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τὸν Κηφισὸν ποταμόν: cp. 7. 178. The river Kephisos had its source proper in the territory of Lilaia: Pausan. 10. 33. 4 “Λίλαιαν δὲ τῶν καλουμένων Ναίδων καὶ Θυγατέρα εἶναι τοῦ Κηφισοῦ, καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς νύμφης τὸ ὄνομα τεθῆναι τῇ πόλει φασί”. It was a day's journey across Parnassos from Lilaia to Delpht, ib., i.e. there was a regular path that way. Lilaia (mod. Agoriani?) was a regular member of the Phokian League (Pausan. 10. 3. 2), and no doubt shared the fate of the other Phokian cities on this occasion. Pausanias 10. 33. 7 says: γῆ δὲ διακεκριμένως ἀρίστη τῆς Φωκίδος ἐστὶν ἡ παρὰ τὸν Κηφισὸν καὶ φυτεῦσαι καὶ σπείρειν καὶ ἀνεῖναι νομάς: καὶ γεωργεῖται ταῦτα μάλιστα τῆς χὡρας ὥστε κτλ.
κατὰ μὲν ... κατὰ δέ: a remarkable tmesis; cp. 5. 81. Δρυμὸν πόλιν: no doubt the Δρυμαία of Pausanias' list l.c., Δρυμία ap. Steph. B., twenty stades distant from Tithronion, on the high ground above left bank of the river. Χαράδραν: twenty stades east of Lilaia, that is, on the right (south) side of the river. The town suffered from want of water, Pausan. 10. 33. 6. Charadra and Dryonaia may be taken to represent the frontier townships. Fiazer, Paus. v. 416, gives a plan of the ruins, and puts the name on his map of Phokis (vol. vi.).
Ἐρωχον: Eiochos occurs in Pausanias' list between Daulis and Charadra; Leake, N.G. ii. 89, regarded its site as undiscoverable; Bursian, op. c. i. 162, places it conjecturally between Charadra and Tithronion; it appears on Grundy's and Kiepert's maps on the left side of the river, between Tithronion and Elateia. It was probably a small place, apparently restored after the Phokian war (in which it had been destroyed again); cp. Frazer, Paus. v. 215 (10. 3. 2). Τεθρώνιον lay on a plain, 15 stades from Amphikleia, and 20 from Drymaia (Pausan 10. 33. 12), apparently on the left side of the river: παρέχεται δὲ οὐδὲν ἐς μνήμην, ibid. (Tithrone, Plin.; Τιθρώνιον Steph. B.) Ἀμφίκαιαν, Pausanias states that the correct form of the name was Ἀμφίκλεια, and appeared in the Dogma of the Amphiktyons on the destruction of the Phokian cities; but Ἡρόδοτος μὲν Ἀμφίκαιαν ἐκάλεσεν ἑπόμενος τῷ ἀρχαιοτάτῳ τῶν λόγων. Amphikaia was certainly the epichorian form, as is proved by the local legend narrated by Pausanias. This form was associated with a cult of Dionysos, and cures were effected δἰ ὀνειρἁτων. The site is identified, apparently, on the hills to the south of Kephisos, below and east of Lilaia, just above the modern Dadi (Frazer v. 420): Pausanias' measurements here appear untrustworthy: Bursian i. 162. Νέωνα: on the skirts of Parnassos; cp. c. 32 supra.
