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

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Σιθωνίη. The Latin authors, Ovid, Lucan, Pliny, are acquainted with ‘Sithŏnii’ on the Pontus, Vergil (Ec. 10. 66) and Horace (Od. 3. 26. 10) with ‘Sithonian snows’; but these may be literary freaks. Cp. App. Crit.

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συντάμνων ἀπ᾽ Ἀμ<*>λ<*> ἄκρης ἐπὶ Καναιστραίην ἄκρην. <*>. marks the ‘Kanaistraian’ promontory as the furthest projection of Pallene. A postern-gate in Torone apparently bore the title, or might be described as “ἡ κατὰ Καναστραῖον πυλίς” Thuc. 4. 110. 2. The geographers all agree. Steph. B. gives the form Κάναστρον: the Etym. Mag. has Κάναστρα or Κανάστρα, which alone explains the adjectival form. (Etym. κάναστρον a basket?)

The statement here made implies that the fleet crossed direet from the point of Sithonia to the point of Pallene. This agrees exactly with the statement in the previous c. ἔπλεε ἀπιέμενος ἐς τὸν Θερμαῖον κόλπον, but it contradicts the statement which there immediately follows, that the fleet visited Torone (Galepsos), Sermyle, Mekyberna, Olynthos, and it contradicts also the statement here following, which appears to make the fleet sweep round <*> east side of the Pallene peninsula. Rawlinson solves the difficulty by the supposition that only a portion of the fleet made the circuit of the Toronaean gulf: “the main body of the fleet <*>d across the mouth of the bay.” <*> does not make this distinction. Blakesley brings out the Herodotean inconsequence in the remark: “It is not conceivable that the whole fleet should make the circuit of the Toronaie gulf, and afterwards return to Point Ampelos in order to cross it at the narrowest part.” Olynthos cannot have been visited by the fleet, for it was not a port: Mekyberna need not, for it lay on the route of advance for the army. Hdt. owing to his ignorance of the exact topography of the region has, presumably, in these chapters mixed up places visited by the army with places visited by the fleet.

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τὸ ... ἀνέχει: the relative refers loosely to ἄκρη, cp. 5. 92 τοῦ (‘a thing than which’) referring to τυραννίδας (sic), 4. 23 τοῦτο referring to καρπός. ἀνέχει probably ἐς τὸν πόντον, ep. 4. 99 (not ‘out of the water’). The observation is made from the land side.

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Ποτειδαίης: described by Thuc. 1. 56. 2 as ἐπὶ τῷ ἰσθμῷ τῆς Παλλήνης, and a colony from Korinth. Already in 480 B.C. it must have been a strongly fortified place, for it successfully stood a siege in the following year, 8. 127 infra, but not the slightest hint is given either there or here of the events in 432 B.C. (such as would probably have been given if the whole narrative were being written about that time; cp. Introduction, § 7). Poteidaia was the richest and most important city of Chalkidike in the fifth century, and the rise of its assessment from 6 to 15 talents in 436 B.C. (cp. Hill, Sources, p. 77, C.I.A. i. p. 230) may have had a good deal to say to τὰ Ποτειδαιατικά (Thuc. 1. 56 ff., though Thuc. does not say so). In natural order the fleet would visit Poteidaia not next after Olynthos, or rather Mekyberna, but after Skione, Mende, Sane, and before Lipaxos and the rest below mentioned.

Ἀφύτιος: mentioned in Thuc. 1. 64. 2 as Phormion's base in his operations against Poteidaia: Leake locates it at Aphyto (N. Gr. iii. 156). Lysandros is reported to have laid ineffectual siege to it (403-2 B.C. (?) Pausan. 3. 18. 2) and Agesipolis died in it 380 B.C. (Xenoph. Hell. 5. 3. 19). It was assessed at 3 T. tribute by the Athenians (which was not raised in 425 B.C.). The coinage (of the fourth century) attests the wo<*>ship of Zeus Ammon (Pausan. l.c.) and of Dionysos (Xenoph. l.c.), but the former was presumably not older than the Lvsandrian siege. Steph. B. gives the city an oracle of Ammon.

