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

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ὡς δὲ ... ἐπορεύετο ὁ στρατός, ἐνθαῦτα ... ἐστὶ αἰγιαλός: a curious confusion of place and time and subjects! Stein cps. 6. 43 ὡς δὲ ... ἀπίκετο ὁ Μαρδόνιος ἐς τὴν Ἰωνίην, ε<*>νθαῦτα μέγιστον θῶμα ε<*>ρέω.

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Ἄργιλον: Steph. B. cites not Hdt. but Thucydides (wrongly Bk. 8), and Favorinus for the city, and adds that ἄργιλος is Thracian for mouse (ὁ μῦς） (cp. Herak. Pont. 42, F.H.G. 2. 224). But this derivation is a little suspicious: the Gk. ἄργος, ἄργιλλα lies nearer. (Cp. Grassberger, Ortsnamen, p. 180). As a Greek city (πόλις Ἑλλάς) Argilos was a colony from Andros Thuc. 4. 103, 109. It appears among the tributaries of Athens with a moderate assessment (1 T. lowered to 1000 Dr.) and figures nominatim with Stagiros, Akanthos, Skolos, Olynthos, in the Peace of Nikias, Thuc. 5. 18. 5. It is not heard of afterwards.

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αὕτη: as αἰγιαλός (a pebbly beach?) is masculine, the word must be taken to refer vaguely to πόλις or Ἄργιλος. ἡ κατύπερθε: sc. χώρα.

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καλέεται Βισαλτίη: of course from the Βισάλται, who in 8. 116 are said to have made themselves scarce on this occasion (a passage evidently from an independent source, cp. note ad l.). They were no doubt a ‘Thrakian’ folk, included in the Makedonian sphere of influence, Thuc. 2. 99. 6. They lived on into Roman times, ‘fortissimi viri,’ Livy, 45. 30.

ἐνθεῦτεν δέ. The natural course from Argilos to Therme would run straight across the neck of the Chalkidic peninsula, past Lake Bolbe: in all probability one corps d'armée on this occasion followed that route, though Hdt. says nothing about it.

κόλπον τὸν ἐπὶ Ποσιδηίου: a bay, cui Neptuni templum imminet, Schweighaeuser. The site of this temple has not been identified. If Poseideion is the promontory south of Stagiros, then the bay would seem to be the one generally called the bay of Akauthos, and Hdt.'s description would be at fault. He has no distinctive name for the water marked on maps as the ‘Strymonicus Sinus’: and it is this whole stretch of water generally that he may here wish to denote.

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διὰ Συλέος πεδίου. nowhere else mentioned; but Thuc. 4. 103 speaks of an αὐλών through which the lake Βόλβη found its way to the sea (Baehr): and Stein accepts the suggestion. Syleus (cp. συλέειν, συλᾶν), a son of Poseid on, was slain by Herakles for inhospitality: Apollod. 2. 6. 3.

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Στάγιρον: a colony of the Andrians, Thuc. 4. 88. 2; paying 1000 Dr. tribute to Athens, down to its revolt in 424 B.C.; for ever illustrious as the birthplace of Aristotle. Its exact position is not yet, perhaps, determined, as Leake and Bowen differ in regard to it. The attitude of Andros in the Persian war (cp. 8. 111) may have been determined by the interests of its colonies.

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Ἄκανθον: like Argilos and Stagiros an Andrian foundation, Thuc. 4. 84. 1, and apparently the most important of the three (its constant tribute to Athens is 3 T. down to its revolt in 424 B.C.; it has also an important coinage, Head, H.N. pp. 182 ff.). It was situate just outside the isthmus through which the king's canal had been dug; and was plainly one of the principal depôts and magazines in 480 B.C. (cp. c. 25 supra), as it had been in 492 B.C., cp. 6. 44 ἐκ δὲ Ἀκάνθου όρμώμενοι. It is apparently unnecessary for Hdt. to specify for Akanthos, as for Stagiros and Argilos, that the city is Greek.

ἅμα ἀγόμενος ... ἑπομένους. Hdt. apparently wishes to mark a second great addition to the king's forces on his way through Europe. The first great addition has been specified in c. 110 above (ὁμοίως καὶ τῶν πρότερον κατέλεξα, a reference back, cp. καταλεχθέντες ὑπ᾽ ἐμεῦ l.c.), and seems to include the native tribes and Greek cities from Doriskos, or even from Sestos, to the Strymon and Eion; the second, here specified, comprises those from the Strymon to Akanthos—a much smaller group. The words καὶ τῶν περὶ τὸ Πάγγαιον ὄρος οἰκεόντων confuse the issue, for they are included in τῶν πρότερον κατέλεξα, and look uncommonly like a stupid gloss, from some one who took ὁμοίως καὶ τῶν πρότερον κατέλεξα to refer to the whole army- and navy-lists. If that were the reference, the very obvious parallel between this passage and the passage in c. 118 would be unmeaning, and indeed misleading, for in that passage not merely οἱ περὶ τὸ Πάγγαιον ὄρος have been enumerated, but all the Thracian tribes, from the Hellespont to the Strymon (so far as Hdt. knows). The text is anyway confused in this passage, ἔχων being either superfluous or displaced.

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τὴν δὲ ὁδὸν ... τὸ μέχρι ἐμεῦ: perhaps an addition from the author's hand, and among the last, cp. c. 111 supra. Was it religion that regarded the king's highway as sacred, or accursed? Was it utility that dictated respect for a good trade-route? This vetus via regia was still in use in 185 B.C., Livy 39. 27; cp. Xenoph. Hell. 4. 2. 8; but is it likely that the king had done more than clear and improve an existing line of communication?