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ἦν ταῦτα ... μἑχρι οὗ . . ἔπαυσε: Hdt. apparently forgets that he is going to retain Xerxes at Sardes a good while, cp. 9. 108 infra. This passage again looks as if it might have been borrowed from a scene on the stage. ἦν ταῦτα is a very bald phrase; γενόμενον is a remarkable tense, and an unnecessary sense; Stein suggests γινόμενα.
Μαρδόνιος δέ: this bold analysis of the motives of Mardonios may be compared with the account of the motives of Aristagoras in a somewhat similar situation, 5. 35, Not that the prior passage is of earlier composition, though referring to an earlier date; rather, perhaps, the flight of final verbs there, compared with the procession of participles here, suggests a more accomplished style. Evidently Greek minds were greatly exercised to account for the commission of Mardonios after the Persian defeat at Salamis—reading the situation of September 480 B.C., as they did, too much in the light of after events. ἐκ τῆς ναυμαχίης ... ἐκ τῶν Ἀθ.: the one ἐκ causal, or material, the other purely local; neither temporal.
δρησμὸν βουλεύειν: c. 97 supra. Hdt. somewhat artfully calls Mardonios as a witness for this libel.
δώσει δίκην, ‘he will be called to account . .’; cp c. 114 infra.
καλῶς τελευτῆσαι τὸν βίον ὑπὲρ μεγάλων αἰωρηθέντα: a stately phrase, exactly descriptive of the actual and, as it were, subsequent fate of Mardonios, which is thus prepared with a touch of tragic irony. Mardonios is, indeed, the real hero of the story in these Books; Xerxes is too capricious, too craven, to incur aught but the comic nemesis, which has already begun in c. 99. Cp. Introduction, § 11. αἰωρηθέντα is better taken with βιον, notwithstanding Dionys. H. 5. 27. 2 οὐκ ἀξιῶ λαθεῖν ἅπαντας αἰωρηθεὶς ὑπὲρ μεγάλων.
πλέον ... ἔφερε: an exact parallel, 3. 77 ἐγένετο οἷόν τι Δαρείῳ ἡ γνώμη ἔφερε, ‘just such an event as Dareios was expecting.’ προσέφερε just below is inelegant (an ‘unconscious iteration’), and ὁ τὸ πᾶν φέρων worse still; cp. c. 62 supra.
λυπέο ... ποιεῦ: the force of the middle voice should not be missed, nor the dialectal inconsistency (cp. App. Crit.).
οὐ γὰρ ξύλων κτλ. Mardonios is made, rightly enough, to assert the de facto superiority of the Persian landforces over the Greek, and the sequel justifies his anticipation (i.e. the writer is wise after the event) that no Greek army would venture to stay his regress. But two points are omitted in the argument of Mardonios: (i.) the question of the commissariat, now the fleet was broken; (ii.) the possibility of an attack by the Greeks on the bridges. With the landsman's contempt for ξύλα cp. Thuc. 4. 11. 4 (of Brasidas) ἐβόα λέγων ὡς οὐκ εἰκὸς εἴη ξύλων φειδομένους τοὺς πολεμίους ἐν τῇ χώρᾳ περιιδεῖν τεῖχος πεποιημένους, and Xenoph. Hell. 1. 1. 24 μὴ ἀθυμεῖν ἕνεκα ξύλων (Pharnabazo loq. ref. van H.).
τῶν τὸ πᾶν σφίσι ἤδη δοκεόντων κατεργάσθαι: this is ‘without prejudice,’ and does not describe the attitude of the Greeks as recorded above c. 96. Perhaps the subsequent action—or inaction — of the Greeks provoked the taunt as a legitimate comment on their conduct. But in view of the achievement of Aristeides on Psyttaleia Mardonios could hardly have ventured upon such a remark.
οἵ τε ἡ. ἠν. ἔδοσαν δίκας contains of course a reference to Thermopylai, so notorious a story that even the locality of the affair is taken for granted, and also to the eapture of the Akropolis. But the referenee eould hardly have been made in such unqualified terms.
πειρώμεθα τῆς Π.: the alternative the speaker apparently prefers; yet he does not adopt it next year, when in supreme command—and wisely. He will hardly have proposed it now. εἰ δὲ καί: an alternative lies in δέ, an adversative in καί.
οὐ γὰρ ἔστι ... οὐδεμία ... μὴ οὐ: a simple or primary example of the doubled negative, though ἔκδυσις itself perhaps conveys something of a negation; still, the idiom would equally stand with ὁδός, ἐλπίς, or any purely positive idea. In other words, the cnmulative negation is not attained by any strict caneelling of one negative against another, but is a purely idiomatic result of the sense of accumulation. λόγον δοῦναι here seems a variant for δίκην δοῦναι—and might almost suggest a civil rather than a criminal process!
εἰ δ᾽ ἄρα suggests the more probable alternative: καὶ ἐκ τῶνδε, ‘also suitable to this course’ (Stein). The phrase has been taken to mean vel ex his quomodo tu benc evadas (Baehi), or, simply of time, post haec.
ἐν Πέρσῃσι might mean ‘at home in Persia’—rather a far cry, and what of all Asia, and the rest of the empire? Perhaps the words may be taken in the same sense as the vulgate ἐν τοῖσι Π.: ubi Persae pugnarunt, Baehr, or Persarum culpa, Valckenaer, which is supported by Xerxes' own words c. 101 infra, and indeed by the immediate context here.
ὅκου ἐγενόμεθα, ‘that we Persians in any case proved . .’
Φοίνικες ... Κίλικες: just as in Artemisia's speech c. 68 supra, except that Mardonios substitutes ‘Phoenicians’ for ‘Pamphylians.’ This reproduction is hardly good art or history. A Persian would more probably have spoken ill of the ‘Ionians’; Hdt. voices Greek prejudice. Besides, his account of the battle (cp. c. 90 supra) may have affected his composition of this speech.
οὐδὲν πρὸς Πέρσας ... τὸ πάθος: yet what of the Epibatai? What of the Persians on Psyttaleia? Hdt. in composing this speech for Mardonios has sacrificed historic probability to the ethical interest. Mardonios is ultraPersian: the Persians are four times paraded in half a dozen lines!
ἤθεα τὰ σεωυτοῦ: cp. 4. 76, 80, 5. 14, 15, etc. Persia might be meant, or perhaps Asia, more at large.
ἐμὲ δὲ σοὶ χρή. The proposal put into the mouth of Mardonios is no unreasonable one: he was to get rid (1) of the king, (2) of the mob (τὴν στρατιήν), (3) of the fleet, but to have a large force of picked men wherewith to effect the conquest of Hellas. The dismissal of the fleet was, perhaps, a doubtful expedient, yet probably necessary to cover the Asiatic coast, and to prevent a movement in Ionia, or the larger islands. The figure 300,000 is an over-estimate, unless he retained the whole land-forces, which is improbable. Cp. Appendix II. § 5.
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