Histories by Herodotus
English translation: G. C. Macaulay
(pub. Macmillan, London and NY) [1890]

Volume 2 - BOOK VII.
The Seventh Book Of The Histories, Called Polymnia - Herodotus


119 (return)
[ {teikheon kithones}, a poetical expression, quoted perhaps from some oracle; and if so, {kithon} may here have the Epic sense of a "coat of mail," equivalent to {thorex} in i. 181: see ch. 61, note 56.]

120 (return)
[ {to megaron}.]

121 (return)
[ The form of address changes abruptly to the singular number, referring to the Athenian people.]

122 (return)
[ {azela}, probably for {aionla}, which has been proposed as a correction: or possibly "wretched."]

123 (return)
[ {oxus Ares}.]

124 (return)
[ i.e. Assyrian, cp. ch. 63.]

125 (return)
[ {min}, i.e. the city, to which belong the head, feet, and body which have been mentioned.]

126 (return)
[ {kakois d' epikidnate thumon}: this might perhaps mean (as it is taken by several Editors), "show a courageous soul in your troubles," but that would hardly suit with the discouraging tone of the context.]

127 (return)
[ {onax}, cp. iv. 15.]

128 (return)
[ {ouros}: the word might of course be for {oros}, "mountain," and {Kekropos ouros} would then mean the Acropolis (so it is understood by Stein and others), but the combination with Kithairon makes it probable that the reference is to the boundaries of Attica, and this seems more in accordance with the reference to it in viii. 53.]

129 (return)
[ {Demeteros}.]

130 (return)
[ {sustas}, "having been joined" cp. viii. 142.]

131 (return)
[ {ton peri ten Ellada Ellenon ta ameino phroneonton}: the MSS. have {ton} also after {Ellenon}, which would mean "those of the Hellenes in Hellas itself, who were of the better mind;" but the expression {ton ta ameino phroneouseon peri ten Ellada} occurs in ch. 172: Some Editors omit {Ellenon} as well as {ton}.]

132 (return)
[ {egkekremenoi} (from {egkerannumi}, cp. v. 124), a conjectural emendation (by Reiske) of {egkekhremenoi}. Others have conjectured {egkekheiremenoi} or {egegermenoi}.]

133 (return)
[ {te ge alle}: many Editors adopt the conjecture {tede alle} "is like the following, which he expressed on another occasion."]

134 (return)
[ See vi. 77: This calamity had occurred about fourteen years before, and it was not in order to recover from this that the Argives wished now for a thirty years' truce; but warned by this they desired (they said) to guard against the consequence of a similar disaster in fighting with the Persians, against whom, according to their own account, they were going to defend themselves independently. So great was their fear of this that, "though fearing the oracle," they were willing to disobey it on certain conditions.]

135 (return)
[ {probalaion}, cp. {probolous}, ch. 76.]

136 (return)
[ {es tous pleunas}.]

137 (return)
[ Cp. v. 53.]

138 (return)
[ {ethelousi}: this is omitted in most of the MSS., but contained in several of the best. Many Editors have omitted it.]

139 (return)
[ {ta oikeia kaka} seems to mean the grievances which each has against his neighbours, "if all the nations of men should bring together into one place their own grievances against their neighbours, desiring to make a settlement with them, each people, when they had examined closely the grievances of others against themselves, would gladly carry away back with them those which they had brought," judging that they had offended others more than they had suffered themselves.]

140 (return)
[ {oiketor o en Gele}: some Editors read by conjecture {oiketor eon Geles}, others {oiketor en Gele}.]

141 (return)
[ {iropsantai ton khthonion theon}: cp. vi. 134.]

142 (return)
[ i.e. by direct inspiration.]

143 (return)
[ {en dorupsoros}: the MSS. have {os en dorupsoros}. Some Editors mark a lacuna.]

144 (return)
[ {gamorous}, the name given to the highest class of citizens.]

145 (return)
[ Or, "Killyrians." They were conquered Sicanians, in the position of the Spartan Helots.]

146 (return)
[ {pakheas}: cp. v. 30.]

147 (return)
[ {gar}: inserted conjecturally by many Editors.]

148 (return)
[ See v. 46.]

149 (return)
[ {e ke meg oimexeie}, the beginning of a Homeric hexameter, cp. Il. vii. 125.]

150 (return)
[ Or, "since your speech is so adverse."]

151 (return)
[ See Il. ii. 552.]

152 (return)
[ Some Editors mark this explanation "Now this is the meaning— year," as interpolated.]

153 (return)
[ {purannida}.]

154 (return)
[ {es meson Kooisi katatheis ten arkhen}.]

