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ἐξεληλύθεσαν: before any one, the Athenians for example, knew of it.
ἐγεγόνεε: not until after daybreak. These pluperfects are temporal. The ambassadors, or convoys, must include those from Megara and Plataia; but the spokesman is plainly Athenian.
ἐπῆλθον: cp. c. 7 supra. ἐν νόῳ δὴ ἔχοντες, ‘intending at last’ (Blakesley).
καὶ αὐτοί as well as the army, though of its departure they knew nothing; or, as well as the representatives of the various allies assembled in Sparta, Chileos, and the rest? ἐπὶ τὴν ἑωυτοῦ ἕκαστος: was there only one ambassador from each city? Plutarch (Arist. 10) makes Aristeides the Athenian one, but gives very good evidence (‘the psephism of Aristeides’） that Athens had three representatives, Kimon, Xanthippos, Myronides. The mention of Xanthippos dates the embassy before the muster of the fleet at Aigina, 8. 131.
αὐτοῦ τῇδε, ‘here on the spot.’ Ὑακίνθιά τε ἄγετε καὶ παίζετε. The title of the festival is anarthrous, idiomatically; cp. Κάρνεια 7.206, Ὀλύμπια δὲ καὶ Κάρνεια 8. 72. ἄγειν celebrare 8. 26, etc. παίζειν here can hardly be used as a scoff (cp. 4. 77), but as in Pindar Ol. 13. 86 ἐνόπλια χαλκωθεὶς ἔπαιζεν (orchestic); or Ol. 1. 16 μουσικᾶς ἐν ἀώτῳ, οἷα παίζομεν. Cp. Aristoph. Frogs 407 “παίζειν τε καὶ χορεύειν”, 442 παίζοντες οἷς μετουσία θεοφιλοῦς ἑορτῆς etc.; cp. 5. 4 supra.
ὡς quippe, 7. 22 supra. χήτεἶ, from χῆτος (the form χῆτις, χήτι also read), a strictly Homeric word; cp. χατέω, χατίζω. καταλύσονται τῷ Π. οὕτω ὅκως ἂν δύνωνται: for καταλύεσθαι cp. 7. 6, 8. 140 supra. Even in such phrases as these the reference of οὕτω is not of necessity forwards, but might rather be carried backwards. The sequence here, future indic. followed by pres. subj., is observable. Cp. just below συστρατεισόμεθα . . ἂν ἐξηγέωνται ... μαθήσεσθε . . ἂν ἐκβαίνῃ, the last of which is the most remarkable; the construction is perhaps attracted by the preceding instances.
σύμμαχοι βασιλέος γινόμεθα (N.B. the tense). This threat and announcement comes with startling rapidity after the ‘lynching of Lykidas’ in c. 4 supra, and puts both the Athenians and the Spartans in a very unfortunate and probably false position. The notion that the Peloponnesian forces were only mobilized at the eleventh hour under threat of ‘medism’ on the part of Athens is highly improbable. (i.) If Mardonios is in Attica, or even in Boiotia, then in all probability a Spartano-Peloponnesian force is already at the Isthmos—if only to defend the wall. (ii.) The threat here is entirely subversive of the heroics in 8. 144, and even in c. 7 supra. (iii.) The more probable date of the Hyakinthia, in spring, militates against this ultimatum. (iv.) The subsequent relations of Athenians and Spartans during the campaign are against it. (v.) The ultimatum is in itself an absurdity: the point at issue is really one of detail, as to the exact modus operandi; the Athenians could not doubt the substantial bona fides of the Spartans, with the king in command of the fleet at Aigina. (vi.) The notion is too comic that 5000 Hoplites and 35,000 Helots had mobilized and marched without any of the Athenian, Plataian, or Megarian envoys getting wind of it, or having a single friend in Spart a to inform them. Probably there was a good deal of friction and misgiving between Athens and Sparta during the winter and spring after Salamis and before Plataia: it cannot be said that either party comes very well out of this story, which is told more or less at the expense of both parties, perhaps by this or that ally—Arkadian, Epidaurian, Megarian, Aiginetan, or so forth! Cp. further Appendix VIII. § 3.
