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στελλομένου δὲ Δ. The king was plainly going in person; a στάσις occurred before he started. Stein favours the variant in Justin and Plutarch that the στἀσις took place after the death of Dareios; but the versions are not mutually exclusive. Hdt., however, in the anecdote which follows has not perhaps very clearly distinguished two different cases—（a) the appointment of a viceroy, for the king's absence; (b) the appointment of a successor, in case of the king's death. In Hdt. 1. 208 Kyros appoints Kambyses, his son, τῷ περ τὴν βασιληίην ἐδίδου, as viceroy before going against the Massagetai; Kambyses, before going to Egypt, appointed a Magos as τῶν οἰκίων μελεδωνόν, 3. 61, or ἐπίτροπον, 3. 63 —but the Magos was not to succeed in the event of the king's death. No similar provision is recorded in the case of the Scythian expedition of Dareios himself (Bk. 4), but Xerxes in 480 B.C. evidently appoints his uncle Artabanos as Major-domo and Viceroy, c. 52 infra. Artaxerxes Mnemon appointed a successor (Dareios) simply in view of his own age, and to avoid a στάσις (Plutarch, Artax. 26). Rawliuson compares the case of the succession of Kroisos, Hdt. 1. 92, which would perhaps carry the custom (νὀμος) beyond the Persian limit. It may fairly be doubted whether there was any specifically Persian rule in the matter; similar cases might arise in any monarchy. The Spartan rule that there should always be at least one king at home stood on a different footing, and was, if we may trust Hdt. 5. 75, devised for the purpose of avoiding a kingly στάσις on the campaign; it was not, however, rigidly observed, cp. Xenophon, Hell. 5. 3. 10, but the Spartan suggestion in the context here is nevertheless noticeable.
μεγάλη may be taken as predicate (cp. Luke 22. 24).
οὕτω, ‘he should not start on an expedition until he had appointed a successor in accordance with the law of the Persians.’ Cp. 4. 168 οὕτω ῥίπτει.
Γοβρύεω θυγατρός. Stein wishes to read Γοβρύεω δὲ θυγατρός, “as Gobryas has been mentioned before.” But, in truth, had Gobryas been mentioned before? This text confirms the view that Bk. 7 is earlier in composition than the text of Bk. 3. Strange to say, there is nothing about this marriage in Bk. 3, not even in c. 88, where Dareios' wives are enumerated: a striking illustration of the independence of various passages in the work of Hdt. even when dealing with the same subject. Here only two wives appear, (1) the daughter of Gobryas, and (2) Atossa, the daughter of Kyros. But Dareios had at least three otherwives: (3) Artystone, daughter of Kyros, c. 69 infra; (4) Parmys, daughter of Bardiya, c. 78 infra; (5) Phaidyme, a daughter of Otanes, 3. 69, 88.
βασιλεύσαντι, ‘after coming to the throne.’ The birth of Xerxes can hardly have occurred before the year 520 or 519 B.C. He would have been rather less than forty years of age in 480 B.C., and barely thirty-five at the date of his accession.
ἐπρέσβευε, i.e. πρεσβύτατος ἦν.
κατότι=κατὰ τοῦτο ὅτι, propterea quod, κατ᾽ ὅ τι, qua propter, 6. 3 (Stein).
πάντων ἀνθρώπων, notstrictly true. The story of the στάσις apparently comes from a Spartan or quasi-Spartan source (cp. Introduction, § 10), and at Sparta the succession of the eldest was no doubt the rule; cp. Hdt. 5. 39, 42.
Κύρου. Rawlinson notices the importance of the Kyreian descent of Xerxes (cp. c. 11 infra), but can hardly be right in thinking that Dareios reigned in virtue of his marriage with Atossa, especially if Dareios only married Atossa after his accession.
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