155 (return)
[ {para Samion}: this is the reading of the best MSS.: others have {meta Samion}, "together with the Samians," which is adopted by many Editors. There can be little doubt however that the Skythes mentioned in vi. 23 was the father of this Cadmos, and we know from Thuc. vi. 4 that the Samians were deprived of the town soon after they had taken it, by Anaxilaos, who gave it the name of Messene, and no doubt put Cadmos in possession of it, as the son of the former king.]

156 (return)
[ Cp. ch. 154.]

157 (return)
[ i.e. 300,000.]

159 (return)
[ The MSS. add either {os Karkhedonioi}, or {os Karkhedonioi kai Surekosioi}, but the testimony of the Carthaginians has just been given, {os Phoinikes legousi}, and the Syracusans professed to be unable to discover anything of him at all. Most of the Editors omit or alter the words.]

160 (return)
[ {epimemphesthe}: some Editors have tried corrections, e.g. {ou ti memnesthe}, "do ye not remember," or {epimemnesthe}, "remember"; but cp. viii. 106, {oste se me mempsasthai ten... diken}.]

161 (return)
[ {osa umin... Minos epempse menion dakrumata}. The oracle would seem to have been in iambic verse.]

162 (return)
[ {parentheke}.]

163 (return)
[ {ou boulomenoi}, apparently equivalent to {me boulemenoi}.]

164 (return)
[ Cp. viii. 111.]

165 (return)
[ i.e. the six commanders of divisions {morai} in the Spartan army.]

166 (return)
[ {mia}: for this most MSS. have {ama}. Perhaps the true reading is {ama mia}.]

167 (return)
[ {amaxitos moune}, cp. ch. 200.]

168 (return)
[ {Khutrous}.]

169 (return)
[ {ton epibateon autes}.]

170 (return)
[ {emeroskopous}: perhaps simply "scouts," cp. ch. 219, by which it would seem that they were at their posts by night also, though naturally they would not see much except by day.]

171 (return)
[ i.e. "Ant."]

172 (return)
[ {autoi}.]

173 (return)
[ i.e. 241,400.]

174 (return)
[ {epebateuon}.]

175 (return)
[ 36,210.]

176 (return)
[ {o ti pleon en auton e elasson}. In ch. 97, which is referred to just above, these ships are stated to have been of many different kinds, and not only fifty-oared galleys.]

177 (return)
[ 240,000.]

178 (return)
[ 517,610.]

179 (return)
[ 1,700,000: see ch. 60.]

180 (return)
[ 80,000.]

181 (return)
[ 2,317,610.]

182 (return)
[ {dokesin de dei legein}.]

183 (return)
[ Some MSS. have {Ainienes} for {Enienes}.]

184 (return)
[ 300,000.]

185 (return)
[ 2,641,610.]

186 (return)
[ {tou makhimou toutou}.]

187 (return)
[ {akatoisi}.]

188 (return)
[ 5,283,220.]

189 (return)
[ {khoinika}, the usual daily allowance.]

190 (return)
[ The {medimnos} is about a bushel and a half, and is equal to 48 {khoinikes}. The reckoning here of 110,340 {medimnoi} is wrong, owing apparently to the setting down of some numbers in the quotient which were in fact part of the dividend.]

191 (return)
[ {prokrossai ormeonto es ponton}: the meaning of {prokrossai} is doubtful, but the introduction of the word is probably due to a reminiscence of Homer, Il. xiv. 35, where the ships are described as drawn up in rows one behind the other on shore, and where {prokrossas} is often explained to mean {klimakedon}, i.e. either in steps one behind the other owing to the rise of the beach, or in the arrangement of the quincunx. Probably in this passage the idea is rather of the prows projecting in rows like battlements {krossai}, and this is the sense in which the word is used by Herodotus elsewhere (iv. 152). The word {krossai} however is used for the successively rising stages of the pyramids (ii. 125), and {prokrossos} may mean simply "in a row," or "one behind the other," which would suit all passages in which it occurs, and would explain the expression {prokrossoi pheromenoi epi ton kindunon}, quoted by Athenæus.]

192 (return)
[ {apeliotes}. Evidently, from its name {Ellespontias} and from its being afterwards called {Boreas}, it was actually a North-East Wind.]

193 (return)
[ i.e. "Ovens."]

194 (return)
[ {exebrassonto}.]

195 (return)
[ {thesaurous}.]

196 (return)
[ The word {khrusea}, "of gold," is omitted by some Editors.]

197 (return)
[ "in his case also {kai touton} there was an unpleasing misfortune of the slaying of a child {paidophonos} which troubled him," i.e. he like others had misfortunes to temper his prosperity.]

