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

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τό τε ἔαρ γινόμενον κτλ., ‘the approach of spring, and the presence of Mardonios in Thessaly’ (cp. c. 113 supra, 133 infra). ἤγειρε, excitabat: not yet sufficiently, however, to bring an army together; it was only the ships which were under way. Aigina is the port of rendezvous; the fleet is counted at 110; its composition and the provenience of the various contingents are left as matters of inference and conjecture, no less than the respective numbers of Ionian and other vessels in the Persian fleet at Samos, c. 130 supra.

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στρατηγὸς δὲ καὶ ναύαρχος, ‘commander-in-chief and navarch’ (primarily a Spartan title?). Cp. cc. 2 (στρατηγός） and 42 (ναύαρχος). The investment of a king with the ‘navarchy’ is remarkable: barring Pausanias, the Regent, such a commission is unparalleled in the fifth century B.C. After the ὕβρις of Pausanias (c. 3 supra) there is a long interval to the appointment of Agesilaos in 395-94 B.C., Xenoph. Hell. 3. 4. 27, and Agesilaos appointed a deputy.

Λευτυχίδης: Leotychidas here introduced with an immense flourish of trumpets is an old acquaintance, as the work now stands; cp. 6. 71 etc. However weak the argument from the patronymic, the two Herakleid pedigrees in these Books must be regarded as good evidence of the earlier composition of Bks. 7-9. It seems very unlikely that Hdt. would have reserved these pedigrees throughout his work for the sake of especially glorifying Leonidas and Leotychidas at the end, the latter of whom had little claim to any special honour. The pedigree of Leotychidas is interesting as proving the distinction between generations and reigns, owing to the especial circumstances of the succession in his case: one has to go back eight generations (inclusive) from Leotychidas to find the king (Theopompos, 13th from Herakles) whose eight ancestors are all kings of Sparta.

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Μενάρεος: Menares (6. 65, 71), the 20th from Herakles, belongs apparently to the same ‘generation’ as Demaratos the son of Ariston, whose complete pedigree is recoverable from Pausanias, 3. 7, and the antecedent names in the two Eurypontid pedigrees run back in pairs, neck and neck, to Theopompos.

Ἡγησίλεω: this Hegesileos (Agesilas, Agesilaos) appears in 6. 65 supra as Agis, which may be regarded as the hypokoristic, or diminutive, but shows the independence of Hdt.'s sources, and how little he is at pains to harmonize them. This Agesilas is 19th from Herakles, and corresponds with Ariston in the pedigree of Damaratos (7. 3 supra, etc.).

Ἱπποκρατίδεω. An Hippokratidas is credited in Plutarch (Mor. 222) with a couple of apophthegms, but as one is addressed to a satrap of Karia, its author can hardly be this man. Names compounded with ἱππο- are not common in Sparta, where ἱπποτροφία was comparatively rare; cp. c. 124 supra. Hippokratidas, as 18th from Herakles, ranges with Agesikles in the parallel pedigree.

Λευτυχίδεω: Leotychidas ὁ πρῶτος is distinguished by Plutarch (Mor. 224) from Leotyehidas son of Ariston (sic), and credited with four smart apophthegms (on Opportunism, Economics, Education, Sobriety). Leotychidas is 17th from Herakles, ranging with Archidamos I. (On the form of the name Λευ- = Λεω- [Λα-?] cp. Weir Smyth, § 287, p. 254.)

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Ἀναξίλεω. This Anaxilas, the 16th from Herakles (=Anaxidamos in the parallel line), may be the author of the apophthegm preserved in Plutarch Mor. 217 on the Ephoralty, and might just possibly be identified with the man who sat in judgement on the AthenoMegarean question, Plutarch Solon 10. The name was not common at Sparta, and was never borne by a king; the Anaxilaos of Xenoph. Hell. 1. 3. 19 is Βυζάντιος καὶ οὐ Λακεδαιμόνιος.

Ἀρχιδήμου. Archidamos, the 15th from Herakles in the pedigree of Menares (=Zeuxidamos in the parallel list), bears a name which was not uncommon in the reigning house of Eurypontids (Prokleids), though never borne by an Agid (Eurysthenid) king. Thus this grandson of Theopompos may have been named from his uncle (through whom the sceptre descended), and no less than five kings in all bore the name, of whom the best known was Hdt.'s contemporary, who succeeded Leotychidas.

Ἀναξανδρίδεω: the name Anaxandridas is familiar as that of the (15th) Agid king, son of Leon, and father of Kleomenes, as of Dorreus, Leonidas, and Kleombrotos; cp. 7. 204 supra. This Anaxandridas, 14th in descent from Herakles, is not otherwise known to fame than as the founder of the cadet branch of the Eurypontids (Prokleids). His name corresponds with that of his brother Archidamos in the now elder branch of the House. This Archidamos was never king; Theopompos was succeeded by his grandson Zeuxidamos (Pausan. 3. 7. 5). It is rather odd that the Eurypontid (Prokleid) succession in the eighth century B.C. should thus anticipate, with so nice a difference, the succession in the fifth century B.C., when Zeuxidamos, son of Leotychidas, predeceased his father, leaving an Archidamos to succeed; cp. 6. 71 supra; the story preserved in Pausanias looks like fiction modelled on the facts of the fifth century. The Eurypontid line of kings would seem to be longer-lived, or longerreigned, than the Agid, for Leotychidas is but the 16th king, and in the 16th generation, from Aristodamos, while Leonidas is the 18th king in the elder House; and this discrepancy is rather increased than diminished subsequently; but then the lists of kings, and even the genealogies, are not above suspicion. With Hdt. Leonidas and Leotychidas are in the same generation (21st) from Herakles.

