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ὁ δὲ Δορίσκος ἐστί κτλ. Description of Doriskos: a plain on the sea coast, and in a narrower sense, a fort, (τεῖχος, castellum, passim; cp. Livy 31. 16). In view of the assertion here made, that Doriskos had been garrisoned by Dareios ἐξ ἐκείνου τοῦ χρόνου ἐπείτε ἐπὶ Σκύθας ἐστρατεύετο, it is remarkable that nothing is said of the event in Bk. 4. Seeing that Dareios entered Thrace by the Bosporos, Stein infers that Dareios garrisoned Doriskos on the return march (when he recrossed at the Hellespont). But had Dareios in person anything to say to it? Doriskos may have been occupied by Megabazos, in connexion with the first conquest of Thrace; though even this modification is hardly consistent with the notice of Doriskos, 5. 98, as the place where the fugitive Paionians were landed by the Lesbians after the outbreak of the Ionian revolt. Doriskos is not altogether a suitable landing-place for the Paionians on that occasion (cp. my note to 5. 98); but in any case it can hardly have remained in the hands of the Persians throughout the Ionian revolt, but may have been one of the places occupied, or recovered, by Mardomos in 492 B.C., though nothing is said of that in 6. 43-47. Only at that date, perhaps, was the spot definitely garrisoned by the Persians. Mardonios would know it well. The bearing of this passage upon the problem of composition is important. It is prima facie older than 5. 98 (where the site of Doriskos is taken for granted), and it is easier to explain the record here and the silence in Bk. 4 upon the hypothesis that this is the earher passage, in composition, than vice versa. Cp. Introduction, § 7.
διὰ δὲ αὐτοῦ ... Ἕβρος: through the plain, not through the town, which was not astride the river but on the west side opposite Ainos. The Hebros (Maritza) was and is the principal river of Thrace.
ὦν: not so much on account of the fortifications, as because it was a large plain on the sea shore.
ἐποίεε ταῦτα: a more superfluous and senseless proceeding could hardly be conceived upon the supposition that the whole land-army had accompanied the king from Sardes, and the whole fleet had been present in the Hellespont. Nor could the army have really advanced so far without order or organization (as a σύμμικτος στρατὸς παντοίων ἐθνέων ἀναμίξ, οὐ διακεκριμένοι c. 40). The numbering, review and reorganization of the forces at Doriskos, involving, as it does, a desperate delay (contradicted, however, by the traditional chronology of the king's march, cp. 8. 51 infra), can hardly have any historical justification except upon the hypothesis that a con siderable portion of the terrestrial and maritime forces had Doriskos as rendezvous in the first instance (cp. Diodor. 11. 3. 6). It is impossible to take the whole fleet of Xerxes into the Hellespont: it is unnecessary to take the whole army across the bridge: (were the missing ten thousand Persian cavalry shipped direct to Doriskos? cp. c. 54). If, however, Doriskos was the first place at which the entire forces for the invasion of Hellas were concentrated, then a review, an organization, becomes both natural and necessary. Mardonios, among others, might have devised this plan: perhaps he only joined the king <*>t Doriskos.
Σάλη: a Samothracian fenced ‘city,’ but without a history: the name recurs in Pliny and Mela. The Samothracians had several such places on the mainland. Cp. c. 108 infra.
Ζώνη: of more frequent occurrence in the texts: e.g. πόλις Κικόνων. Ἑκαταῖος Εὑρώπῃ, Steph B., a gloss suggesting the source, at least in part, of Hdt.'s Thracian geography. τελευτᾷ δὲ αὐτοῦ Σέρρειον ἄκρη ὀνομαστή. Cp. 2. 32 μέχρι Σολόεντος ἄκρης, ἢ τελευτᾷ τῆς Λιβύης, a passage which justifies the construction, and the emendation (cp. App. Crit.). But is the promontory here the sea-limit, or is it the western frontier? The latter gives a better sense: (the two coincide in the other case). Serrheion coupled with Doriskos by Demosth. Phil. 3. 15, as a τεῖχος, cp. ps.-Demosth. Phil. 4. 8, and altogether more celebrated than Sale or Zone: ὀνομαστή in the Orpheus legend, for example, though not actually named in that connexion in extant literature (Verg. G. 4. 520 is the nearest reference).
Κικόνων: cc. 108, 110 infra.
κατασχεῖν: 6. 101. τὰς ϝέας ἀνέψυχον ἀνελκύσαντες: as though the vessels had been some time in the water: for the operation cp. Xenoph. Hell. 1. 5. 10.
ἀριθμὸν ἐποιέετο: cp. ἐποίεε ταῦτα l. supra. Hdt. by the middle voice here puts the agency one step further off.
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