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

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ἐπισχὡν χρόνον, ‘after pausing a while’; cp. 5. 16, 1. 175, and c. 93 infra.

οὐδεὶς οὐδὲν ὑπεκρίνατο. The Athenian or phil-Attic concocters of the story did not venture to devise a reply for the Spartans, who could only have referred Mardonios to Thermopylai for proof of their mettle; that was their πρόπειρα. This haughty silence (for the story now begins in the hands of Hdt. to round somewhat to the Spartan side) recalls the indifference of the Spartans at Thermopylai to the curious Persian scout, 7. 208.

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τὰ καταλαβόντα: sc. ἑαυτόν: cp. cc. 93, 104 infra.

δ δὲ περιχαρής κτλ.: “an Hellenic view of Mardonios' sentiments, with no foundation of truth,” Blakesley. περιχ. 3. 35.

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ἐπαερθεὶς ψυχρῇ νίκῃ: for the participle cp. 5. 81, 6. 132, 7 38. ψ. ν., inani victoria, cp. 6. 108.

ἐπῆκε τὴν ἵππον ἐπὶ τοὺς Ἕλληνας. If little or nothing has been heard of the Persian cavalry for twelve days, it must be because the Greeks were in a position where the cavalry could not get at them, or else because the services of the cavalry have been suppressed. The cavalry, however, had at least cut the Greek lines of communication by Dryoskephalai, c. 39 supra. If they had not also already destroyed Gargaphia, and rendered the Greek position at Gargaphia untenable, it must be because that position had not been occupied by the Greeks until this very day, to wit, the twelfth. On this day the Greeks were reduced to the necessity of advancing across the Asopos, or else retiring and giving up the position.

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ἐσίνοντο πᾶσαν τὴν στρατιήν: the Persian cavalry, and perhaps the Boiotian, Thessalian, Makedonian, could now ride completely round the Greek position, and especially could harass the Greeks in the rear. The horsemen evidently did not attempt to ascend the hill-slopes and sides, but swept safely through the trough in the hills, in which Gargaphia and its neighbouring wells lay, and lie. A detachment of Lakedaimonians may have been posted near the wells, in the vain attempt to save them: these men must have been beaten back northwards on to the ‘Asopos Ridge.’ What were the hosts of ψιλοί about on the Greek side? They should, were they in being, have kept the Persian cavalry off. It is this situation which makes it difficult to believe in the 69,500 Greek ψιλοί of c. 30 supra, or even a tithe of that number.

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ὥστε ἱπποτοξόται τε ἐόντες καὶ προσφέρεσθαι ἄποροι: ὥστε = ἅτε, cp. c. 37 supra. With προσφ. ἀπ. cp. ἄποροι προσμίσγειν 4. 46. The meaning is evidently that it was difficult to come to close quarters with them. Blakesley renders “impossible to bring to close fight”—as though προσφέρεσθαι were passive, or, if not, as if αὐτούς were to be understood. The verb is better taken as middle, or deponent, ἐς αὐτοὺς or αὐτοῖς being understood, the construction being the personal instead of the neuter: ἄπορον ἦν προσφέρεσθαι ἐς αὐτούς (αὐτοῖς), ‘it was impossible to come to close quarters with them.’

The difficulty affects hoplites, not ψιλοί, τοξόται, ἀκοντισταί, σφενδονῆται, κτλ., who should have shot down the horses and men, eminus, at least if they had been decently trained; but they were probably πτώσσοντες among the hoplites! On the superiority of the Persian still at the end of the fifth century cp. Xenoph. Anab. 3. 3. 7.

ἱπποτοξόται: a form of service afterwards familiar in Athens (cp. Thuc. 2. 13. 8), though a corps of 200 could not hope to effect very much. The Persian cavalry, Hdt. says (7. 84), had the same equipment as the infantry (described in 7. 61) including bows and arrows, and short spears, i.e. throwing spears, javelins. Rawlinson argues from Arrian 1. 15 (the Granikos) and 3. 15 (Arbela) that in Alexander's day the favourite weapon of the Persian cavalry was the javelin (jereed). Cp. c. 17 supra.

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τήν τε κρήνην τὴν Γαργαφίην: cp. c. 25 supra for its identity and position. The statement here that the whole Greek force under arms (στράτευμα, not στρατόπεδον) depended on this one source for water-supply might have warned Hdt. that the position could hardly have been occupied for twelve days! What? 110,000 men, for twelve days, watered from one spring? It would needs have been a copious one. Now at any rate in the course of a few hours the Persian cavalry renders it quite useless— as they could have done on any one of the preceding eleven days!

