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

---

---

Ἀργεῖοι δέ. The medism of the Argives was a serious matter for Sparta, and helps to account for the apparent weakness of her policy and action in this campaign. It cannot, however, have been very ardent, or the Argives would have made more of their opportunity, when the Spartans actually did leave the Peloponnesos; cp. 8. 73 supra. It was even a service in disguise to Greece, sealing the Spartans more surely to the good cause!

ἐπείτε τάχιστα ἐπύθοντο: how soon was that? Had they Proxenoi, or friends in Sparta, to inform them, or was it only when the Spartan army was marching past their own borders? ἐξεληλυθότας ἐκ Σπάρτης might perhaps mean ‘had crossed the border’; cp. c. 17 infra.

---

τοὺς μετὰ Π., ‘Pausanias and his men.’

---

κήρυκα (not ἄγγελον, cp. 7. 1).

ἡμεροδρόμων. cp. 6. 105. The story would be more convincing if the name of this crack runner had been preserved: cp. 6. 105.

---

ἐς τὴν Ἀττικήν ... ἐς τὰς Ἀθήνας: while the Atheman, Plataian, and Megarean envoys have been kicking their heels in Sparta. Mardonios has ex hypothesi reoccupted Athens, c. 3 supra.

πρότερον αὐτοὶ Μαρδονίῳ ὑποδεξάμενοι: according to this story the Argives were pledged to Mardonios to keep the Spartans at bay. If true, this pledge implies previous negotiations between the Persian and the Argives, of which nothing further has transpired. It was a very pretty plan, or a very pretty commentary on a want of plan. Had the Argives really been co-operating with the Persian to that extent they might have made it impossible for Sparta to send 10,000 Hoplites and 40,000 Helots beyond the Isthmos. Argos observed neutrality, perhaps a neutrality benevolent towards the ‘barbarian’; but Sparta must have been well assured that a real neutrality would be observed before she denuded Lakonia of fighting men. A forgotten chapter in Greek diplomacy might have recorded the pourparlers between Athens, Argos and Sparta during the winter, or spring, which convinced the Greeks that they had no active hostility to expect from Argos: Salamis made a deeper impression upon Argos than upon Thessaly and Boiotia, powers which took their cue from the fiasco at Thermopylai. The embassy, whose absurd and pitiful record has just been given above, may have been better employed in squaring Argos than in denouncing Sparta.

αὐτοί may best be taken with σχήσειν.

---

ἔλεγε τάδε. How this ἡμεροδρόμος got past the Isthmos wall, which was no donbt guarded from sea to sea. Hdt. does not say: the problem does not exist for him. The message is desperate: Mardonios would have had something to say in reply, before he allowed the messenger to depart, on Argive impotence and breach of faith; except, indeed, that Mardonios' chief wish must have been to draw the Peloponnesians into Boiotia, which is not the point of view of the anecdote.

---

ὅτι ἐκ Λακεδαίμονος ἐξελήλυθε ἡ νεότης, ‘the Lakedaimonian militia has crossed the border’—a frequent formula, perhaps, in Peloponnese! νεότης, a collective term, here apparently includes all men liable for service abroad; cp. Thuc. 2. 8. 1 etc. and 7. 13 supra.

---

ὡς οὐ δυνατοὶ αὐτὴν ἔχειν ... μὴ οὐκ ἐξιέναι: a genuine example of the double negative μὴ οὐ: cp. Index. ἔχειν (the strong) = ‘hold,’ ‘with - hold,’ ‘prevent’ (cp. Index), itself a negation! just before, σχήσειν ... μὴ ἐξιέναι, where, however, the action is contingent and future, while here it is present, or, indeed, if the Argive would only confess it honestly, past: a consideration which may help to account for the positive οὐκ.

---

τύγχανε εὖ βουλευόμενος, ‘hit upon a good plan (by yourself!)’: if true, could any message be more fatuous, under the circumstances? With the expression cp. 8. 101 ὁκότερα ποιέων ἐπιτύχω εὖ βουλευσάμενος. The imperative here is a rude or peremptory optative.