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

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αὖτις, ‘again,’ a second time; the first time being in c. 59 supra. Cp. αὖτις δέ c. 60 supra corresponding to πρῶτα μέν just before.

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πατρίς, ‘a fatherland’; cp. c. 57 supra, where Mnesiphilos regards Themistokles as possessing actually, or potentially, a πατρίς so long as the Greek fleet is kept together at Salamis.

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Εὐρυβιάδην οὐκ ἐῶν ἐπιψηφίζειν ἀπόλι ἀνδρί, ‘trying to prevent Eurybiades reopening the question (putting a question to the vote) for the benefit of (at the request of, to please) a landless (city-less) man: let Themistokles produce a city to which he belongs before (said he) offering us his advice.’

There seems to be no sufficient reason for abandoning (with Stein) the normal meaning of ἐπιψηφίζειν so as to make it mean ‘to allow a vote to’—an interpretation which leads him to take γνώμας συμβάλλεσθαι in the sense ‘mitzustimmen,’ i.e. to vote with (us). In 5. 92 (γνώμας ἀμείνονας συμβαλέσθαι ἤ περ νῦν) the meaning is clearly ‘to advise.’ Against the normal interpretation Stein asks: Warum sollte der Antrag eines heimatlosen Mannes nicht Gegenstand einer Abstimmung sein durfen? The point of the story as told by Hdt. appears to be that Adeimantos wishes to find some pretext on which to prevent the question being reopened. He objects to Themistokles, who is now a landless man, being allowed to propose a motion or an amendment, as subject for a vote in the council of war: he takes exception to a man, who no longer represents a state, having any opinion or proposal submitted to a vote.

There is, indeed, a radical flaw or inconsequence in the narrative of Hdt. in that, on the one hand, it implies that the question of remaining or going was to be decided by the votes of the majority, while, on the other hand, it no less clearly implies that the whole and sole decision rested with Eurybiades. But this inconsequence leaves the meaning of ἐπιψηφίζειν unaffected.

Stein quotes two late writers in support of his interpretation. Lucian Tim. 44 ἐπεψήφισε τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ. Diog. L 7. 10 ἐκκλησίᾳ κυρίᾳ τῶν προέδρων ἐπεψήφισεν Ἵππων. I should take ἐκκλησίᾳ κυρίᾳ as a remoter dative, or even locative, and so too τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ, rather than as objectively constructed with ἐπεψήφισεν, and the verb itself as absolute. Cp. Thuc. 6. 14. 1 “ταῦτα . . ἐπιψήφιζε καὶ γνώμας προτίθει αὖθις Ἀθηναίοις”, where Nikias is pleading for ‘the previous question.’

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ἡλώκεσάν τε καὶ κατείχοντο, ‘had been taken and were in the hands of the enemy’: the pl.p. and imp. tenses are noticeable.

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τότε δή: a contrast to the former occasion, and the soft answer; τότε, c. 60 supra. Now Themistokles ‘lets him have it.’

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ὡς εἴη καὶ πόλις καὶ γῆ ... ἔστ᾽ ἂν διηκόσιαι νέες σφι ἔωσι π.: the sequence is hardly quite regular. The 200 includes the ships lent to Chalkis. On πεπληρωμέναι cp. c. 46 supra. The formula that ‘so long as they have 200 ships fully manned, the Athenians have both City and Land, greater than Korinth and Korinthia,’ is ruined by the explanation that ‘no Hellenes whom they attack will be able to resist them.’ Nothing further is heard of the threat in this sense; and it spoils the beautiful crescendo of Themistokles' arguments, being the most direct and brutal, if that indeed was what he meant. He probably meant something quite different: ‘Stone walls do not a city make.’ The seholiast on Aisehyl. Pers. 347 cites Alkaios; cp. Bergk, P.L.G. iii.4 156, Fr 23 ἄνδρες πόληος πύργος ἀρεύῖοι. The passage in Aischylos runs:

ΑΤ. ἔτ᾽ ἆρ᾽ Ἀθηνῶν ἔστ᾽ άπόρθητος πόλις; ΑΓ. ἀνδρῶν γὰρ ὄντων ἕρκος ἐστὶν ἀσφαλές.

Sophokles formulates the idea still more explicitly, Oid. Tyr. 56 f. “ως οὐδέν ἐστιν οὔτε πύργος οὔτε ναῦς ἔρημος άνδρῶν μὴ ξυνοικούντων ἔσω”. The Athenians, far beyond most Greeks of the fifth cent. B.C., attained the eonception of the ideal and spiritual character of the City, and its independence of the particular place and material conditions. Their invention of the kleruchy, in anticipation of the Roman colonia civium opt. iur., is an evidence of that. A great stage in their education was doubtless the evacuation of Attica in 480 B.C., and it bore fruit sixty-eight years later, when in 412 B.C. the Athenian naval στρατόπεδον at Samos preserved the continuity of the Athenian Constitution, and formulated the conception of a polity virtually independent of place: Thucyd. 8. 76. It is but natural that the Nephclo kokkygia of Aristophanes and the Republic of Plato are products of Attic genius. Cp. 7. 234. 9 supra.