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Θεοπόμπου: on Hdt.'s own showing (see below) Theopompos is the 9th king of Sparta (Aristodamos included), and the 13th generation from Herakles included, corresponding to Teleklos in the pedigree of Leonidas, 7. 204 supra. This is the only passage in which the name of this king—of whom later writers have so much to tell us—occurs in the work of Hdt. A great external crisis, the ‘first’ Messenian war (Pausan. 4. 4. 3), and a great internal development, the institution of the Ephors (Aristot. Pol. 8. 11. 2=1313 A), were dated to his reign. The story of the Messenian wars is virtually a lost chapter in Spartan history to Hdt (cp. 3 47, the sole articulate reference in the work): the Ephoralty he expressly ascribes to Lykourgos, 1. 65. The importance of King Theopompos dates apparently from the Delphic researches of the (Agid) King Pausanias early in the fourth century B.C. Cp. Ed. Meyer, Forschungen, 1. (1892) 211 ff.

Νικάνδρου: Nikandros is 8th king in Sparta and 12th descendant of Herakles (corresponding thereby to Archelaos in the pedigree of Leonidas, 7. 204 supra). The later writers have something to say of him: Plutarch Mor. 250 records three apophthegms (one of them addressed to an Athenian, and assuredly not earlier than the fifth century); Pausanias 2 36. 5, 3. 7. 4 associates his name especially with the invasion of Argolis.

Χαρίλεω: Charilaos is 7th king of Sparta, and 11th descendant of Herakles (corresponding thereby to Agesilaos in the pedigree of Leonidas, 7. 204 supra). The name appears in the Politics of Aristotle in two forms, Χάριλλος (2. 10. 2=1271 B) and Χαρίλαος (8. 12. 12=1316 A); and later tradition had something to say of him, making him out a ‘tyrant,’ yet also the nephew and ward of Lykourgos, and associated in his Reforms (Plutarch Lykourg. 5). This latter point is in direct conlict with Hdt. 1. 65, where Lykourgos appears associated with the elder House, two (or, as the Greeks would have said, three) generations earlier. Pausanias (2. 36. 5, 3 7. 3, 4. 4. 3), who gives the father's name as Polydektes (not Eunomos), reversing the Herodotean order, represents Charillos as engaged in war especially with Argos and with Tegea (ll c.), and as taken prisoner by the Tegeatai (8. 5. 6) but liberated after swearing that the Lakedaimonians should never again invade Argolis, an oath soon broken (8. 48. 5). Hdt. can hardly have been acquainted with this story (obviously an Argive tale) when he wrote 1. 66.

Εὐνόμου: Eunomos is 6th king of Sparta and 10th descendant of Herakles, corresponding thereby with Doryssos in the pedigree of Leonidas, 7. 204 supra; his name is perhaps suspiciously significant, coming about the time of Lykourgos, and none the less so in view of the Εὐνομία of Tyrtaios (Aristot. Pol. 8. 7. 3=1306 B), and the fact that Lykourgos was made his son, in the fourth century theory (cp. Plutarch Lykourg. 2): but the name is not an uncommon one in the historical period (e.g. Xenoph. Hell. 5. 1. 5). More suspicious is the fact that the lists followed by Pausanias reversed the order of the names Eunomos and Polydektes, and that even Pausanias has nothing to tell us of Eunomos but that he was son of Prytanis, and that in his reign, and in his son's, ‘the land had rest,’ “ἐν εἰρήνῃ διετέλεσεν οὖσα ἡ Σπάρτη” (3. 7. 2). According to Plutarch (l.c. supra) he came to a violent end, being struck down with a cleaver, in the praiseworthy attempt to terminate a brawl.

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Πολυδέκτεω: Polydektes is the 5th king of Sparta and the 9th descendant of Herakles, corresponding thereby with Labotas in the pedigree of Leonidas, 7. 204 supra. Curiously enough, the name Polydektes is otherwise only associated with mythical characters, viz (1) as an epithet of Hades, Hymn to Demeter, 9; (2) as king of Seriphos, son of Magnes, brother of Dictys, changed into a stone, Pindar, Pyth. 12. 24, Pausan. 1. 22. 7, Arrian, Anab. 3. 3. 1 etc.