Νέης πόλιος: Αἰγῆς: Θεράμβω. Neapolisand Aige are nowhere mentioned in the texts; but a Νεάπολις Μενδαίων or ἐκ Παλλήνης appears on the Attic lists, with a constant assessment of half a talent (C.I.A. i. 230) (in distinction to the Thasian Neapolis παρ᾽ Ἀντισάραν), and perhaps the Αἰγάντιοι in the same region, with the same assessment, represent this Αἰγή? Steph. B. notes many eities of the name of Αἰγαί (Αἰγή） including the Makedonian. (On the etymology cp. Grassberger, Gr. Ortsnamen, 88 ff.; Tozer, Highlands, i. 157.) Therambos, Θεράμβως (cp. Ἄθως) appears in Steph. B. as Θράμβος: ἀκρωτήριον Μακεδονίας. This latter form accords with the Attic lists in which the Θραμβαῖοι (of Θραμβή) appear, at times as an appanage of Skione, and paying but a sixth of a talent. (It is evident that Hdt.'s nomeuclature is not based on the Attic lists.) Perhaps Thrambe was a dependency of Skione near the Kanastraean headland.

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Σκιώνης: Μένδης: Σάνης. These three, with Aphytis, are the four ‘cities’ of Pallene, recognized by Strabo (330, fr. 27), Poteidaia being on the isthmus, and Neapolis, Aige, Thrambe unknown or insignificant dependencies.

Σκιώνη, reputed a Peloponnesian colony (to ‘Pallene’ from ‘Pellene’?), founded on the return from Troy (Thuc. 4. 120. 1), was a place of some importance in the fifth century (assessed on the Attic lists with considerable fluctuations, from 6 to 15 talents: in 425 B C. 9 T.); joined Brasidas in 424 B.C. (Thuc. l.c.); three years later the Athemans (Thuc. 5. 32. 1) put the male population (Ionians though they were) to the sword, and reduced the women and children (who had been conveyed to Olynthos, 4. 123. 4) to slavery, and settled the dispossessed Plat<*> on the land.

Μένδη “: πόλισἐν τῇΠαλλήνῃ Ἐρετριῶν ἀποικια” Thuc. 4. 123. 1, only second to Skione in importance (with a normal tribute of eight talents on the Attic lists), joined Brasidas in 423 B.C. and barely escaped the same fate as Skione. The Lakrites of Demosthenes suggests that wine was the staple of Mende, and the coinage (Head, p. 187) bears out the suggestion (Silenos and the Ass).

Σάνη: were there really two places of this name in Chalkidike, one hard by the King's Cut (c. 22 supra, Thuc. 4. 109. 3 “Ἀνδρίων ἀποικία”), another on Pallene, between Mende and Poteidaia? The Σαναῖοι of the Treaty of N<*>kias (Thuc. 5. 18. 6) might dwell anywhere in the three-pronged peninsula; and equally the Σαναῖοι of the Attic lists, with their modest tribute of 1 T. or less. Strabo 330, fr. 27 reckons a ‘Sane’ as one of the four cities of Pallene, but perhaps only on the strength of this passage (and is that αὐτὸς Στράβων?). Steph. B. seems to hedge, sub v.: πόλις Θρᾴκης μεταξὺ Ἄθω καὶ Παλλήνης. Blakesley showed his frequent acuteness in denying the existence of a Sane on Pallene. The absence of any notice of Sane in Thucydides' account of the operations against Skione and Torone, and the fact that he only names the one by the canal, strongly supports that negative.

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τὴν νῦν Παλλήνην πρότερον δὲ Φλέγρην καλεομένην: Aischyl. Eumenid. 295 (Orestes, invoking Athene) Φλεγραίαν πλάκα ι θρασὺς ταγοῦχος ὡς ἀνὴρ ἐπισκοπεῖ—obviously referring to Pallene, (not to the Phlegraian field in Campania, as Paley ad l. supposes). L. & S. seem right in identifying it with the scene of the victory: ὅταν θεοὶ ἐν πεδίῳ Φλέγρας Γιγάντεσσιν μάχαν ἀντιάζωσιν. Pindar, N. 1 67, cp. Is. 5. (6) 33. (Aristophanes, Birds, 824 f., has his jest on it.) Γιγωνὶς ἄκρα appears ἐν τῷ Θερμαι<*>κῷ κόλπῳ Ptolem. 3. 13. 13. Stein suggests that καλεομένην means ‘so called in poetry’; but Hdt. seems to think Φλέγρη a genuine name. νῦν: at the time of writing: anno?

