The history of Herodotus - Volume 2, Herodotus [book recommendations txt] 📗

/> 30. {entos Makedonon}, "on their side of the Macedonians."

30a. Or (according to some MSS.) "about three hundred."

31. Or "Scaptesyle." (The Medicean MS. however has {skaptes ules}, not
{skaptesules}, as reported by Stein.)

32. {ta proiskheto aiteon}, "that which he put forward demanding it."

33. i.e. "ram."

34. {ton geraiteron}.

35. {en to demosio}.

36. This is commonly understood to mean, leaving out of account the
god who was father of Perseus; but the reason for stopping short
at Perseus is given afterwards, and the expression {tou theou
apeontos} refers perhaps rather to the case of Heracles, the
legend of whose birth is rejected by Herodotus (see ii. 43), and
rejected also by this genealogy, which passes through Amphitryon
up to Perseus. I take it that {tou theou apeontos} means
"reckoning Heracles" (who is mentioned by name just below in this
connexion) "as the son of Amphitryon and not of Zeus."

37. i.e. "of heaven."

38. {medimnon}, the Lacedemonian {medimnos} being equal to rather more
than two bushels.

39. {tetarten Lakomiken}, quantity uncertain.

40. {proxeinous}.

41. {khoinikas}. There were 48 {khoinikes} in the {medimnos}.

42. {kotulen}.

42a. The loose manner in which this is expressed, leaving it uncertain
whether each king was supposed by the writer to have two votes
given for him (cp. Thuc. i. 20), or whether the double vote was
one for each king, must of course be reproduced in the
translation.

43. {perioikon}.

44. See ch. 51.

45. {proergazomenon}: a conjectural emendation of {prosergazomenon}.

46. {tes apates te paragoge}, "by the misleading of the deception."

47. i.e. lunar months.

48. {en thoko katemeno}.

49. {pandemei}.

50. {aren}.

51. i.e. "prayed for by the people."

52. {di a}: a conjectural emendation of {dia ta}. Some Editors suppose
that other words have dropped out.

53. {promantin}: cp. vii. III.

54. {ton splagkhnon}.

55. {tou erkeiou}.

56. {ton mataioteron logon legontes}.

57. Lit. "on the third night after the first," but the meaning is as
given.

58. Most of the MSS. have "Astrobacos," which may be right.

59. Or "to the honour of the Lacedemonians."

60. i.e. any more than his predecessor.

61. See ch. 50.

62. {neotera epresse pregmata}.

63. {up Arkadon}: several good MSS. have {ton Arkadon}, which is
adopted by some Editors. The meaning would be "near this city it
is said that there is the Styx water of the Arcadians."

64. {upomargoteron}.

65. Demeter and Core.

66. The MSS. give also "Sepeia" and "Sipeia." The place is not
elsewhere mentioned.

67. See ch. 19.

68. {duo mneai}: cp. v. 77.

69. {o theos}, i.e. Hera: cp. i. 105.

70. {kalliereumeno}.

71. {kat akres}: cp. ch. 18.

72. i.e. was acquitted of the charge brought against him.

73. {episkuthison}.

74. {bouleuesthe}: some MSS. and editions have {boulesthe},
"desiring."

75. {en khrono ikneumeno}.

76. i.e. take an oath to that effect.

77. See v. 80.

78. {penteteris}. The reading {penteres}, which is given by most of
the MSS. and by several Editors, can hardly be defended.

79. {kai en gar}, "and since there was."

80. {Knoithou kaleomenos}: cp. vii. 143.

81. {thesmophorou}.

82. {pentaethlon epaskesas}.

83. {mounomakhien epaskeon}, "practising single combat," as if
training for the games.

84. {para te Ikarion}: the use of {para} and the absence of the
article may justify the conjecture {para te Ikarion} (or {Ikaron})
"by Icaria" (or "Icaros"), the island from which the Icarian Sea
had its name.

85. This perhaps should be emended, for the event referred to occurred
two years before, cp. ch. 46 and 48. The reading {trito proteron
etei} has been proposed.

86. See v. 33 ff.

86a. i.e. Apollo: or perhaps more generally, "God," as in ch. 27.

87. This in brackets is probably an interpolation. It is omitted by
some of the best MSS. Some Editors suspect the genuineness of the
next four lines also, on internal grounds.

88. {erxies}, perhaps meaning "worker."

89. {areios}.

90. {megas areios}.

91. {ippoboteon}, lit. "horse-breeding": see v. 77.

91a. Or (according to some MSS.), "having come to shore at these
places."

92. {katergontes}: the word is not elsewhere found intransitive, yet
it is rather difficult to supply {tous Athenaious}. Some
alterations have been proposed, but none probable.

93. Lit. "and it happened that in winning this victory he won the same
victory as his half-brother Miltiades." See ch. 36.

