἐξηγεόμενος, “expounding, in conformity with his oracles” (Stein); cp. for an illustration Mardonios' exegesis, 9. 42. But the phrase is used in 3. 4 without any oracular suggestion: Καμβύσῃ . . ἀπορέοντι τὴν ἔλασιν, ὅκως τὴν ἄνυδρον διεκπερᾷ, ἐπελθὼν (ὁ Φάνης) φράζει μὲν καὶ τὰ ἄλλα τὰ Ἀμάσιος πρήγματα, ἐξηγέεται δὲ καὶ τὴν ἔλασιν κτλ. (Stein would read τήν τε ἄλλην ἔλασιν in this place).

οὗτός τε. It is remarkable that Demaratos plays no part in this anecdote: was he not in Susa? Cp. c. 3 supra. προσεφέρετο does duty with the Peisistratids and Aleuads, as well as with Ono makritos. The defective style of Hdt. in this anecdote has been the subject of remark (cp. Kaibel, Stil u. Text d. II. A. p. 29). Such defects may at times arise from ill-digested sources— here, for example—but hardly in the other case cited by Kaibel (c. 8 infra, q.v.); and these stylistic failures would be most natural in the portion of Hdt.'s work earliest composed.