Πεδιέας καὶ Τριτέας: these names do not occur in Pausanias' list, nor elsewhere except in this place. Bursian (i. 163) condemns Leake's conjecture that Πεδιεῖς represents the township Λέδων (not mentioned by Hdt.), and suggests that these two towns never recovered after their destruction by the Persians in 480 B.C., although a Τριταία in Ozolian Lokris may, he supposes with almost equally little reason, be a new home for the Phokian Τριτεεῖς. Ἐλάτειαν: the chief city of Phokis μετά γε τοὺς Δελφούς, Pausan. 10. 34. Its site is identified (Leake ii. 82, Bursian i. 163, Frazer v. 425 ff.), commanding the outlet of the pass of Hyampolis (c. 28 supra). Its strategic importance becomes more prominent in the fourth century, and the Makedonian period. The immortal passage, in which Demosthenes describes the seizure of Elateia by Philip in 338 B.C. (de Cor. 284), is, or was, known to every schoolboy. Ὑάμπολιν: on the main road from Boiotia and Phokis to Opûs, and so to Thermopylai; cp. c. 28 supra. Pausanias 10. 35. 5 records that the city was a settlement of Ὕαντες from Thebes, and that the full name of the city was Ὑάντων πόλις. Kleonai, the actual scene of the Thessalian defeat (cp. Plutarch, l.c. c. 28 supra) a little higher up the pass, was presumably a dependency of Hyampolis; remains of Hyampolis are identifiable (Leake ii. 167, Bursian i. 165, Frazer v. 442). The city would be the first exposed to the attack of a force coming from Thermopylai, and probably in 480 B.C. (with Abai) was destroyed, not by the Persian column which had crossed from Malis into Doris, and then worked down the Kephisos valley, spreading ruin and death wherever it came, but by the main column, which must have advanced from Thermopylai along the coast, and through the pass of Hyampolis. Παραποταμίους. Parapotamioi appears in Pausanias' list of the Phokian League, but the city had never recovered from its destruction by the Amphiktyons in the Phokian war. Παραποταμίων μὲν δὴ οὔτε ἐρείπια ἔτι ἦν, οὔτε ἔνθα τῆς χώρας ᾠκίσθη ἡ πόλις μνημονεύουσιν (10. 33. 8). The more careful modern periegetai have improved upon this. The site has been identified in the narrow strait, between Mounts Philoboiotos and Hadyleion, through which the Kephisos passes from the plain of Elateia to the plain of Chaironeia (Leake ii. 97, Bursian i. 164, Frazer v. 418). The order in which Hdt. names Hyampolis, Parapotamioi and Abai is not geographical in either direction. Abai is probably placed last, because there is a note to add to the name. Hyampolis and Parapotamioi are then in the order in which they would have been visited by a force coming from Opûs. Cp. also next chapter.
Ἄβας: Abai was plainly situate lower down the (Assos) valley than Hyampolis, Pausan. 10. 35. 1. Its site is clearly identified (Leake ii. 164, Bursian i. 165, Frazer v. 436 with plans). Hyampolis, the city of the Hyantes, was also known as Hya: and it is possible that Abai was the city of the Abantes; Abantopolis! But the statement of Aristotle ap. Strabon. 445 that the old name of Euboia, viz. Abantis, was traceable to Thrakians, who crossed over into the island from Abai, in Phokis, is not convincing. The chief claim of Abai to renown was no doubt its Apolline oracle.
θησαυροῖσί τε καὶ ἀναθήμασι: some of them due to the pious liberality of Kroisos, 1. 46. It is a little remarkable that Hdt. does not specify this point here, especially in view of the notice in c. 35 infra; but perhaps when he wrote this passage originally he was not yet acquainted with the story of the Trial of the Oracles, in other words, his silence here makes for the earlier composition of Books 7-9; cp. Introduction, §§ 7, 8. ἦν δὲ καὶ τότε καὶ νῦν ἔτι: sc. ἔστι. The χρηστήριον suivived the destruction of the ἱρόν, and was even consulted in the following winter on behalf of Mardonios, c. 134 infra, a point which might tempt one to postpone the destruction of Abai till after the Plataian campaign.
τὸ ἱρὸν συλήσαντες ἐνέπρησαν: Pausanias, 10. 35. 2, says that this was one of the temples left in ruins as a witness of the war with the barbarians. The ruined temple was again fired by the Thebans in the Phokian war; but of the twenty-two members of the Phokian League Abai was the only city not destroyed and ‘di-oikized’ by the Amphiktyons, being, indeed, the only one not associated in the sacrilegious attack on Delphi.
γυναῖκας τινὰς διέφθειραν: from the specification it might be inferred that such atrocities were unknown in Hellenic warfare.
ὑπὸ πλήθεος, prae multitudine, sc τῶν μισγομένων (Stein).
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