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ἄρα: if the word is to suggest an element of the unexpected, the note of admiration may in this case arride the place of sepulture, to most even of the Greek dead a foreigu land; cp. 1. 30. But what became of the 237,000 corpses, more or less, of the euemies, with which Hdt. has bestrown the field in c. 70 supra: are they covered by this notice? Iu which case the surprise might extend to the numbers.
αὐτίκα βουλευομένοισί σφι ἐδόκεε: here is the record, or the hint, of a deliberation, a council, which issues in a resolution to ‘visit’ Thebes. Ought the record in Plutarch Aristeid. 21 of the treaty of Plataia, or the revision of the confederate articles and the institution of the Eleutheria, to be inserted here? Grote (iv. 282) seems to date it to “a general and solemn meeting, held at Plataia after the victory,” but also apparently dates that meeting after the surrender of Thebes. Plutarch omits the Theban incident altogether, and there is no room below for any other congress or meeting at Plataia after the surrender of Thebes. If, then, the meeting which carried the psephism of Aristeides was held at Plataia, it would be the meeting here imperfectly reported; but perhaps the psephism of Aristeides, if ever carried at all, was carried at a congress at the Isthmos, for which room may be fouud in c. 88 infra. Grote defends the authenticity of the psephism of Aristeides, but the story, as told by Plutarch, is not confirmed by Thucydides 2. 71, for (a) nothing is there said of the renewal or extension of the military confederacy; (b) the privileges accorded the Plataians are granted by Pausanias at a meeting of the allies in the Agora of Plataia. This grant might very well have been made at the meeting here recorded. Grote hardly showed his normal sagacity in accepting the story of the psephism of Aristeides and at the same time rejecting the story of the quarrel over the Aristeia (which certainly ill squares with it!).
ἐξαιτέειν αὐτῶν τοὺς μηδίσαντας. If the story told in 7. 132 of the vow in the previous year against the medizers were true, the resolution now formally taken, to demand the extradition of the traitors among the Thebans, would appear both mild and superfluous: a reason the more for doubting the truth of that story. But again, this resolution recognizes very clearly the existence of two parties in Thebes, the medizing party being evidently the Equestrians, not the Hoplites; cp. c. 69 supra and 7. 223. The reading ἀστέων out of αὐτέων for αὐτῶν is attractive: a second αὐτῶν (sc. τῶν μηδισάντων) comes immediately, and there is no proper personal antecedent for αὐτῶν here. Cp. App. Crit.
Τιμηγενίδην: cp. c. 38 supra. Ἀτταγῖνον: cp. c. 16 supra. The absence of the patronymies in this place seems to show that the previous descriptions of the men are present to the author's mind, though there is no express reference back to the earlier passages. Hdt. writes for a reading public; and all three passages apparently belong to the first draft of his work. ἀρχηγέται ἀνὰ πρώτους. The use of ἀνά is not easy to parallel, and πρώτους is awkward after ἐν πρώτοισι just before, and slightly tautologous with ἀρχ-ηγέται, i.e. ἡγέται ἀνὰ πρώτους, or ἐν πρώτοις. The term ἀρχηγέται is a word of exceptional dignity applicable to gods (Thuc. 6. 3), heroes (Ἀθ. πολ. 21. 6), kings (Plutarch, Lyk. 6), and founders (Pind. Ol. 7. 143); so too Inscripp. How comes Hdt. to apply it to these Theban traitors? Did he get it of Thersander? cp. c. 16 supra. It is an hapaxlegomenon in Hdt., though the verb is used 2. 123.
πρότερον ἢ ἐξέλωσι: sc. αὐτήν. The subjunctive without ἄν is observable; cp. c. 117 infra, also 7. 8 οὐ πρότερον παύσομαι πρὶν ἢ ἕλω τε καὶ πυρώσω τὰς Ἀθήνας, c. 93 infra οὐ πρότερόν τε παύσεσθαι τιμωρέοντες ἐκείνῳ πρὶν ἢ δίκας δῶσι. Cp also c. 87 just below.
ἑνδεκάτῃ ἡμέρῃ. Is this the 23rd or the 24th reckoning continuously? The answer depends on whether ἀπό is exclusive or inclusive. It might naturally be the former; but the δευτέρη ἡμέρη in c. 84 supra is the day after the battle. In any case we have here merely another of Hdt.'s weeks, or ‘ten-days’; cp. c. 8 supra and the next chapter here. The 11th day begins a fresh week. συμβολῆς, c. 77 supra, etc. ἐπολιόρκεον Θηβαίους: the tense is strictly imperfect, ‘they made as though to besiege—they were for besieging . .’ Θηβαίους = τὰς Θήβας.
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