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τὸ προειρημένον, ‘appointed by the king’ (not ‘aforesaid’), cp. cc. 119, 120 supra: προειρημένην infra.

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προσεχέων: i.e. they were outside the isthmus, between Poteidaia and Therma; but most of them hardly deserving the title of πόλιες.

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τῇσι οὐνόματα ἐστὶ τάδε: one might wish to believe that this list of trivial villages were a gloss from a local pedant! Why should Hdt. stud the few miles of Krossaian coast with this heptarchy of hamlets? It is out of all proportion to the importance of the spot, or his methods elsewhere. It can hardly be an otiose reminiscence of his own coast ing voyage, for he is not acquainted at first hand with the Thermaic gulf, or Chalkidike (cp. l. 12 infra and c. 122 supra). Is he the mere slave of the Log of one of the Halikarnassian vessels? Or does he simply parrot Hekataios?

Λίπαξος: Steph. B. sub v.: πόλις Θρᾴκης: Ἑκαταῖος. Thrako-Phrygian or Makedonian name? Its <*>osed oceurrence on the first quota-list (453 B.C.), C.I.A. i. 226, is hardly acceptable: the name might as well be read Λίσαι or Λιμναῖοι or what not.

Κώμβρεια: an ἄπαξ λεγ. Is the termination the Thracian -bria? Cp. c. 108.

Αἷσα: Stein's bold emendation for λισαί in the codd. The name occurs on the quota-list for 437-6 B.C., C.I.A. i. 243, with Γίγωνος, Σμίλλα, Βύσβικος, and some other oddities under the rubric πόλεις ἃς οἱ ἰδιῶται ἐνέγραψαν φόρον φέρειν (its quota obliterated).

Γίγωνος: cp. previous note, and l. 11 supra. The place is mentioned by Thuc. 1. 61. 5 (two days, by slow marches, from Strepsa). Steph. B. derives the name ἀπὸ Γίγωνος τοῦ Αἰθιόπων βασιλέως ὃς Διονύσῳ ἡττήθη. (But this defeat cannot be connected with the army of Xerxes!)

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Κάμψα: as a city-name an ἄπαξ λεγ. The Καμψιανοί or Καμψανοί of Strabo (291, 292), a German tribe, do not help us. κάμψα is a ‘basket’ (vid. L. & S.), cp. κάναστρον, note to l. 2 supra.

Σμίλα appears on the inscription cited above as Σμίλλα and assessed at half a talent. Steph. B. sub v.: πόλις Θρᾴκης: Ἑκαταῖος Εὐρώπη̣: μετὰ δὲ Σμίλα πόλις. Otherwise unknown.

Αἴνεια: probably the most important name in this list. The Αἰνειᾶται or Αἰνιᾶται (Hill, Sources) or Αἰνεᾶται (Kirchhoff, C.I.A. i.; Steph. B. gives this and Αἰνειεύς and Αἰνεῖος as ἐθνικά) were good for 3 T. tribute to Athens (reduced in 425 B.C. to 1000 Dr.). Strabo (300, fr. 21, 24) records its incorporation, with about five-and-twenty other πολίσματα (including Therme), by Kassandros to form Thessalonikeia, or Thessalonike. Steph. B. sub v. gives Theon in Lycophronem as authority for the foundation by Aineias after the sack of Troy: this was already the tradition in the fifth century, if, as Head (H. N. p. 189) observes, the oldest representation of a Trojan myth (sic) is a Enboic tetradrachm of Aineia, dated before 500 B.C. with an obverse representing ‘Aeneas carrying Anchises, preceded by his wife Kreusa carrying Ascanios.’ Cp. c. 58 supra.

Κροσσαίη. Strabo (330, fr. 21) says that Kassandros founded Thessalonike καθελὼν τὰ ἐν τῇ Κρουσίδι πολίσματα καὶ τὰ ἐν τῷ Θερμαίῳ κόλπῳ περὶ ἓξ καὶ ει<*>´κοσι καὶ συνοικίσας εἰς ἕν. Thuc. 2. 79. 4 speaks of the Athenians, at an engagement between Spartolos and Olynthos 429 B.C., having τινας οὐπολλοὺς πελταστὰς ἐκ τῆς Κρουσίδος γῆς καλουμένης. Steph. B. sub v. Κρουσίς: μοῖρα τῆς Μυγδονίας: Στράβων ἑβδόμῃ, Μυγδονικῆς Κρουσίδος (the seventh Book is fragmentary); sub v. Κρόσσα: πόλις πρὸς τῷ Πόντω:ι Ἑκαταῖος Ἀσία:ι τὸ ἐθνικὸν Κροσσαίος. It looks as if Hdt. had made a slip in nammg the district—further evidence that he is not writing from autopsy, whatever the date of ἔτι καὶ ἐς τότε may be and whatever the point of the remark. (The word κρόσσαι occurs 2. 125.)

