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οἱ Θηβαῖοι κατελάμβανον τὸν Μ., ‘the Thebans tried to stay Mardonios . .’
οὐκ εἴη χῶρος κτλ.: these representations were not ultimately lost upon Mardonios, who had at least no intention of risking a pitched battle in Attica. The physiographical merits of Boiotia, from a military point of view, made it again and again the scene of important battles both in Greek and in Roman times (Plataia, Tanagra, Delion, Haliartos, Koroneia, Leuktra, Orchomenos, Chaironeia); but it was apparently not so much on its advantages as figbting ground tbat the Thebans laid stress, as on the advantages it offered (1) for supplies, (2) as a headquarters and base of negotiations. He was to halt there (αὐτοῦ) and work for obtaining possession of Greece ἀμαχητί. ἀμαχητί by itself would not necessarily imply that the Thebans apprehended a Persian defeat in the event of battle: the Persian conqueror stood to lose by the losses he might inflict, as well as by those he incurred; but the next sentence suggests the graver alternative. συνεβούλευον must be repeated after ἀλλά (brachylogy).
οὐδὲ ἔων ἰέναι ἑκαστέρω, ‘and were for hindering his further advance’ The two reasons given for their advice are scarcely cognate, the one suggesting an appeal to arms, the other a recourse to intrigue; but cp. next note.
κατὰ μὲν γὰρ ... ἅπασι ἀνθρώποισι: a remarkable sentence both in a material and in a formal sense. Materially it recognizes the power of a united Hellas especially for resistance; cp. Hdt.'s own judgement upon ‘a united Thrace,’ 5. 3, or Aristotle's upon the Greek race, Pol. 4(7). 7. 3 = 1327 B δυνάμενον ἄρχειν πάντων μιᾶς τυγχάνον πολιτείας. Formally tbere are some disputable points in the sentence: (a) κατὰ τὸ ἰσχυρόν is taken by Baehr (followed by Stein) vi armisque; cp. 1. 76 ἐπειρῶντο κατὰ τὸ ἰσχυρὸν ἀλλήλων (‘they made trial of each other in respect of strength’; or ‘they made trial of eaeb other with might and main’?) The words might be taken (as by Gail) with ὁμοφρονέοντας (‘united heart and soul’): Blakesley, again, renders, ‘in point of actual force,’ taking tbem as qualifying the whole sentence. (b) οἵ περ καὶ πάρος ταὐτὰ ἐγίνωσκον may refer to the actual members of the Hellenic Symmachy, ‘those, to wit, who were previously of one mind,’ or, more generally, those who should agree previously (before being attacked). πάρος does not occur elsewhere in Hdt. (c) For the reading χαλεπούς see App. Crit. (d） περιγίνεσθαι, not so much ‘to survive’ as ‘to get the upper haud’; the construction is curious, as the verb seems to govern the accusative (e) Ἕλληνας ὁμοφρονέοντας, as though περιγ. = νικᾶν. But the acc. may better perhaps be taken as an acc. pendens (with Baehr). Blakesley explains the anacoluthon as due to the difficulty of expressing the sentiment politely (a difficulty not arising from Boiotian stupidity, but from the nature of the case!). (f) καὶ ἅπασι ἀνθρώποισι is collective, ‘even all the world together,’ not distributive, ‘any men in existence.’ A united Hellas, which knew its own mind (even if only comprising the actually existing confederacy), could hold its own against a world in arms.
ἕξεις, ‘thou shalt be in possession of . .’ If ἰσχυρά were to stand, it would favour taking κατὰ τὸ ἰσχυρόν just above with ὁμοφρονέοντας. But cp. App. Crit.
πέμπε χρήματα ἐς τοὺς δυναστεύοντας. ., ‘divide Hellas by bribery —of the men in power in the cities.’ Prima facie this might be taken to imply that the masses, the δῆμος, were more anti-Persian than the ‘dynasts,’ the δυνατοί. Something of that sort is urged by the Theban orator in Thucydides, 3. 62. 3, and the term δυναστεύοντας here is illuminated by the words there used to describe the condition of Thebes in 480 B.C.: δυναστεία ὀλίγων ἀνδρῶν εἶχε τὰ πράγματα. But perhaps Athens is not included in the Theban programme, and Sparta with the Peloponnesian cities may be mainly in view (cp. Diodor. l.c. infra). The proposal is not so much to overthrow democracies by medizing oligarchs, as to divide the Hellenic confederacy, separating the partisans of Persia (τῶν στασιωτέων, ‘your partisans’） from τοὺς μὴ τὰ σὰ φρονέοντας. The two points are not perhaps clearly distinguished in this passage; and even among the Athenians (it must be admitted), just before Plataia, there was a strong medizing faction, if the story told by Plutarch, Arist. 13, is true. Cp. Appendix VIII. § 2 (iii.).
τὴν Ἑλλάδα διαστήσεις, ‘thou shalt divide Hellas against itself’; cp. διαστάντας 4. 11, ‘dividing into two bodies’—“κατὰ πόλεις δὲ διέσταμεν” Thuc. 4. 61. 1. The advice is repeated by Artabazos c. 41 infra.
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