Πρυτάνιος: Prytanis is the 4th king in Sparta, and the 8th descendant of Herakles: corresponding thereby with Echestratos in the pedigree of Leonidas, 7. 204 supra. The name is of course significant, and as a magisterial title (though not apparently in actual use at Sparta) somewhat suspicious; but historical examples of its use as a proper name are forthcoming (the earliest, a Lykian, Iliad 5. 678, also a boxer from Kyzikos, Pausan 5 21. 3, and others). The statement of Pausan. 3. 7. 2 that the quarrel between Sparta and Argos began in his reign is worth very little, even if it be not contradicted by the next words, that the Spartans had previously made war on the Kynurians.

τοῦ Εὐρυφῶντος: the aspirate in the word is observable; the usual form is Εὐρυπῶν, for which the variant Εὐρυτίων (a more intelligible proper name) occurs, as in Plutarch Lykourg. 2 where Valckenaer's emendation Εὐρυπῶντα (and Εὐρυπωντίδας) is now accepted. (So too in Polyain. 2. 13.) This Eurypon is 3rd king in Sparta, and 7th descendant of Herakles, corresponding thereby with Agis, in the pedigree of Leonidas, 7. 204 supra. Pausanias (3. 7. 1) only tells us of him that he attained such glory that the House was called Eurypontidai after him, Προκλείδας ἐς ἐκεῖνον καλουμένους. Plutarch Lykourg. 2 gives as the reason, ὅτι δοκεῖ πρῶτος Εὐρυπῶν τὸ ἄγαν μοναρχικὸν (sic) ἀνεῖναι τῆς βασιλείας, δημαγωγῶν καὶ χαριζόμενος τοῖς πολλοῖς. That speculation might provoke further speculation: was it really Eurypon who established the ‘younger’ House, or obtained recognition for it, in the constitution of Sparta, the dual royalty only dating from his day? Polyainos (l.c. supra) has a strange story of the ruse by which Eurypon obtained possession of the city of Mantineia for the Lakedaimonians, a story which suffers under a double anachrouism, in crediting Mantineia with a democracy, and the democracy with surrendering the city to Eurypon.

Stein2 wished to insert τοῦ Σόου after Εὐρυφῶντος. This project was for the purpose of harmonizing Hdt. with Pausanias and with himself (1. 65, 67), as Stein5 avers. But in reality it would have the effect of dislocating Hdt. himself, whose pedigrees of the two Houses correspond generation by generation, and king for king, as above shown. Hdt. is plainly of a different opinion to Pausanias, 3. 1. 7, in regard to the correspondences.

Πρόκλεος: the 2nd king in Sparta (reckoning Aristodemos), the 6th descendant of Herakles, the twinbrother of Eurysthenes, and the apparent, though not the nominal founder, not the Eponym, of the younger House; cp. previous note. With Prokles we pass on to ground already familiar, cp. 6. 52, 4. 147 supra. The legend of the twins is, of course, an aetiological fiction. Pausanias has nothing to add to the stories in Hdt., but Polyainos again (1. 10) opposes the ‘Herakleid’ Prokles to the ‘Eurystheids’ who were in possession of Sparta, and has him win a victory over them, thanks to his pipers. This sporadic tradition is perhaps the most suggestive, the most historic-looking fossil, in the legendary records of Sparta. The name Prokles is borne by many historical personages, cp. 3. 50 (au Epidaurian), Xenoph. Hell. 3. 1. 6 (cp. note to Hdt. 6. 70), 6. 5. 38 (a Phleiasian) etc.

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Ἀριστοδήμου: with this name the dual pedigree, and the dual royalty, cease; Aristodemos is monarch, in or out of Sparta, and 5th descendant of Herakles; cp. note to 7. 204 supra. It is possible that Aristodemos is a genuine ancestor in the pedigree of the ‘younger,’ the true Herakleid, and perhaps Dorian, House: the legend of the Twins has inserted him also as ancestor of the Agid, i.e. Eurysthenid or Eurystheid, House, which was already in possession, and with him his legendary ancestors Kleodaios, Hyllos, Herakles. On these names see further notes to 7. 204 supra; and on the still earlier and mythological stages of the pedigree, 6. 53 f.

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τῆς ἑτέρης οἰκίης τῶν βασιλέων: these words appear to contain an implicit reference back to the pedigree of the other House in 7. 204 supra. Such references imply the solidarity of these three Books.

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πλὴν τῶν ἑπτὰ τῶν μετὰ Λ. πρώτων: ἑπτά is a certain emendation; cp. App Crit. Hdt. might seem to have fallen into the vulgarism ‘seven first’ instead of ‘first seven’; but πρώτων is to be taken predicatively with καταλεχθέντων. It is a material inaccuracy to reckon the heroes before Aristodemos as ‘kings of Sparta,’ unless indeed Hdt. means titular or pretendant; but he should not be charged with reckoning ‘Archidemos son of Theopompos,’ who predeceased his father, among the βασιλέες Σπάρτης (Stein5). Hdt. nowhere even mentions him. Cp. note p. 561b supra.

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Ξάνθιππος ὁ Ἀρίφρονος: the patronymic, though he has been mentioned 7. 33 supra, is not surprising, even if that passage be not of later insertion; cp. 6. 131, 136. Xanthippos was one of the returned exiles, cp. c. 79 supra, and may, like Aristeides, have already been elected one of the Strategoi for 480-79 B.C.