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ἐς τὴν ἐτελεύτων καταλέγων τὰς πόλις, ‘the last named in the list of cities just given’: a curious reference back, over but one short sentence; a curious emphasis on the position of Aineia in the list, to be followed by the precise indication of the geographical position of Aineia at the very entrance of the Thermaian gulf, or bay, proper (αὐτὸν τὸν Θερμαῖον κόλπον).

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γῆν τὴν Μυγδονίην. Thuc. 2. 99. 4 seems to apply the term to the whole region between the Axios and the Strymon (πέραν Ἀξιοῦ μέχρι Στρυμόνος τὴν Μυγδονίαν καλουμένην Ἠδῶνας ἐξελάσαντες νέμονται, but in c. 100 perhaps in a less extended sense). Steph. B. Μυγδονία: μοῖρα Μακεδονίας: καὶ ἑτέρα Φρυγίας τῆς μεγάλης—another item for the <*>o-Phrygian migration, cp. c. 73: so Strabo has a Mygdonia, or Mygdonis, on the Rhyndakos (cp. 550, 576, 588) as well as in Makedonia, or Paionia (331, fr. 41). That there was a Mygdonia in Mesopotamia is no crux, for the name was introduced there in historical times by the Makedonians (747). Cp. Ἴχναι below.

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ἐς τὴν προειρημένην, cp. l. 8 supra.

Θέρμην, c. 121 supra.

Σίνδον. Steph. B. sub v. Σίνθος: πόλις παρὰ τῷ Θερμαίῳ κόλπω:ι Ἡρόδοτος ἑβδόμῃ. But also Σινδοναῖοι Θρᾳκιον ἔθνος, ὡς Ἑκαταῖος Εὐρώπῃ. Hdt. himself has Σίνδοι, 4. 28, and Σινδική, 4. 86, east of the Kimmerian Bosporos. (Can Σίνος, C.I.A. i. 243, an Athenian tributary in Thrace, assessed (437 B.C.) at 1500 Dr., ‘beloug’ here?)

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Χαλἐστρην. Steph. B. Χαλάστρα: πόλις Θρᾴκης, περὶ τὸν Θερμαῖον κόλπον. Ἑκαταῖος Εὐρώπη: ἐν δ᾽ αὐτῷ Θέρμη πόλις Ἑλλήνων Θρηΐκων, ἐν δὲ Χαλάστρη πόλις Θρηΐκων. Στράβων δ᾽ ἐν ἑβδόμη̣ Μακεδονίας αὐτὴν καλεῖ. (The ref. is to Strabo, 330, fr. 21, where Chalastra is one of the πολίσματα absorbed into Thessalonike.) Χαλαίστρα is mentioned by Plutarch, Alex. 49, as the birthplace of one Limnos (Dimnos, Diod. 17. 79), a Χαλαιστραῖος ἄνθρωπος, who was in the plot which cost the life of Philotas.

τὸν Ἄξιον ποταμόν, ὃς οὐρίζει κτλ. Thucyd. 2. 99. 3 f. also makes the Axios the frontier between Βοττία (with Παιονία) on the one side and Μυγδονία on the other. The Paionians, who appear in the Homeric Catalogue among the allies of Troy, come τηλόθεν ἐξ Ἀμυδῶνος, ἀπ᾽ Ἀξιοῦ εὐρὺ ῥέοντος, Ἀξιοῦ, οὗ κάλλιστον ὕδωρ ἐπικίδναται αἶαν, B 850, cp. 16. 288, a description unfavourably criticised by Strabo, 330, fr. 21, ὄτι ὁ Ἀξιὸς θολερὸς ῥεῖ κτλ. The Ἀξιός reappears in Homer (Il. 21. 141-3） as εὐρυρέεθρος ποταμὸς βαθυδίνης. The modern name is the Vardar (mediaev. Βαρδάριος, Βαρδάρις), which Oberhummer (ap. Pauly-Wissowa, ii. 2630), following Kiepert, thinks may be a revival of the oldest name, against the Greek Ἀξιός (sic). It is the principal river of Makedonia. Strabo (330) places the exit “between Chalastra and Therme”; but the lower course of the river appears to have undergone some variation.