ἐκεῖνοι: sc. οἱ Πέρσαι.
ἐξ αὐτοῦ: sc. βασιλέος? But, as ἐκεῖνοι has intervened, perhaps αὐτοῦ is used more vaguely ‘thereout’: sc. of our alliance with the Persian. ταῦτα λεγόντων τῶν ἀγγέλων: the speech just delivered only takes account of the case of Athens; Plataia and Megara being ignored—as also the mobilization of the fleet!
ἐπ᾽ ὅρκον = σὺν ὅρκῳ very unusual; and the more remarkable as ἐπιορκεῖν means ‘to forswear’ (4. 68), though ἐπομνύναι (8, 5) not so. καὶ δὴ δοκέειν εἶναι: the subject of εἶναι will be τοὺς σφετέρους ἄνδρας or sim. καὶ δή with εἶναι = ἤδη. Cp. c. 6 supra. στείχειν is an eminently Ionic, or Epic, or poetic word. ἐν Ὀρεσθείῳ. Pausanias 8. 3. 2 gives Ὀρεσθάσιον as the original name of this place, Ὀρέστειόν τε ἀπὸ Ὀρέστου κληθεῖσα τοῦ Ἀγαμέμνονος. The change of name may belong to the same ‘movement’ and date as discovered the bones of ‘Orestes’ in Tegea for the benefit of the Spartans, 1. 67 f. Orestes was henceforward the canonized founder of ‘Oresteion’ (cp. Eurip. Orest, 1647, Electr 1273). In reality Oresthasion was the capital town or village of the Oresthis (cp. Thuc. 4. 134, 1), itself a portion of the Mainalia (Thuc. 5. 64. 3; cp. Pausan. 8. 27. 3) or mountainous region between the plains of Tegea and the later Megalopolis, the watershed between Alpheios and Eurotas. The remains of the city lay to the right of the route from Megalopolis to Tegea (Pausanias 8. 44. 2), and quite off the direct road from Sparta to the Isthmos (via Tegea, Mantineia, etc.). Rawhnson suggests that this roundabout route was selected in order to effect a junction with a contingent from the Lepreatis, surely an unnecessary arrangement. Perhaps all the forces from Sparta did not take one and the same route: those that started first may have been sent by the longer road. Or could it be that they took the longer way round to avoid the Argives? Cp. next c. (In days of yore the Oresthasioi had done ‘yeoman's’ or rather ‘heroic service’ in the wars between Arkadia and Sparta; cp. Pausan. 8. 39. 3 ff., 41. 1.)
ξείνους γὰρ ἐκάλεον τοὺς βαρβάρους. This appears to me to be a gloss, introdueed from c. 55 infra: the imperfect ἐκάλεον suits. Stein observes that the Spartans applied the term not merely to βάρβαροι but to all foreigners (cp. ξενηλασία), as the Romans hostis.
ἐπειρώτων τὸ λεγόμενον, ‘inquired their meaning . .,’ cp 3. 22. εἰρωτᾶν, εἴρεσθαι are the Ionic forms; cp. ἐπειρώτησις c. 44 infra.
πᾶν τὸ ἐόν: 7. 209 supra. ὥστε . . ἐπορεύοντο, Madvig § 166. ἐν θώματι γενόμενοι, ‘after recovering from their astonishment.’ (The aorist seems to have almost perfect or pl. p. force.)
ἐπορεύοντο τὴν ταχίστην διώκοντες: cogn. acc. Their object was to overtake the Van; they were accompanied by 5000 picked hoplites of the Lakedaimonian Perioikoi, who tried to keep up with them and overtake the Van.
τὠυτὸ τοῦτο ἐποίεον — rather a bathos! Cp. App. Crit. It is not asserted that the Rear overtook the Van at Orestheion: probably not, for they would go the shorter and more direct route (τὴν ταχίστην supra).
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