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

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ἦλθε ἀγγελίη: counting the Argive in c. 12, this is the third express message that rcaches Mardonios; his own intelligence department, or the medizing Greeks, will have procured it. This message is not quite correct: the Athenians only joined the ‘Hellenic’ army at Eleusis c. 19 infra; but it marks probably the union of the rest of the Peloponnesians with the Spartans (ib.) or vice versa.

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διὰ Δεκελέης. Dekeleia (δῆμος τῆς Ἱπποθοωντίδος φυλῆς Steph. B. sub v.） is placed by Thuc. 7. 19. 2 at 120 stades from Athens, and a very little more from Boiotia: its position is further defined by this passage, as on the eastern road from Athens into Boiotia, and its exact position (modern Tatói) is proved by inscripp, and by remains in situ. A chapter in its legendary history is given below, c. 73.

βοιωτάρχαι: this is the earliest express mention of the ‘Boiotarchs,’ a body which reappears in Thucydides (4. 91. 1, cp. 2. 2. 1), Xenophon (Hell. 3. 4. 4 βοιώταρχοι, sic), and the later writers. They were evidently important, probably superior officers of the Boiotian League, and their existence is synchronous therewith: the number of the Board is doubtful (Eleven in Thuc. l.c., Seven in Diodor. 15. 52, = 371 B.C. Leuktra, etc.) and may have varied at different times; they were elected annually (entering on offiee in winter). Cp. G. Gilbert, Gr. Staatsalt. ii. (1885) 54 f., to whieh later efforts (e.g. PanlyWissowa sub v.) have added little. These officers, or some of them, were now in attendance on Mardonios, as they ‘sent for’ men from the Asopos valley to act as guides (Athenians were either not to be found, or not to be trusted: the Athenian émigrés were apparently not with Mardonios). Guides might have been needlul on the Phylel'anakton route: were they needed for the routes by Dekeleia and by Eleutheran? And how had Mardonios and his men found their way into Attica? Or had they learnt nothing of the routes in the previous year?

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Ἀσώπιοι: an Hapaxlegomenon? = Παρασώπιοι, Strabo 409, who also uses the term Παρασωπία for the land either side the upper and middle Asopos (cp. infra), but does not appear to carry the term so far down as Tanagra.

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Σφενδαλέας: Steph. B. sub v. Σφενδάλη. δῆμος Ἱπποθοωντίδος φυλῆς. ὁ δημότης, Σφενδαλεύς. Sphendale does not play much part in Attic history, and its exact position has been disputed. Leake (Athens and the Demi, ii. 123) placed it “near” Hagios Merkurios, but “at” Malakasa, on the load from Aphidna to Tanagra, apparently in agreement with Finlay, cp. op. c. p. 124 n. Pauly, R.E. vi. (1852) i 1375, appears to be in error on this point. Bursian i. (1862) 336, “near Kakosialesi” (which Leake l.c. describes as “the only site that could compete with Malakása as the site of Sphendale”) “at the foot of an isolated and extensive hill, the Hyakinthos (now Kotroni), on which the Ὑακινθίδες παρθένοι (cp. Suidas s.v. Παρθένοι) were worshipped, Attic maidens who had voluntarily taken their own lives to secure victory for Athens against Boiotia.” (This position Leake regards as beyond the Attic frontier.)

Τάναγραν: the position of Tanagra, on the left bank of the Asopos, near the junction of the Thermodon (c. 43 infra） is quite certain; Leake, N.G. ii. 463, Buisian i. 222. Some of the natives believed the old name of the city to be Graia, cp. Hom. Il. 2. 498, until the still older name was ‘restored’ to it; cp. Strabo 404, Pausan. 9. 20. 2, Steph. B. sub v., who also gives Ποιμανδρία as a former name. The population was ‘Gephyraian,’ cp. 5. 57, and was never perhaps wholly ‘Boiotized’: are not the charming terra-cottas, that have popularized the city's name in our day, rather Ionic than ‘Boiotian’? After the humiliation of Thebes Tanagra apparently “aspned for a time to the leadership of the Boiotian confederacy,” B. Head, Hist, Num. 295; cp. Coinage of Boiotia, p. 20. That ambition was foiled by the restoration of Thebes after the great battle in 457 B.C., Thue. 1. 108. 1-3; but Tanagra survived most of the members of the Boiotian League, cp. Strabo 410.

νύκτα ἐναυλισάμενος: 1. 181.