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Βοττιαιίς is the Βοττία of Thuc. 2. 99. 3, Βοττιαία 2. 100. 4, on the right bank of the Axios, and extending, according to c. 127 infra, to the (Lydios and) Haliakmon, ubi v.: a region which Oberhummer (ap. Pauly-Wissowa) distinguishes from Βοττική, the district east of Axios, and adjacent to Chalkidike, occupied by Bottiaei on their expulsion by the Makedonians (cp. Thucyd.). Aristotle is credited with a Βοττιαίων πολιτεία (cp. V. Rose, Aristot. Pseudep. p. 463, Fragmenta, p. 308), in which he told a strange story of the origin of the Bottiaei, tracing them back through Iapygia and Delphi to Krete and Athens (an etiological fable to explain (1) the refrain of the Bottiaean maidens, ἴωμεν εἰς Ἀθήνας, (2) some analogies in Kretan and Makedonian place-names). So also Strabo, 330.

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Ἴχναι τε καὶ Πέλλα. Ichnai appears to be almost unknown to history: Steph. B. sub v. cites Hdt. Bk. 7 for it, and adds that Eratosthenes called it Ἄχναι (and Philetas Ἄχνη?) Strabo 435 has in Thessaliotis Ἴχναι ὅπου ἡ Θέμις Ἰχναία τιμᾶται. The article in Steph. perhaps confuses the two, but adds that there was another Ἴχναι in the east. This would be the Ἰχνίαι of Dio Cass. 40. 12, the Ἴχναι (or Ἴσχναι） of Plutarch, Crassus 25, in the neighbourhood of Carrhae, and probably a Makedonian foundation. The Ichnai here named will have been in the neighbourhood of Pella.

Pella has a greater name, as the later residence of the Makedonian kings, the birthplace of Philip and of Alexander the Great. Thucyd. 2. 99. 4 “τῆς δὲ Παιονίας παρὰ τὸν Ἀξιὸν ποταμὸν στενήν τινα καθήκουσαν ἄνωθεν μέχρι Πέλλης καὶ θαλάσσης ἐκτήσαντο” (sc. Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Περδίκκου πατὴρ καὶ οἱ πρόγονοι αὐτοῦ). In 382 B.C. it is described by an orator from Akanthos as μεγίστη τῶν ἐν Μακεδονίᾳ πόλεων (Xen. Hell. 5. 2. 13), though it is reduced by Demosthenes, de Cor. 68, to a χωρίον ἄδοξον καὶ μικρόν before Philip's birth (cp. Strabo 330, fr. 23). Livy 44. 46 gives a description of it as it appeared to the eyes of Aemilius Paulus in 168 B.C.: “Sita est in tnmulo vergente in occidentem hibernum. Cingunt paludes inexsuperabilis altitudinis a estate et hieme, quas restagnantes faciunt a mnes. Arx Phacus in ipsa palude, qua proxima urbi est, velut insula eminet, aggeri operis ingentis imposita, <*> et murum sustineat et humore circumiusae paludis nihil laedatur. Muro urbis conjuncta procul videtur. Divisa est intermurali amni et eadem ponte juncta, ut nec, oppugnante externo, aditum ab ulla parte liabeat nec, si quem ibi rex includat, ullum nisi per facillimae eustodiae pontem effugium.” The position was, of course, an inland one: ἀπὸ δὲ Αουδίου εἰς Πέλλαν πόλιν ἀνάπλους στάδια ἑκατὸν εἴκοσιν (Strabo 330, fr. 22), i.e. a day's march. Hdt. here places it on the coast apparently, just as Pliny, N.H. 4. 10 (probably following this passage) places Ichnae in ora—clear evidence that neither Pliny nor Hdt. was writing from autopsy.

The name Grassberger (Ortsnamen, p. 163) interprets ‘rock’ (πέτρα); Hesychius s.v. πέλλα: λίθος.