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οἱ γὰρ Εὐβοέες: Blakesley endorses Schweighaeuser's observation that the proper place for c. 20 is immediately after c. 4 supra; but the displacement may be as old as Hdt. s own composition. In which case, or otherwise, the connexion seems to be that, a propos des moutons, the question arises: how did it happen that the sheep were there to be looted after that fashion? Why, because the Euboians had made no preparations for the war, and that although there was an oracle of Bakis to warn them. But the authenticity of this chapter is not above suspicion. παραχρησάμενοι τὸν Βάκιδος χρησμόν: παραχρᾶσθαι as in 4. 159, 1. 108; cp. 2. 141 τὸν εν ἀλογίῃσι ἔχειν παραχρης άμενον τῶν μαχίμων, and 4. 150 ἀλογίην εἶχον τοῦ χρηστηρίου. The word as used in 7. 223 has a further application. Βάκις may be connected with βάζειν, βακ- to say, spcak, though the verb βακίζειν in Aristophanes Peace 1072 is no doubt formed from the proper name. The word Βάκιδες is associated with Σίβυλλαι by Aristotle, Probl. 30. 1 = 954 A, in such a way as to suggest that the ancients themselves regarded the name rather as a generic term than as a proper name; but there were two or three Βάκιδες of especial fame, to whom the title was suecessively appropriated, a Boiotian, an Attic, an Arkadian. (Cp. Pauly-Wissowa ii. 2802.) It is probably the Boiotian of Eleon (cp. 5. 43) that Hdt. believes himself to be quoting here, and in cc. 77, 96 infra, and 9. 43. Special collections of oracles of Bakis, of Musaios (cp. 7. 6), and others, had come much into fashion in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. with the development, or revival, of mysteries, orgies, and other religious consolations; cp. E. Rhode, Psyche (1894), pp. 351 ff.; J. B. Bury, Hist. of Greece, i. (1902) 335.
προσεσάξαντο: cp. 5. 34, 1. 190. The v.l. προεσάξαντο, from προσάττειν, is preferred also by Baehr and Sitzler. περιπετέα τε ἐποιήσαντο ... τὰ πρήγματα: sed res suas ipsi in summum discrimen adduxerunt, Schweig. followed by Baehr. περιπετής is used literally of ‘falling round’ or upon an object (cp. Soph. Ai. 907, Ant 1223); metaphorically, of ‘falling in with’ evil or misfortune. It may be used here with the further suggestion of a sudden change or reverse of fortune; but that seems unnecessary. Rather the word here appears to come short of its fuller force, inasmuch as danger rather than actual disaster appears indicated. At any rate (as Stein observes), except for the sack of Histiaiotis c. 23 infra, the Euboians are not recorded to have suffered; the Persian fleet made straight from Histiaia to Phaleron, c. 66 infra. The Enboians, indeed, appear to have suffered almost as much from their friends as from their enemies.
ὅταν ζυγὸν εἰς ἅλα βάλλῃ βύβλινον appears to be a clear reference to the bridging of the sea (Hellespont); cp. 7. 25, 34, 36; though it might conceivably refer merely to the employment of byblos-hawsers for ordinary marine or naval purposes. Cp. c. 77 infra.
πολυμηκάς appears to be an ἅπαξ λεγ.
τούτοισι οὐδὲν τοῖσι ἔπεσι χρησαμένοισι. οὐδὲν χρησαμένοισι means ‘after utterly neglecting, disregarding’; cp. 5. 72 τῇ κλεηδόνι οὐδὲν χρεώμενος. The personal subject is supplied by σφι. This short sentence is a clumsy and inelegant one; there are ten words in the dative in four different constructions: τούτοισι might be masculine, but for the belated σφι; χρησαμένοισι followed by χρᾶσθαι and παρεοῦσι followed by παρῆν, and παρῆν again by παρῆν in the next line (c. 21). are stylistic abortions; in short, with the wry setting of the chapter, and other peculiarities, doubts as to its authenticity are legitimate.
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