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

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παρελθὼν ὁ Ἀριστείδης: into the very presence of the Strategoi; cp. c. 79. 5 supra.

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μόγις <δι->εκπλῶσαι λαθὼν τοὺς ἐπορμέοντας: as the vulgate ἐκπλῶσαι must mean ‘to sail out,’ Aristeides appears to report either the difficulty he had had in getting from Salamis to Aigina, or — as Hdt. does not conceive him starting in the first instance from Salamis — the difficulty he had experienced in getting out from Aigina, in which case τοὺς ἐπορμέοντας would be a squadron blockading Aigina. But this interpretation squares ill with the words which immediately follow, apparently as justification. It remains to interpret ἐκπλῶσαι of escaping from a pursuing squadron. The emendation διεκπλῶσαι (vid. App. Crit.), though a bit of rationalism, is rather favoured by λαθών and by διεκπλεύσας, Plutarch Aristeid. 8.

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περιέχεσθαι γὰρ ... Ξέρξεω: these words again favour Leake's interpretation of the movements predicated in cc. 70, 76 supra, and point to the conclusion that, so far as Hdt. himself has any clear conception of the situation, he justifies Leake's interpretation. The result thereby attained is indeed an absurdity, but if a military expert and topographer like Leake could swallow it, why not Herodotus?

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παραρτέεσθαι: here strictly middle and reflexive; cp. c. 76 supra.

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μετεστήκεε, ‘withdrew’; the tense is rather rhetorical than grammatically exigent. For the meaning cp. Thuc. 5. 111. 6 (μεταστάντων ἡμῶν). λόγων ἀμφισβασίη: cp. 4. 14—something less than λ. ὠθισμός c. 78 and more than the ἀκροβολισμός c. 64. If the περικύκλωσις had been simply in the bay of Ambelaki the truth could have very easily been verified. The reputation of Aristeides for δικαιοσύνη and ἀρετή does not appear to have been as yet established, at least in Peloponnesian circles.