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προεξαναστάντες πρότεροι οἱ Τεγεῆται. The source, or sources, followed by Hdt. for the battle itself are not too favourable to the Spartans, and apparently prefer to give the Tegeatai what credit is going; cp. c. 70 infra. It may, of course, be that the men of Tegea were first on the move; if so, it was by order of Pausanias, for some tactical reason of the moment; but it is more probable that Spartans and Tegeatai advanced together. πρότεροι is redundant, cp. 4 145. προεξαναστῆναι, cp. 8. 59, indicates that they were sitting or lying down; cp. c. 72 infra. ἐχώρεον ἐς τοὺς βαρβάρους: like the Athenians at Marathon; but the δρόμῳ ἵεντο of 6. 112 quite surpasses this advance! The ἐχώρεον ἐς and the ἐχώρεον ἐπί just below mark a distinction without much difference. χρόνῳ κοτέ marks, perhaps, the impatience of the waiters rather than the actual length of time: contr. χρ. ἐπὶ πολλόν just below.
οἱ Πέρσαι ἀντίοι τὰ τόξα μετέντες, ‘the Persians put away their bows and stood their ground to meet them,’ having recourse to their other weapons, short spears, daggers (7. 61). What exactly they did with the bows is not elear; perhaps they actually flung them away: μετιέναι πολλὰ τῶν δακρύων, c. 16 supra, is to let them drop. Cp. 3. 128 μετῆκάν οἱ τὰς αἰχμάς, after which the δορυφόροι had recourse to their ἀκινάκας. The μάχη περὶ τὰ γέρρα which now ensues is really πρῶτον in relation to what follows; but the preceding episode, while the Persians are showering shots on the Spartans from behind the fence of shields, is an essential part of the battle-piece. ἤδη just below practically = δεύτερον.
ἐπεπτώκεε more literally than ἔπιπτον above, but still a mild way of putting it: Stein renders niedergewerfen waren.
ἰσχυρή is of course predicative. παρ᾽ αὐτὸ τὸ Δημήτριον. Hdt. knows only of one Demetrion in the region, cp. c. 57 supra; there were two, if not three, that might come into the account. It is here a problem not merely which Demetrion is in question, but what space, what change of place, if any, here intervenes between the μάχη περὶ τὰ γέρρα and the μάχη ἰσχυρὴ παῤ αὐτὸ τὸ Δημήτριον. The shields had been overthrown; their owners probably perished or fled. There may be a considerable amount of ground traversed between the γέρρα and the Δημήτριον here in question, and the bulk of the men who struggled with the Spartans, under the temple walls, may not be the same men who had stood their ground, higher up the hills, behind the γέρρα. The Demetrion here in question may be the ‘Hysiatan,’ and its site may still be marked by the church of St. Demetrion, though the Spartan position up by the Moloeis may have been about, or in front of, the Plataian Demetrion.
ὠθισμόν. One might have thought that there would have been ‘pushing’ before the γέρρα were overthrown. So no doubt there had been: Hdt. seems to use ὠθισμός for fighting at the closest quarters (without special reference to its etymological sense), cp. 7. 225, 8. 78. In this particular case, if the battle has shifted down the ridge, and is now going forward beside the Demetrion (as above located), the fugitive Persians would probably be met by swarms advancing to the assault, or support, none too regularly, and escape would be doubly difficult. But we cannot be sure that the words which follow do not describe the scene immediately on the overthrow of the γέρρα. Stein5, indeed, marks a lacuna after ὠθισμόν on the ground that the next sentence is not in logical or natural sequence of the argument or narrative: the now-exposed barbarians seized on and tried to break the large heavy spcars of the Spartans— no doubt in vain.
λήματι μέν νυν κτλ. This generous tribute to the valour or spirit (λῆμα 7. 99) and bodily strength (ῥώμη 1. 31) of the Persians is rather out of place in the very midst of a description of the actual engagement; at any rate it interrupts a narrative which has already become involved in some obscurity, and when resumed, just below, grows still more unintelligible.
ἄνοπλοι, without ὅπλα, i.e. the shields (and other heavy arms associated therewith). There was a great inferiority of armature on the Peisian side for fighting at close quarters: nothing could have compensated for that (other things, strength and courage, being equal) but superior tactics, skill, address; but ἐπιστήμη, but σοφίη were also on the side of the Greeks; cp. 7. 211.
προεξαίσσοντες: the προ is here local, not temporal. The tactics described are almost unintelligible of a retreating force. Single combatants, or small groups, separate themselves from the main body and rush forward, out of the ranks, form or rally in bands (συστρεφόμενοι, cp. c. 18 supra), some larger some smaller, charge the Spartans, and are annihilated. Perhaps the obscurity arises from Hdt. not distinguishing clearly between those Persians who were in retreat and the various forces hurrying up to their support.
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