198 (return)
[ {goesi}, (from a supposed word {goe}): a correction of {geosi}, "by enchanters," which is retained by Stein. Some read {khoesi}, "with libations," others {boesi}, "with cries."]

199 (return)
[ {aphesein}, whence the name {Aphetai} was supposed to be derived.]

19901 (return)
[ Or, "had crucified... having convicted him of the following charge, namely," etc. Cp. iii. 35 (end).]

200 (return)
[ {tritaios}. According to the usual meaning of the word the sense should be "on the third day after" entering Thessaly, but the distance was much greater than a two-days' march.]

201 (return)
[ i.e. "the Devourer."]

202 (return)
[ {Prutaneiou}, "Hall of the Magistrates."]

203 (return)
[ {leiton}.]

204 (return)
[ {estellonto}: many Editors, following inferior MSS., read {eselthontes} and make changes in the rest of the sentence.]

205 (return)
[ Some MSS. have {Ainienon} for {Enienon}.]

206 (return)
[ {stadion}.]

207 (return)
[ {diskhilia te gar kai dismuria plethra tou pediou esti}. If the text is right, the {plethron} must here be a measure of area. The amount will then be about 5000 acres.]

208 (return)
[ {mekhri Trekhinos}, "up to Trachis," which was the Southern limit.]

209 (return)
[ {to epi tautes tes epeirou}. I take {to epi tautes} to be an adverbial expression like {tes eteres} in ch. 36, for I cannot think that the rendering "towards this continent" is satisfactory.]

210 (return)
[ See v. 45.]

211 (return)
[ {tous katesteotas}. There is a reference to the body of 300 so called {ippeis} (cp. i. 67), who were appointed to accompany the king in war; but we must suppose that on special occasions the king made up this appointed number by selection, and that in this case those were preferred who had sons to keep up the family. Others (including Grote) understand {tous katesteotas} to mean "men of mature age."]

212 (return)
[ {ton Pulagoron}.]

213 (return)
[ {es ten Pulaien}.]

214 (return)
[ An indication that the historian intended to carry his work further than the year 479.]

215 (return)
[ See ch. 83.]

216 (return)
[ {ek te tosou de katededekto eousa ouden khreste Melieusi}, i.e. {e esbole}.]

217 (return)
[ {Melampugon}.]

218 (return)
[ Lit. "had set out to go at first."]

219 (return)
[ Lit. "and afterwards deserters were they who reported."]

220 (return)
[ {diakrithentes}.]

221 (return)
[ {taute kai mallon te gnome pleistos eimi}.]

222 (return)
[ i.e. the Persian.]

223 (return)
[ {prin tond eteron dia panta dasetai}: i.e. either the city or the king.]

224 (return)
[ {mounon Spartieteon}: some Editors (following Plutarch) read {mounon Spartieteon}, "lay up for the Spartans glory above all other nations."]

225 (return)
[ {to men gar eruma tou teikheos ephulasseto, oi de k.t.l.}]

226 (return)
[ i.e. the Lacedemonians.]

227 (return)
[ {izonto epi ton kolonon}.]

228 (return)
[ Some Editors insert {tous} after {e}, "before those who were sent away by Leonidas had departed."]

229 (return)
[ {remasi}.]

230 (return)
[ {leipopsukheonta}, a word which refers properly to bodily weakness. It has been proposed to read {philopsukheonta}, "loving his life," cp. vi. 29.]

231 (return)
[ {algesanta}: some good MSS. have {alogesanta}, which is adopted by Stein, "had in his ill-reckoning returned alone."]

232 (return)
[ {tes autes ekhomenou prophasios}.]

233 (return)
[ {atimien}.]

234 (return)
[ {o tresas}.]

235 (return)
[ Thuc. ii. 2 ff.]

236 (return)
[ {tas diexodous ton bouleumaton}, cp. iii. 156.]

237 (return)
[ {ton vees k.t.l.}: some Editors insert {ek} before {ton}, "by which four hundred ships have suffered shipwreck."]

238 (return)
[ {ta seoutou de tithemenos eu gnomen ekho}: for {ekho} some inferior MSS. have {ekhe}, which is adopted by several Editors, "Rather set thy affairs in good order and determine not to consider," etc.]

239 (return)
[ {to pareon troma}, i.e. their defeat.]

240 (return)
[ {kai esti dusmenes te sige}. Some commentators understand {te sige} to mean "secretly," like {sige}, viii. 74.]

241 (return)
[ See ch. 220.]

242 (return)
[ Many Editors pronounce the last chapter to be an interpolation, but perhaps with hardly sufficient reason.]