NOTES TO BOOK VII
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Herodotus and Macaulay, G. C. (George Campbell)
1 (return) [ {kai ploia}, for transport of horses and also of provisions: however these words are omitted in some of the best MSS.]
2 (return) [ {all ei}: this is the reading of the better class of MSS. The rest have {alla}, which with {pressois} could only express a wish for success, and not an exhortation to action.]
3 (return) [ {outos men oi o logos en timoros}: the words may mean "this manner of discourse was helpful for his purpose."]
4 (return) [ {khresmologon e kai diatheten khresmon ton Mousaiou}.]
5 (return) [ {aphanizoiato}, representing the present tense {aphanizontai} in the oracle.]
6 (return) [ {ton thronon touton}: most MSS. have {ton thronon, touto}.]
7 (return) [ {epistasthe kou pantes}: the MSS. have {ta epistasthe kou pantes}, which is given by most Editors. In that case {oia erxan} would be an exclamation, "What evils they did to us,... things which ye all know well, I think."]
8 (return) [ {touton mentoi eineka}: it is hardly possible here to give {mentoi} its usual meaning: Stein in his latest edition reads {touton men toinun}.]
9 (return) [ {suneneike}: Stein reads {suneneike se}, "supposing that thou art worsted."]
10 (return) [ {ep andri ge eni}, as opposed to a god.]
11 (return) [ {akousesthai tina psemi ton k.t.l.}, "each one of those who are left behind."]
12 (return) [ {kai Kurou}, a conjectural emendation of {tou Kurou}. The text of the MSS. enumerates all these as one continuous line of ascent. It is clear however that the enumeration is in fact of two separate lines, which combine in Teïspes, the line of ascent through the father Dareios being, Dareios, Hystaspes, Arsames, Ariamnes, Teïspes, and through the mother, Atossa, Cyrus, Cambyses, Teïspes.]
13 (return) [ {kai mala}: perhaps, "even."]
1301 (return) [ Lit. "nor is he present who will excuse thee."]
14 (return) [ Lit. "my youth boiled over."]
15 (return) [ Lit. "words more unseemly than was right."]
16 (return) [ {all oude tauta esti o pai theia}.]
17 (return) [ {peplanesthai}.]
18 (return) [ {autai}: a correction of {autai}.]
19 (return) [ {se de epiphoitesei}: the better MSS. have {oude epiphoitesei}, which is adopted by Stein.]
20 (return) [ {pempto de etei anomeno}.]
21 (return) [ {ton Ionion}.]
22 (return) [ {kai oud ei eperai pros tautesi prosgenomenai}: some MSS. read {oud eterai pros tautesi genomenai}, which is adopted (with variations) by some Editors. The meaning would be "not all these, nor others which happened in addition to these, were equal to this one."]
23 (return) [ {ama strateuomenoisi}: {ama} is omitted in some MSS.]
24 (return) [ {stadion}, and so throughout.]
25 (return) [ {entos Sanes}: some MSS. read {ektos Sanes}, which is adopted by Stein, who translates "beyond Sane, but on this side of Mount Athos": this however will not suit the case of all the towns mentioned, e.g. Acrothoon, and {ton Athen} just below clearly means the whole peninsula.]
26 (return) [ {leukolinou}.]
27 (return) [ {ton de on pleiston}: if this reading is right, {siton} must be understood, and some MSS. read {allon} for {alla} in the sentence above. Stein in his latest edition reads {siton} instead of {pleiston}.]
28 (return) [ Lit. "the name of which happens to be Catarractes."]
29 (return) [ i.e. 4,000,000.]
30 (return) [ The {stater dareikos} was of nearly pure gold (cp. iv. 166), weighing about 124 grains.]
3001 (return) [ {stele}, i.e. a square block of stone.]
31 (return) [ {athanato andri}, taken by some to mean one of the body of "Immortals."]
32 (return) [ {akte pakhea}: some inferior MSS. read {akte trakhea}, and hence some Editors have {akte trekhea}, "a rugged foreland."]
33 (return) [ {dolero}: some Editors read {tholero}, "turbid," by conjecture.]
34 (return) [ The meaning is much disputed. I understand Herodotus to state that though the vessels lay of course in the direction of the stream from the Hellespont, that is presenting their prows (or sterns) to the stream, yet this did not mean that they pointed straight towards the Propontis and Euxine; for the stream after passing Sestos runs almost from North to South with even a slight tendency to the East (hence {eurou} a few lines further on), so that ships lying in the stream would point in a line cutting at right angles that of the longer axis (from East to West) of the Pontus and Propontis. This is the meaning of {epikarsios} elsewhere in Herodotus (i. 180 and iv. 101), and it would be rash to assign to it any other meaning here. It is true however that the expression {pros esperes} is used loosely below for the side toward the Egean. For {anakokheue} a subject must probably be supplied from the clause {pentekonterous—sunthentes}, "that it (i.e. the combination of ships) might support etc.," and {ton tonon ton oplon} may either mean as below "the stretched ropes," or "the tension of the ropes," which would be relieved by the support: the latter meaning seems to me preferable.]
Mr. Whitelaw suggests to me that {epikarsios} ({epi kar}) may mean rather "head-foremost," which seems to be its meaning in Homer (Odyss. ix. 70), and from which might be obtained the idea of intersection, one line running straight up against another, which it has in other passages. In that case it would here mean "heading towards the Pontus."]
35 (return) [ {tas men pros tou Pontou tes eteres}. Most commentators would supply {gephures} with {tes eteres}, but evidently both bridges must have been anchored on both sides.]
36 (return) [ {eurou}: Stein adopts the conjecture {zephurou}.]
37 (return) [ {ton pentekonteron kai triereon trikhou}: the MSS. give {ton pentekonteron kai trikhou}, "between the fifty-oared galleys in as many as three places," but it is strange that the fifty-oared galleys should be mentioned alone, and there seems no need of {kai} with {trikhou}. Stein reads {ton pentekonteron kai triereon} (omitting {trikhou} altogether), and this may be right.]