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τραπόμενος τῇ ὑστεραίῃ ἐς Σκῶλον: cp. Strabo 408 ἐστὶ κώμη τῆς Παρασωπίας ὑπὸ τῷ Κιθαιρῶνι, δυσοίκητος τόπος καὶ τραχύς, ἀφ᾽ οὗ καὶ ἡ παροιμία είς Σκῶλον μήτ᾽ αὐτὸς ἴναι (ἴμεν) μήτ᾽ ἄλλῳ ἔπεσθαι. Its ruins were seen (?) by Pausanias (9. 4. 4) “about 40 stades” below the bridge across the Asopos. The town is named in the Catalogue (Il. 2. 47, 496), and figures in the Spartano-Theban wars of the fourth century; Xen. Hell. 5. 4. 49, Ages. 2. 22. Strabo 409 reckons all the Παρασώπιοι (to wit, the men of Σκῶλος, *:ετεωνός, Ἐρυθραί, Ὑσιαί) as subject to Thebes; in that sense, when Mardonios turned (if he did turn) up the river, and recrossed it to Skolos, he would there be ἐν γῇ τῇ Θηβαίων. Hdt., however, does not keep him long at Skolos, but passes him on to the camp or Laager described below, which was not at Skolos, nor even on the same side of the river as Skolos. Possibly there is some error<*> confusion in the account of the reti<*>nent of Mardonios from Attica; or rather, is it possible there should not be? Hdt. apparently assumes that Mardonios takes all his forces into Attica—not a probable assumption—and that Mardonios takes them all in, and all out, by one route, and one route only—a still less probable assumption (cp. 8. 113). Skolos evidently lies at the Boiotian end of the middle or direct route from Athens to Thebes. If Mardonios found himself at Skolos it was probably because he himself came out of Attica by this route. More than one, perhaps all three routes out of Attica, may have been used—not to say the route by Aigosthena from Megara, c. 14 supra. That the ‘Asopioi’ acted as guides favours this suggestion. If Mardonios himself came by the easier route from Dekeleia to Tanagra, he probably went on to Thebes, or else to the Laager, by the left bank. The only diarial hint for the march is the night spent in Tanagra, and the next day. Probably nights were also spent at Dekeleia (12 miles from Athens), at Sphendale (7-8 miles from Dekeleia), as well as at Tanagra (11-12 miles from Sphendale). (Skolos would be about 9 miles up the Asopos.)

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τῶν Θηβαίων ... ἔκειρε τοὺς χώρους: probably not the Thebais proper, but the ‘places’ on the Asopos, the Parasopia, in ditione Thebanorum; cp. supra. “Agros Thebanoium vastavit,” Schweighaeuser; so too Stein, cp. 3. 58. κείρειν, 7. 131, 8. 32, 65 supra.

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ὑπ᾽ ἀναγκαίης μεγάλης ἐχόμενος, ‘with absolutely no free will in the matter.’ The construction at this point is a little faulty. Stein apparently takes ποιήσασθαι as dependent on ὑπ̓ ἀναγ. ἐχόμενος = ἀναγκαζόμενος. Some inf. codd. (followed by some editors; cp. App. Crit.) insert βουλόμενος—a very sorry device. I should be inclined to take the infinitive as pendent, or telic, or exegetical (cp. Index, for parallels); in any case the transition to ἐποιέετο is harsh, and perhaps the omission of ποιήσασθαι would be the simplest remedy. ἐποιέετο is repeated below in a different construction and sense; here middle (‘was having made,’ or perhaps ‘looked upon,’ ‘considered’): there passive (‘was being constructed’).

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ἔρυμα: cp. 7. 223 supra.

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ἢν ... μὴ ἐκβαίνῃ ὁκοῖόν τι ἐθέλοι τοῦτο ἐποιέετο: a notable sequence for a conditional sentence. The apprehension of a disaster has already received expression c. 13 supra.

κρησφύγετον: 5. 124. The actual construction of this Laager is not so precisely described as that of the ἕρκος and τεῖχος at Mykale, cc. 97, 102 infra.

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τὸ στρατόπεδον: plainly the Laager, which was much more extensive than the τεῖχος, ἔρυμα, κρησφύγετον. ‘This Laager reached (παρῆκε) from Erythrai (where it began) along past Hysiai, and extended (κατέτεινε, cp. 8. 31) into the territory of Plataiai, stretching (or ‘posted’ if τεταγμένον be retained) along the Asopos river. The fortified part of it was of less extensive construction, being about ten stades to each front.’

