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

---

---

τάδε πρὸς τούτοισι, ‘what follows in addition to what precedes.’

---

ἐς Σοῦσα: if they were going to ‘Susa’ the adventure would have to be placed between the accession of Xerxes and the arrival at Sardes in 481 B.C. But were these men, perhaps, going to Sardes? In the story of Demokedes 3. 129 ff. Susa has almost certainly been substituted for Sardes (cp. my Hdt. IV.- VI. vol. ii. p. 60); so too heie perhaps.

---

ὁ δὲ Ὑδάρνης: the article follows naturally on the immediately preceding occurrence of the same name. This Hydarnes can hardly be other than H., son of Hydarnes, the commander of the ‘Immortals,’ c. 83 supra, unless indeed he is the father. The absence of the patronymic here and the different position apparently occupied by this Hydarnes favour the latter hypothesis; not but what there would have been time for a promotion between this episode and that, while the father would have been rather an old man in 484-481 B.C. (cp. 3. 70). Blakesley, indeed, argues that Hdt. regards this Hydarnes as a third person; but the failure to describe him fully, perhaps the error in his description, may be due to the source.

στρατηγὸς δὲ τῶν παραθαλασσίων ἀνθρώπων τῶν ἐν τῇ Ἀσίῃ: Otanes, son of Sisamnes, appears (5. 25) as στρατηγὸς τῶν παραθαλασσίων ἀνδρῶν, and therein διάδοχος γενόμενος Μεγαβάζῳ τῆς στρατηγίης (5. 26), in which capacity he takes Byzantion, Kalchedon, Antandros, Lamponion, Lemnos, and Imbros, after the expedition of Dareios into Europe.

The question is whether this title represents a satrapy, or simply a military post. Rawlinson understands it in the latter sense as “the command of the Persian troops (ἀνθρώπων!) in the satrapy of Lydia, and perhaps also in that of Bithynia.” Krumbholz, de Asiae minoris satrap. Pers. (1883), 23 sqq., argues in favour of the other view. This anecdote decidedly reinforces that hypothesis: Spartan heralds to Asia would hardly escape a visit to the satrap in loco. But I am disposed to think that the satrapy here in question is not the ‘third’ (as Krumbholz assumes) but the ‘first’ or Sardian, which may very well have been held by Hydarnes (the elder) in succession to Artaphrenes (the elder). The phraseology is not against this suggestion; it is not in either case technically correct, would apply to one or other satrapy equally well, and something like it is indeed predicated of Artaphrenes in 5.30 (τῶν ἐπιθαλασσίων τῶν ἐν τῇ Ἀσίῃ ἄρχει πάντων). It will hardly be contended that the παραθαλάσσιοι are in the Hellespont, and the ἐπιθαλάσσιοι in the Lydian satrapy!. (Rather perhaps ἐπιθαλάσσιοι might even cover both.) Thus though the στρατηγὸς τῶν παραθαλασσίων ἀνδρῶν in 5. 25 is probably the satrap of Dasky<*>eion, the στρατηγὸς τῶν παραθαλασσίων ἀνθρώπων here may be the satrap of Sardes. The worst thing to do with the phrase is to delete it. Cp. App. Crit.

---

ξείνια προθέμενος ἱστία, ‘set a banquet before them for their entertainment’; cp. ξείνια προθεῖναι c. 29 supra, καί σφεας ἐπὶ ξείνια καλέει 5. 18, etc. ἱστιᾶν Ion. for ἑστιᾶν.

ξεινίζων, ‘in the course of the banquet,’ ‘while at table.’

---

τί δή in lively questions; ep. 9. 48.

φεύγετε ... γενέσθαι: cp. φεύγουσι χρᾶσθαι 2. 91, ‘avoid,’ ‘refuse.’

---

ἐς ἐμέ: Hydarnes makes much of ἄνδρες ἀγαθοί: the example would not come so badly from one of ‘the Seven,’ cp. 3. 70; but it might have been more effective if references to some of the Greek instances (Hippias, Demaratos, Metiochos, etc.) had been added.

---

δοίητε: on this form cp. T. L. Agar, Class. Rev. x. (1896) 329.

δεδόξωσθε: cp. 8. 124, 9. 48; the statement looks a little like a reference to Demaratos' reports (cc. 101-3 supra), but very unlike what was to be expected if the Spartans had maltreated and slain Persian heralds.

---

ἕκαστος ἂν ὑμέων ἄρχοι γῆς Ἑλλάδος, not ἑκάτερος (says Abicht), because ὑμεῖς covers all Spartans. But in that case how much must Hydarnes diminish the number of ἄνδρες Λακεδαιμόνιοι or multiply the number of γέαι Ἑλλάδες! The whole address is in the plural, not in the dual; Sperthias and Boulis are not to be supposed the only Lakedaimonians at table; the personal reference is very strong (ἐς ἐμέ); the offer of 8000 governorships (c. 234 infra） wonld be an absurdity, and Hdt. does not appear to be making Hydarnes ridiculous; in the reply of the Spartans the ‘we’ (ὴμέασ᾽ η<*>μῖν) seems to refer to those present and speaking.

---

τοῦ μέν: sc. τὸ δοῦλος εἶναι. τοῦ δέ: sc. εἰ ἔστι γλυκὺ (sic) έλευθερίη.

---

ἂν ... δυμβουλεύοις: Hydarnes had not advised them to fight, but to surrender. The full thought seems to be: ‘if you were to taste liberty you would advise us to fight, and to fight to the last gasp, in defence of it.’ πέλεκυς (an Assyrian word, peleg) cannot properly be ‘a battle-axe’ (spite of Il. 15. 711), or this proverbial expression would be pointless (cp. L. & S.).