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πρό in double sense, local and causal, ‘in front of,’ ‘in defence of’ (ὑπέρ), and almost ‘instead of’ (ἀντί), cp. 7. 152; quite an Athenian formula, cp. c. 27 infra. τῶν παρεόντων is remarkable, and looks rather like a gloss. There is not much point here in a reference to medizing Greeks; and for those on the right side, wherever they were, the Athenians were fighting. If genuine, the words might convey an unconscious hint that the whole army was not yet ‘present,’ i.e. in position; bearing out the hypothesis above formulated.
ἐς Ἐρυθράς: not necessarily, or only, the actual town; cp. c. 16 supra. τοὺς τοξότας προσελόμενοι: these ‘Arehers’ are an important element in the Athenian forces; cp. c. 60 infra. Rawlinson places their number at ‘perhaps 3000.’ But cp. c. 29 l. 5 infra. It was no doubt they and not the 300 Heavies that proved a match for the Persian cavalry (cp. τοξεύματι just below).
προέχων: perhaps literally ‘in advance of’; cp. προἐχοντας τῶν Περσέων 4. 120; prae aliis longius provectum, Wesseling. But the horse of Masistios was no doubt conspicuous not merely as leading, but as of superior excellence (προέχειν 1. 1, 56, 2. 136, 3. 82). προέχειν in different senses, c. 4 supra, c. 27 infra. τὰ πλευρά, accus. of reference, or <*>tation, cp. Index: the plural = ‘his side.’
ἵσταταί τε ὀρθὸς καὶ ἀποσείεται: cp. 7. 88 στὰς ὀρθὸς ἀπεσείσατο τὸν Φαρνούχεα (his predecessor?).
ἀμυνόμενον, an imperfect, ‘trying to defend himself.’
οὐ δυνάμενοι: sc. κτείνειν μιν. ἐνεσκεύαστο ... οὕτω: the pluperfeet here has no particular temporal force; nor again just below ἐνεδεδύκεε, which looks a little poetic: the aetion for the state. οὕτω referring to what follows = ῶδε: cp. 8. 98. 4, 109. 12 supra.
εἶχε, ‘he was wearing,’ he had on: (1) a scarlet tunic; cp. 7. 61 (φ. 7. 76); (2) underneath, just such a cuirass as is given to all the Persian eavalry (7. 76) except that his was (not plain steel rings but) gilt. Hdt. unfortunately omits to describe his headgear (perhaps his fez fell off, when he slipped from his horse!) The omission has serious consequenees, for Plutarch (Ephoros?) Aristeid. 14 invests him with a helmet, and the blow that ends him is dealt through the eye-hole! The cuirass of Masistios was still to be seen among the ἀναθήματα in the shrine of the Polias, on the Akropolis, in the days of Pausanias, 1. 27. 1. (Its genuineness would be more indubitable if it had not been associated with the ἀκινάκης of Mardonios —the acquisition of which by Athens naturally puzzled Pausanias. He might have been still more puzzled had he remembered that the ἀκινάκης had been stolen in the days of Demosthenes, cp. c. Timocrat. 129; it was then valued at, or ‘weighing,’ L. & S., 300 darics.) Hdt. shows no sign in this passage of having seen these σκῦλα Μηδικά (Thuc. 2. 13. 4） before writing this passage; which thus appears of early composition.
τύπτοντες δὲ ... ἐποίευν οὐδέν, ‘their blows on the cuirass were unavailing, till some one perceives the reason (τὸ ποιεύμενον) and gives him a prod in the eye.’ There is a distinct difference between τύπτειν and παίειν, the latter corresponding to the Homenic πλήσσειν (πληγή); cp. J. H. H. Schmidt, Synonymik i. (1879), 283. An exact illustration of this incident is to be found on the slab in the left corner of the frieze, south-side temple of Athene Nike, on the Akropolis; Furtwaengler, Masterpieces, p. 446, Fig. 181.
οὕτω δὴ ἔπεσε: he had fallen from his horse once already (πεσόντι supra); this is a fresh and final fall; he must have risen from the ground, and defended himself awhile, till the nameless one smote him in the eye (which eye? Hdt. does not say; and the state of the monument, whieh he, of course, could not have seen, does not enable us to say for certain: probably the right).
ἐλελήθεε: it was all over before any of the Persians discovered it; they saw neither the fall from his horse (πεσόντα), nor the death - wound being dealt; nor when they retired and then turned (ὑποστροφή. cp. c. 14 supra) did they perceive what was happening (τὸ γινόμενον); it was only when they halted (ἔστησαν, cp. c. 23 infra ἀποστήσαντες, which supports 1st aor., sc. τοὺς ἵππους） that they missed him at once, when there was no one to dress them; then they perceived what had taken place, and with a shout to encourage each other, they all put spur<*> to their horses and charged to recover the dead body.
ἐπόθεσαν Blakesley regarded as corrupt; cp. ἐπόθησε 3. 36, ἐπιποθήσειν 5. 93, but the variants ἐπόθεσα, ποθέσομαι are admissible; cp. Goodwin Gr. Gr. p. 352, L. & S. sub v. ὥς σφεας οὐδεὶς ἦν ὁ τάσσων: this might be taken to imply that the cavalry unit commanded by Masistios was a very small one, or a very large one: very small, if there was no officer in command but Masistios; very large, if no provision existed to fill a vacancy in the supreme command. If Masistios was sole Hipparch, or even one of two or three, there must have been many subordinate officers in his division: did none of them pro tempore assume the command?
ἐλαύνειν of ‘riding’ is not common in Hdt.; but cp. 5. 111. ὡς ἄν, like ὅκως ἄν, followed by the optative is frequent in Hdt. (In Homer the opt. with ἵνα and ὅπως is always pure; with ὡς it takes ἄν in a few places “where there is clear reference to a single occasion,” Monro, Hom. Gram. § 306.)
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