This passage makes it clear that the Laager was much larger than the fortified Praetorium, and that the fortified portion had a measurement of upwards of a square mile; but the exact size and appearance of the camp are not described, and a large number of other problems are left unresolved.

(1) Was the τεῖχος square? Hdt. may perhaps mean this, for otherwise he should have given the measurements of the other sides, or flanks; and prima facie each side of a fort is a μέτωπον. Elsewhere in similar cases he is more particular to specify quadrature, e.g. of Babylon, 1. 178 ἐοῦσα μέτωπον ἔκαστον εἴκοσι καὶ ἑκατὸν σταδίων ἐούσης τετραγώνου: 2. 124 of a pyramid, τῆς ἐστὶ πανταχῇ μέτωπον ἕκαστον ὀκτὼ πλέθρα ἐούσης τετ ραγώνου.

(2) Was the Laager on one side, or on both sides the Asopos; and in what part of the Laager was the Fort? The Fort was on the left bank of the Asopos, for the Persians cross the river to reach the Greeks c. 59 infra; and the wooden Fort is ἐν μοίρῃ τῇ Θηβαἵδι, c. 65 infra u.v.; but cp. l. 6 supra. Stein5 places the Fort south of Asopos in the neighbourhood of Skolos, but Skolos has nothing to say to the camp as described by Hdt. nor to the battle; the mention of Skolos above is to be otherwise accounted for. Probably the fortified camp was close to the river, and to the bridge across the Asopos, the tête du pont on the south side being no doubt strongly fortified and held; the rest of the Persian lines would lie behind, and away from the river, and no part of the Laager proper would be on the right bank of the river. The main road to Thebes will have passed through the camp, possibly dividing it in half; the 10 stades may be the measurement of the river front, which was all palisaded; the palisading probably went all round the ‘Fort,’ and the Fort may have been square.

(3) It is quite certain that no part of Mardonios' Laager or Fort actually touched the towns of Erythrai and Hysiai, for these places are presently in possession of the Greeks cc. 19, 25 infra. The description here given of the extent of the Persian camp must be understood either (a) to be based upon a report of the appearance of the Persian camp as seen from the Greek lines above, which enclosed Erythrai, and afterwards Hysiai; or (b) to mean that the Laager (though north of Asopos) occupied ground belonging to the two townships named, and extended further into Plataian territory north of Asopos. But for two reasons the former explanation is to be preferred: (1) the contrast here between the names of the towns and the specification of Πλαταιὶς γῆ: (2) the doubt whether the territory of Erythrai and Hysiai did extend to the further bank of the stream, which was probably all Theban. The first reason may be further enforced by the supposition that the name of Plataiai is avoided because Plataiai was in ruins; the second, by the observation that the Thebans had only been driven across the Asopos by the Athenians in or about 509 B.C., the river being then made the frontier between the Thebais on the one side and the Plataiis and Hysiatis on the other; 6 108 supra.

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ἀπὸ Ἐρυθρέων παρὰ Ὑσιάς: there is little room for doubt that Leake, N.G. ii. 329, located these towns much too far east, and that they occupied sites in close proximity to the main roads from Eleusis-Eleutherai to Thebes and to Plataia; Erythrai probably commanded the main road to Thebes, while Hysiai, about a mile further west, commanded the branch to Plataia; cp. cc. 22, 25 infra, and G. B. Grundy, G.P.W. pp. 458 ff.

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τὸν Ἀσωπὸν ποταμόν: to be distinguished from the Malian stream of the same name (7. 199, etc.), as also from a river by Sikyon (Ἀσωπὸς ὁ παραρρέων τὴν Σικυῶνα καὶ ποιῶν τὴν Ἀσωπίαν χώραν, μἐρος οὖσαν τῆς Σικυωνίας, Strabo 382). There was also au Asopos in Paros, ibid. The Boiotian Asopos rises near Leuktra and flows eastwards into the sea near Oropos (ὁ παρὰ Θήβας ῥέων καὶ Πλαταιὰς καὶ Τάναγραν, Strabo, ib.) along the skirts of Kithairon (Strabo 409), a relatively large and fertilizing stream (“Ἀσωπὸν δ᾽ ἵκοντο βαθύσχοινον λεχεποίην” Il. 4. 383) liable to sudden floods in spring (“ὁ γὰρ Ἀσωπὸς ποταμὸς ἐρρύη μέγας καὶ οὐ ῥαδίως διαβατὸς ἦν” Thuc. 2. 5. 2), for ever a φίλον πίασμα Βοιωτῶν χθονί (Aischyl. Pers. 806).