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

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Μᾶρες: Steph. B. sub v., ἔθνος προσεχὲς τοῖς Μοσσυνοίκοις. Ἑκαταῖος Ἀσίᾳ. But no other ancient writer appears to have mentioned them: Hdt. 3. 94 puts them in satrapy xix. Their helmets are taken from the Paphlagonians, c. 72.

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Κόλχοι seem to have been mentio<*> by Hekataios, cp. Steph. B. sub v. Κόραξοι=Fr. 185. Their dark skin shmes on Pindar's page (Pyth. 212): their warrior-virgins are known of Aischylos (Prom. 422). Hdt. makes frequent mention of them: in 1. 104 and 4. 37 locates them, but does not enrol them in any satrapy: they bring gifts at intervals to the king, 3. 97. Hdt. has described the Armenians as ἄποικοι of the Phrygians, c. 73 supra: would he not here have made the Kolchi ἄποικοι of the Egyptians, if the remarkable theory, propounded in his ‘Egyptian Logi’ 2. 104 f. with an amplitnde of anthropological method which leaves nothing but the facts in doubt, had been familiar to him, when he was composing this army-list? Cp. Introduction, §§ 7, 8. Xenophon encountered Kolchi after passing through the country of the Makrones, Anab. 4. 8. 8, i.e. the Kolchi were nearer the sea, and extended round from the Phas<*>s westwards a good way. Kolchis is well known, of course, to Strabo (497-499) and Arrian (Periplus） though the Kolchi only rank as one of a number of folks occupying the whole territory.

κράνεα ξ.: cp. c. 72 supra.

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ὠμοβοΐνας: cp. c. 76 supra.

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μαχαίρας: swords, or daggers: their armature is typical: cp. Appendix II. § 5.

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Φαρανδάτης ὁ Τεάσπιος: fought and probably fell at the battle of Plataia, 9. 76 infra, but hardly his Kolchians with him! Cp. the next ἄρχων. The Teaspes here mentioned is father of Sataspes, 4. 43, and an Acha<*>men<*>d.

Ἀλαρόδιοι: mentioned by Steph. B. sub v. only on the authority of Herodotus, who combines them into one satrapy (xvii.) with the Matieni and Saspeires (3. 94). Sir Henry Rawlinson proposed to identity them with the Urarda or “people of Ararat” (see essay in Rawlinson's Hdt. iv.3 245 ff.). They would then be much the same as ‘Armenians’—otherwise accounted for by Hdt. The ‘Armenians’ of Hdt. might indeed be a small off-shoot of the ‘Phrygians,’ cp. c. 73 supra, while the great bulk of the population of Armenia belonged to an entirely different stock. But whence has Hdt. obtained the name?

Σάσπειρες: a more or less constant quantity with Hdt. but unknown under exactly this name to any other writer (Steph. B. has Σάπειρες without any citation, a form found in Apoll. Rh. 2. 397, 1242). Also Ammianus Marc. 22. 8. 21 has a list of Pontine tribes, which includes ‘Sapires et Tibareni et Mossynoeci et Macrones’! cp. App. Crit. Hdt. 4. 37, 40, and 1. 104, 110 places the Saspeires between the Medes and the Kolchians, and in 3. 94 unites them with Matieni and Alarodians to form one satrapy (xvii.). Their geographical position is therefore indicated as in ‘Armenia’: their ethnological identity is more doubtful, but the happiest suggestion is Rawlinson's, iv.3 223, who identifies them with the Iberes (through the Abeiris found in Menander: cp. Etym. Mag. sub v. Βέχειρ: Ἄπειρ, ἢ . . Σάπειρ. If the Sapeires=Iberes they have a long history in later times.

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Μασίστιος ὁ Σιρομίτρεω: destined to figure largely in the Plataean campaign but in quite a different capacity: cp. 9. 20 etc. That there is here no forward reference is the more curious in view of the note to the name of the next ἄρχων. A Sirómitres, son of Oiobazos, has been already named among these ‘myriarchs’: c. 68 supra.