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συνετάραξαν καὶ συνέχωσαν: the first verb describes the condition of the water-supply after the Persian cavalry has been riding over it and through it; the second the absolute dilapidation of the troughs, basin, stone-work, and so forth (cp. c. 13 supra) which they must have dismounted to effect. Pausan, 9. 4. 2 has little independent value, but may be just worth quoting: τὴν δὲ κρήνην τὴν Γαργαφίαν Μαρδόνιος καὶ ἡ ἵππος συνέχεεν ἡ Περσῶν, ὅτι τὸ Ἑλλήνων στράτευμα τὸ ἀντικαθήμενόν σφισιν ἀπ᾽ αὐτῆς ἔπινεν: ὕστερον μέντοι τὸ ὔδωρ ἀνεσώσαντο οἱ Πλαταιεῖς.

ἦσαν μὲν ὦν ... Λακεδαιμόνιοι: ὦν marks the gravity of the situation. That Lakedaimonians and Lakedaimonians alone (μοῦνοι) were posted opposite, or ‘over against’ the fountain, suggests several inferences. (1) The main body of the Lakedaimonians form the Greek right wing, stationed apparently on the high ground immediately north of the spring, or well (Grundy's ‘Gargaphia’); but (2) doubtless a detachment would have been on guard in the immediate vicinity of the water. If so, that detachment cannot have maintained its ground.

If Apotripi be Gargaphia, the Greek left would have to be moved a little, but only a little, westward. In reality the centre probably watered from Apotripi, which no doubt was equally destroyed by the Persian cavalry. The centre was posted immediately in and about the Androkrateion (the Church of St. John).

The left wing may have been expected to get its water from the stream A1 running down from Apotripi into the Asopos proper, or failing that from Apotripi.

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τοῖσι δὲ ἄλλοισι Ἕλλησι: i.e. the right centre (οἱ ἀμφὶ Κορινθίους c. 69), the left centre (οἱ ἀμφὶ Μεγαρέας τε καὶ Φλειασίους ib.) and the left wing (Athenians and Plataians). The Tegeatai are probably lumped with the Lakedaimonians above.

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ἡ μὲν κρήνη πρόσω ἐγἰνετο: πρόσω is the antithesis of ἐγγύς, cp. Plato, Protag. 356. There is no need to expand ἡ κρήνη into ἡ εἰς τὴν κρήνην ὁδός (Sitzler), but the next words, ὡς ἕκαστοι ἔτυχον τεταγμένοι, introduce an element of relativity or comparison into πρόσω, to which the imperfect ἐγίνετο is also adapted: the well was not equi-distant from all; it was not near to any, but it was further from some (the Athenians) than from others (the centre), according to their places in the line of battle.

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ὁ δὲ Ἀσωπὸς ἀγχοῦ: ἀγχοῦ = ἄγχι = ἐγγύς. Used with a dat. 3. 85 ἀγχοῦ τῇ ἵππῳ. The assertion that the Asopos was near any of the Greeks, or any of the Greeks near the Asopos, is puz ling. The whole position, indeed, has been described above, c. 30, as ἐπὶ τῷ Ἀσωπῷ, but that is relatively to the previous position ἐπὶ τῇ ὑπωρέῃ, and not from the point of view of the actual watersupply. The Greek position along the tops of the Asopos Ridge was not, from the army-service point of view, near the Asopos, if by Asopos is meant the main stream (as in c. 30, and passim). Hdt. has here probably made a mistake, owing to his ignorance of the ground: that the parts of the army which were not near Gargaphia were near the Asopos may be a blind inference from the general (and not, broadly speaking, incorrect) description of their position as ἐπὶ τῷ Ἀσωπῷ. It is possible, however, that Dr. G. B. Grundy's suggestion (for a phrase (in c. 31 supra, q.v.) is here applicable, and that ‘Asopos’ is here used of stream A1, though not with conscious knowledge or discrimination on the historian's part. The Greek left, in particular the Athenians, were certainly in the vicinity of this streamlet, but were no doubt unable to use it ὑπό τε τῶν ἱππέων καὶ τοξευμάτων. They may erroneously have spoken of it as the Asopos, or the Plataian Asopos; but Hdt., had he known the real state of the case, would surely have distinguished expressly between the main stream and this comparatively insignificant affluent.

ἐρυκόμενοι: passive; cp. 5. 15.

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οὕτω δή: here not temporal but modal, or even causal.

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ὑπό: cp. c. 45. 17 supra.