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ἐν τῇ Βοιωτίῃ = ἐν τῇ Θηβαιίδι, but here used probably from the reference to Attiea on the one side and to Phokis on the other.
καὶ συνεσέβαλον ἐς Ἀθήνας: not content with taking all the ‘Persian’ forees into Attica (cp. 8. 50) Hdt. here takes about 50,000 Greek soldiers in also. Hdt.'s strategy is like some modern Political Economy; it assumes the infinite mobility of Labour (and Capital)1 τῶν ταύτῃ οἰκημένων excludes probably those in Peloponnesos, Asia, the islands, etc. The next sentence as it stands is not clear; σφόδρα makes the difficulty; it would go better with the preceding ἐμήδιζον, or out altogether; Stem makes the sentence: μοῦνοι δὲ Φωκέες οὐ συνεσέβαλον ... οὐκ ἑκόντες ἀλλ᾽ ὐπ᾽ ἀναγκαίης, perhaps intending the last five words to be taken with the first καὶ συνεσέβαλον ἐς Ἀθήνας—rather a remote reference. And would it have been true that the Thebans, for example, invaded Attica οὐκ ἑκόντες? (Yes, perhaps, in view of c. 2 supra.）
ἡμέρῃσι δὲ οὐ πολλῇσι. Hdt.'s conventionalized journal of Plataia has not yet begun; if the arrival of the Phokians at the Persian camp preceded the arrival of the Hellenes at Erythrai (c. 19 infra) the Greeks were rather slow in crossing Kithairon.
τὴν ἄπιξιν τὴν ἐς Θήβας: not the visit to Thebes for the banquet of Attaginos, c. 16 supra, but the arrival of the forces out of Attica at the Laager, c. 15 supra. The name of the city is put for the name of the country, as ἐς Ἀθήνας just above; cp. ἐν Πλαταιῇσι c. 16 supra.
χίλιοι: the same number had served in the army of Leonidas 7. 203, 212, 217 f., and no doubt very much the same men. The anecdote here has the ‘tendency,’ the intention, to whitewash the Phokian Chiliad, whose reputation had been somewhat blasted by the Spartan (Peloponnesian) story of Thermopylai. Ἁρμοκύδης: the name appears to be unique; no patronymic is given; the leader's name at Thermopylai is suppressed. It is not easy to establish much difference between δοκιμώτατος (δέχομαι） and λόγιμος ἐς τὰ πρῶτα or λογιμώτατος (c. 16), but perhaps δόκιμος is less obviously relative also to posterity.
ἀπίκατο ... ἐς Θήβας, pl. p., ‘were come’ = ἦσαν ἀπιγμένοι. ἐς Θ. = ἐς τὴν Θηβαιΐδα: cp. above.
ἐπ᾽ ἑωυτῶν ἐν τῷ πεδίῳ ἵζεσθαι: the active ἵζειν is used of the act of sitting, literally understood, 5 25, 6. 57—so is the middle, 5. 18—which is, however, constantly used of this military operation, 8. 71, c. 2 supra, c. 26 infra, etc. ἐπ᾽ ἐωυτῶν, ‘by themselves,’ separately; cp. c. 38 supra. This use of ἐπί is primarily locative, as ἐπὶ τῆς γωνίης, 1. 51, ‘in the corner’; cp. 8. 32 ἡ κορυφὴ κατὰ Νέωνα πόλιν ἐπ᾽ ἑωυτῆς —differing from the temporal force in ἐπ᾽ ἐμεῦ, ἐπὶ Ξανθίππου, etc.; ‘on the plain’ need not be taken to imply that any part of the forces, or the camp, was on the mountain, it merely prepares the way for the ensuing cavalry development.
αὐτίκα παρῆν ἵππος ἡ ἅπασα: the exact number of chiliads, or myriads, would here be acceptable; but the phrase will in any case be an over-statement— unless, indeed, there were far fewer of the cavalry than Hdt. seems throughout to assume.
διεξῆλθε μὲν ... φήμη: there seems to be nothing supernormal in this φήμη (cp. c. 100 infra), even when it, or one to exactly the same effect, passes right through the Phokians themselves. στρατοπέδου here apparently = στρατοῦ or στρατιῆς. Cp. c. 51 infra etc.
μετὰ Μήδων. This story (τὰ περὶ Φωκέων), which is in the nature of a Rettung, will hardly have come from a Peloponnesian or from a ‘medized’ source. It might be of Phokian or of Attic origin. Hdt., who distinguishes Medes and Persians from the first, will probably have taken over the phraseology of his source. κατακοντιεῖ (κατακοντίζειν): sc. ἡ ἱππός. The weapon is noticeable, and implies close proximity.
τὠυτὸ τοῦτο: sc. ὡς κ. σφεας. Baehr cps. Thuc. 8. 108. 4 for the story of the fate of the Delian exiles in Atramyttion, who were treacherously surrounded and shot down at their morning meal by Arsakes the Persian, Sept. 411 B.C. (So too Stein)
πρόδηλα: this pl. is a favourite construction with Hdt.; cp. 1. 91 ἀδύνατα, 3. 35 δῆλα, 3. 109 βιώσιμα, etc. Kuehner, Ausf. Gramm. § 366, explains it as derived from the use of the abstract pl. demonstrative ταῦτα, τάδε etc. to denote one idea, or thing. ἄνθρωποι, of course contemptuous (cp. 7. 210) and making ἄνδρα just below more significant.
διαβεβλημένους ὑπὸ Θεσσαλῶν: cp. 8. 27-31, for the Thessalo-Phokian feud.
πάντα τινά with the second person, Kuehner op. c. § 371. 4 γ. The subject is indefinite, yet conceived as present, and capable of being addressed directly.
κρέσσον γάρ κτλ. It is a pity these worthy sentiments had not inspired the Phokians on the mount above Thermopylai; cp. 7. 218. But that was another (a Peloponnesian) story!
τὸν αἰῶνα, ‘life’; cp. 7. 46. παρέχοντας, ‘without opposition,’ like our ‘yield.’ There is perhaps an ellipse (ἑαυτούς); cp. L. & S. sub v. II. 2 and passages there quoted, which show (as Stein observes) that the word is used of submitting to medical examination, surgical operations, etc. (Xenophon, Plato).
ἐπ᾽ Ἕλλησι ἀνδράσι: Ἕλλην adj. (φόνον) ῥάπτειν is poetic; not as in 6. 1. Cp. Od. 16. 379 “φόνον αἰπὺν ἐράπτομεν”. But the metaphor here is rather pointless, unless it were referred to the διαβολή of the Thessalians, whom the Phokian could not mean to describe as βάρβαροι.
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