This text is part of:
Θρήικες Ἀψίνθιοι: these were old enemies of the Δόλογκοι Θρήικες, the occupants of the Chersonese (cp. 6. 34), and the wall from Kardia to Paktye was built by Miltiades I. to keep them out (ib. 36). Steph. B. sub v. Αἶνος gives Ἄψυνθος as another name; cp. 7. 58 supra. Blakesley well describes them as the Perioikoi of Ainos; cp. Strabo, 331 fr. 58, ἡ μὲν γὰρ Αἶνος κεῖται κατὰ τὴν πρότερον Ἀψυνθίδα νῦν δὲ Κορπιλικὴν λεγομένην, ἡ δὲ τῶν Κικόνων ἐφεξῆς πρὸς δυσιν. The word Apsinthos, or Apsinthioi, belongs to the group of proper names in -nth- of which Korinthos, Zakynthos, Perinthos (in Thrace) are only the best known examples; cp. Oberhummer, Akarnanien (1887), p. 58. The termination appears on the Asianic side in names formed with -nd- (cp. Kretschmer, op. c. 293 ff.). Whatever be the positive significance of this observation, it confirms the opinion that the whole group of names belongs to a non-Greek, a prae-Hellenic population.
ἔθυσαν Πλειστώρῳ ἐπιχωρίῳ θεῷ: this Thrakian deity is perhaps the Thrakian Ares of 5. 7. Their method of human sacrifice (τρόπῳ τῷ σφετέρῳ） will have differed from the rite as practised by the Tauroi (4. 103), and perhaps resembled that of the Getai, in the cult of Salmoxis (4. 94). Cp. further 7. 114. The companions of Oiobazos were put to death in another fashion, and also not as a religious sacrifice.
οἱ δὲ ἀμφὶ τὸν Ἀ., ‘Artayktes and his followers,’ cp. c. 114 supra. ὁρμηθέντες, of physical motion; cp. ibid.
κατελαμβάνοντο ὀλίγον ἐόντες ὑπὲρ Αἰγὸς ποταμῶν, ‘were overtaken while they were a little way beyond Aigospotamoi.’ The participle is not strictly necessary, and suggests itself therefore as predicative. ‘They were not far beyond Aigospotamoi when they were overtaken.’ Xenophon Hell. 2. 1. 21 describes the place as ‘opposite Lampsakos.’ Rawlinson will not allow that Aigospotamoi was more than an open roadstead even in 405 B.C. But the coinage appears to prove the contrary; cp. Head, Hist. Num. p. 222; and perhaps the plural form of the word might support the correction. Xen. l.c., Diodor. 13. 105, Strabo 287, Plutarch. Lys. 9.
ἐλάμφθησαν, ‘were captured’; cp. c. 114. 2 supra. (The aorist of the simple verb has a fuller sense than the imperfect of the verb in composition just above.) συνδήσαντες, ‘after binding, or chaining them together,’ one to another. οἱ Ἕλληνες perhaps covers οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι καὶ οἱ σύμμαχοι whose presence has not been expressly recognized.
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.