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

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κατὰ μὲν τὴν ἑτέρην ... κατὰ δέ. The duality of the bridges as conceived by Hdt. is here put beyond controversy. The passage of the combatants (ὸ πεζός τε καὶ ἡ ἵππος ἅπασα) by the long bridge on the side of the Euxine (πρὸς τοῦ Πόντου), and of the army train, of non-combatants, by the short bridge, facing the Aegean (πρὸς τὸ Αἰγαῖον), reverses the order of march from Sardes to Abydos, cp. c. 40 supra. The items of the marching column which succeed ought to be identifiable with the items in the column as it left Sardes in cc. 40, 41, and are so identifiable, with one rather important exception: a body of ten thousand Persian horse, which in c. 41 follows the ten thousand élite Persian infantry (the Immortals), has here disappeared, and must be rediscovered among οἱ ἱππόται, or under ὁ ἄλλος στρατός, or boldly inserted immediately after οἱ μύριοι Πέρσαι which head the marching column. These μύριοι must be the ten thousand Persian infantry, which in c. 41 follow after the king, but are here sent forward (perhaps attended by a myriad of Persian caval<*>y, as in c. 41, here omitted). The next item here (ὁ σύμμικτος στρατὸς παντοίων ἐθνέων) corresponds plainly to the σύμμικτος στρατὸς παντοίων ἐθνέων ἀναμίξ, οὐ διακεκριμένοι, which apparently headed the column from Sardes (c. 40) and arrived first at Abydos—perhaps because that was their rendezvous, and they never went to Sardes at all. If ten thousand Persian infantry, ten thousand Persian cavalry, and the Anatoliau levies crossed the Bridge npon the ‘first’ day, and bivonacked upon the European shore, a very considerable feat had been accomplished.

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τῇ δὲ ὑστεραίῃ. On the second day Xerxes crosses, with his immediate guard and suite, exactly as described in cc. 40, 41 for the departnre from Sardes. οἱ ἱππόται here are presumably identical with ἱππόται χίλιοι ἐκ Περσέων πάντων ἀπολελεγμένοι who led the king's column (προηγεῦντο) there (and it would be very difficult to find room just here for the missing myriad of cavalry). They are succeeded immediately here, as there, by οἱ τὰς λόγχας κάτω τράποντες, that is, an elite chiliad of infantry (Immortals?), and these in turn by the (ten) Nesaean horses, the chariot of Ahuramazda, and the king himself. οἱ αἰχμοφόροι, who here succeed the king, are identical with αἰχμοφόροι Περσέων οἱ ἄριστοί τε καὶ γενναιότατοι χίλιοι there, with their spears npright: οἱ ἱππόται οἱ χίλιοι who s<*>cceed them are the ἵππος ἄλλη χιλίη ἐκ Περσέων ἀπολελεγμένη of c. 41, which there, however, are succeeded by (1) the ten thousand infantry, already accounted for here, (2) ten thousand Persian cavalry, here nowhere expressly accounted for, (3) ὁ λοιπὸς ὅμιλος, which seems to correspond to ὁ ἄλλος στρατός here, and presumably comprises the further Asiatic levies; to take it as equivalent to, or even as including, the missing myriad of Persian cavalry, seems less satisfactory than to recognize frankly that Hdt. has allowed this item to disappear, and that it may be most conveniently appended to the Persian infantry, which had crossed the previous day.

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ἐς τὴν ἀπεναντίον, sc. γῆν or ἤπειρον: the object of the fleet's movement at this point is not very clear.

ἤδη δὲ ἤκουσα (cp. 4. 77). This variant on the order of the procession affecting so important an item as the place of the king is indicative, as Blakesley insists, of ‘the nncertain character of the sonrces of the narrative.’ But even worse is to come, the variant on the time occupied by the crossing, which in this chapter is only two days.