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ἑξακοσίῃσι. This does not include the horse transports, and since it appears to be a conventional number for a great Persian fleet (cf. App. XIX, § 2), cannot safely be used as a basis for calculating the Persian force at Marathon, though it may exclude the exaggerated totals given by late authors (cf. 117 n.).

To H. the natural course is to coast round the shores of the Aegean, as did Mardonius (ch. 43) and Xerxes (Bk. VII). διὰ νήσων is the technical term for the opposite course by the open sea between the islands, i.e. the Cyclades; cf. v. 30, 31.

προτέρῳ: a slip on the part of the historian, as the disaster at Athos (ch. 45, 46) took place the year before the preparations of Darius, which are just above said to be τῷ προτέρῳ ἔτεϊ.

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