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

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οἱ δὲ Ἑλλήνων ἐς τ. ϝ. στ. ταχθέντες refers (a) to the colon immediately preceding, ταῦτα μὲν δὴ οὕτω λέγεται γενέσθαι, and now forming the close of the seventh Book (cp. App. Crit.). But (b) if 7. 239 is a late insertion (cp. notes ad l.), the grammatical correspondence may have been originally, and more happily, with the closing words of 7. 238 οἳ μὲν δὴ ταῦτα ἐποίευν τοῖσι ἐπετέτακτο ποιέειν. Yet perhaps (c) the original correspondence lay with the first sentence of 7. 234 οἱ μὲν δὴ περὶ Θερμοπύλας Ἕλληνες οὕτω ἠγωνίσαντο, both Demaratos episodes, as well as 7. 238, which now intervene, being of the second or third redaction. The true contrast and correspondence lies between ‘the Hellenes comprised in the naval forces’ and ‘the Hellenes brigaded at Thermopylai,’ and the navy-list which here follows (d) really carries back to the army-list given above 7. 202. The transition between Bks. 7 and 8 is, indeed, abrupt, but the better inference from the abruptness of the transition is not (with Stein5) to a lacuna (Ausfall im Texte) but to an insertion, or to insertions, in the text by author and by interpolator to boot, destructive of the original continuity. The abruptness has been at once emphasized and obliterated by the division into books, made (by some anonymous Alexandrian), naturally enough, just at this point. The result has been still further to divorce the synchronous and inter-related operations on land and sea, the stories of Thermopylai and of Artemision as narrated by Hdt., on which point see further, Introduction, § 11, Appendix V. Ἑλλήνων is, of course, a partitive genitive. ἐς, not ‘against’ but ‘into’; cp. 7. 21 οἱ δὲ ἐς πεζὸν ἐτετάχατο.

ἦσαν οἵδε. The sources of the Greek navy-lists for Artemision (here) and Salamis (cc. 43-48 infra) cannot be exactly determined; but if Hdt.'s figures are ever to be trusted, it is in these two cases, the rather in view of his omission of all details for the fleet in the following year (c. 131 infra). See further, Introduction, § 10, and the notes on the details below.

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Ἀθηναῖοι. The order here is determined by the size of the respective contingents, or perhaps by the (Athenian) provenience of the list (in contrast with the list of Salamis, cc. 43-48 infra). To the 127 ships here specified are to be added the 53 supplied in c. 14 infra, besides the 20 manned from Chalkis, just below, making a total of 200 bottoms from Athens, on which figure cp. 7. 144. With the use of the middle (παρεχόμενοι) for the war-ships (νέας), manned by the Athenians themselves, cp. the active (παρεχόντων) just below for the ships furnished to the men of Chalkis.

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ὑπὸ δὲ ἀρετῆς τε καὶ προθυμίης: causal, and of psychological causality; cp. 1. 85 ὑπὸ δέους τε καὶ κακοῦ ἔρρηξε φωνήν (where the κακόν is external). The notice of Plataian valour and zeal is remarkable, and more generous than the recognition of their service at Marathon, 6. 108, 9. 27.

Πλαταιέες ... συνεπλήρουν. Blakesley argues that the verb implies more than merely service as ἐπιβάται. His contention is borne out by the remark ἄπειροι τῆς ναυτικῆς (sc. τέχνης） ἐόντες, which would be almost pointless if referred to ἐπιβάται alone. Cp. also ἐπλήρουν just below.

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Κορίνθιοι supply but 40 ships, but are also represented by 400 hoplites at Thermopylai, 7. 202. Cp. also c. 43 infra.

Μεγαρέες supplying 20 ships still rank apparently as the fourth naval power in the confederacy.

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Χαλκιδέες. Are these Athenian ‘Kleruchs’ (5. 77, 6. 100)? or natives of Chalkis? or both combined? Blakesley acutely remarks that 4000 men represent just the complement for 20 triremes; and it is possible that there is a relation between the 20 here and the 4000 there (ll.c.). But if so, the 4000 is probably an inference from the 20, and this passage is the older of the two (whether Hdt. himself or his authorities made the combination and drew the inference). This observation further strengthens the suspicion with which the figure 4000 is to be viewed (cp. my note to 5. 77), seeing that here the crews of these triremes may well have been natives of Chalkis and the Athenian Kleruchs serving merely, or mamly, as epibatai (= 600. If the real number of Kleruchs was only 600, the story in 6. 100 would be more intelligible).

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Αἰγινῆται. That Aigina sends only 18 ships to Artemision is curious: does the item include the ship of Asonides captured off Skiathos (7. 181)? The Aiginetan figure for Salamis is also perplexing; cp. c. 46 infra.

Σικυώνιοι are below their full strength with 12 ships; cp. c. 43.

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Λακεδαιμόνιοι means, of course, the Spartan state. Doubtless the crews were composed of Helots, or at best Perioikoi; and perhaps there were few, if any, Spartiatai on board, except the Epibatai and officers. The Lakedaimonian contingent looks miserably small for the hegemonic power; but the service at Thermopylai is concomitant. Even at Salamis the Lakedaimonians muster only 16 ships, if c. 43 is to be trusted.

Ἐπιδαύριοι, unrepresented at Thermopylai, raise their contingent from 8 to 10 for Salamis (c. 43), and send only 800 Hoplites to Plataiai, 9. 28. Their best days were past (cp. 7. 99), or in the future, when the ἱερόν of Asklepios was to rise into oecumenical significance (cp. R. Caton, The Temples and Ritual of Asklepios, Cambridge, 1900).

Ἐρετριέες. After their experiences in 490 B.C. (cp. 6. 101, 119) it is surprising to find men of Eretria in a position to supply even 7 ships in 480 B.C. Either the destruction had not been so complete as Hdt. asserts, or the place had been reoccupied and remforced.

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Τροιζήνιοι. Troizen was a small place, supplying but 5 ships (cp c. 43); it ranked as the metropolis of Halikarnassos (7. 99), and appears to have been at this time on especially good terms with Athens; cp. c. 41 infra.

Στυρέες. The men of Styra in Euboia supply 2 triremes. In the Athenian tribute-lists Styra is assessed at 100 drachmai.

Κήιοι. The island of Keos appears in the tribute-lists as assessed for 400 drachmai, though in 480 B.C. it furnishes but 2 pentekonters beyond the Styrean contingent. The assessment probably represents the resources of Keos better than the contingent: the island was the birth-place of Simonides, the poetlaureate of the war. Cp. 7. 228.

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Λοκροὶ ... οἱ Ὀπούντιοι: cp. 7. 203. As they were serving πανστρατιῇ at Thermopylai it is a wonder to find them represented at Artemision even by 7 pentekonters.

σφι might naturally be referred to Κήιοι just before, as σφι up above certainly refer to Χαλκιδέες immediately preceding; but the general sense of the passage suggests a reference here to the fleet as a whole, all the contingents enumerated above, or more vaguely still τοῖς Ἕλλησι. The verb (ἐπεβοήθεον) is varied from the ἐπλήρουν and παρείχοντο preceding, and requires the personal object expressed or understood.