94. Or, according to some authorities, "Philippides."

95. Lit. "except the circle were full."

96. Or "Aigileia."

97. Lit. "by violence, having coughed."

98. "by the bean."

99. {es se toi}, a conjectural emendation of {es se ti}.

100. {prutaneie tes emeres}.

101. Some Editors propose to omit {gar} or alter it. If it be allowed
to stand, the meaning must be that the importance of the place is
testified by the commemoration mentioned.

102. {es tas panegurias}, some MSS. have {kai panegurias}, "hold
sacrifices and solemn assemblies."

103. {penteterisi}.

104. Lit. "the good things."

105. {stadioi}: the distance would be rather over 1600 yards.

106. Whether this is thrown in here by the historian as an explanation
of the rapid advance, or as an additional source of wonder on the
part of the Persians at the boldness of the Athenians, is not
clear.

107. Or (according to some MSS.) "having taken hold."

108. The account of how the oil was dealt with has perhaps dropt out:
one MS. and the Aldine edition have "the oil they collect in
vessels, and this," etc.

109. This chapter is omitted by several of the best MSS., and is
almost certainly an interpolation. (In the Medicean MS. it has
been added in the margin by a later hand.)

110. Answering to "Callias for his part" at the end of ch. 121, the
connexion being broken by the interpolated passage.

111. {ouden esson}.

112. {patre}, "family," or possibly "country," as in ch. 128.

113. {to legomeno es to meson}: perhaps only "general conversation."

114. {katekhon pollon tous allous}.

115. i.e. "though the dancing may be good."

116. {aponostesein}: some MSS. have {apanastesein}, "he would not take
away his army thence."

117. {upozakoron}.

118. {ton khthonion theon}, i.e. Demeter and Persephone: cp. vii. 153.

119. {thesmophorou}.

120. {to megaron}.

121. {sphi autoi}: a conjectural rendering of {sphisi autoisi}, which
can only be taken with {eousan}, meaning "belonging to them" i.e.
the Athenians, and involves the insertion of {Pelasgoisi} or
something equivalent with {edosan}.

122. {ktesamenoi}: some MSS. and editions have {stesamenoi}, "set
fifty-oared galleys in place."


BOOK VII

THE SEVENTH BOOK OF THE HISTORIES, CALLED POLYMNIA

1. Now when the report came to Dareios the son of Hystaspes of the battle which was fought at Marathon, the king, who even before this had been greatly exasperated with the Athenians on account of the attack made upon Sardis, then far more than before displayed indignation, and was far more desirous of making a march against Hellas. Accordingly at once he sent messengers to the various cities and ordered that they should get ready a force, appointing to each people to supply much more than at the former time, and not only ships of war, but also horses and provisions and transport vessels;[1] and when these commands were carried round, all Asia was moved for three years, for all the best men were being enlisted for the expedition against Hellas, and were making preparations. In the fourth year however the Egyptians, who had been reduced to subjection by Cambyses, revolted from the Persians; and then he was even more desirous of marching against both these nations.

2. While Dareios was thus preparing to set out against Egypt and against Athens, there arose a great strife among his sons about the supreme power; and they said that he must not make his expeditions until he had designated one of them to be king, according to the custom of the Persians. For to Dareios already before he became king three sons had been born of his former wife the daughter of Gobryas, and after he became king four other sons of Atossa the daughter of Cyrus: of the first the eldest was Artobazanes, and of those who had been born later, Xerxes. These being not of the same mother were at strife with one another, Artobazanes contending that he was the eldest of all the sons, and that it was a custom maintained by all men that the eldest should have the rule, and Xerxes arguing that he was the son of Atossa the daughter of Cyrus, and that Cyrus was he who had won for the Persians their freedom. 3. Now while Dareios did not as yet declare his judgment, it chanced that Demaratos also, the son of Ariston, had come up to Susa at this very same time, having been deprived of the kingdom in Sparta and having laid upon himself a sentence of exile from Lacedemon. This man, hearing of the difference between the sons of Dareios, came (as it is reported of him) and counselled Xerxes to say in addition to those things which he was wont to say, that he had been born to Dareios at the time when he was already reigning as king and was holding the supreme power over the Persians, while Artobazanes had been born while Dareios was still in a private station: it was not fitting therefore nor just that another should have the honour before him; for even in Sparta, suggested Demaratos, this was the custom, that is to say, if some of the sons had been born first, before their father began to reign, and another came after, born later while he was reigning, the succession of the kingdom belonged to him who had been born later. Xerxes accordingly made use of the suggestion of Demaratos; and Dareios perceiving that he spoke that which was just, designated him to be king. It is my opinion however that even without this suggestion Xerxes would have become king, for Atossa was all-powerful. 4. Then having designated Xerxes to the Persians as their king, Dareios wished to go on his expeditions. However in the next year after this and after the revolt of Egypt, it came to pass that Dareios himself died, having been king in all six-and-thirty years; and thus