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

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ἀποφυγόντων: κατειληθέντων: ἐόντων: this string of participles is not elegant, but ἀποφ. is little more than an adjective; it might very well be dispensed with. κατειληθέντων here seems to mean ‘crowded,’ ‘confined,’ ‘eooped up’; cp. 5. 119, 8. 27, cc. 31, 70 supra (κατειλημένοι). If there were so few of them, one would have thought Mykale roomy enough for them.

τὰ ἄκρα τ. Μ. = τὰς κορυφὰς τ. Μ. cc. 104, 99 supra.

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κομιδή: cp. 8. 108 supra.

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Μασίστης ὁ Δαρείου: he was full brother to Xerxes, cp. 7. 82 supra, and had been one of the six generals, or field-marshals, of the army in 480 B.C. It is odd to find him here a casual attaché of the naval forces, or of the corps d'armée in Ionia: nor is he! For he has a bodyguard, οἱ δορυφόροι οἱ Μασίστεω infra; was he, not Tigranes, the real commander of the six myriads, c. 96 supra? If so, he was not present at the disaster which had just taken place (τῷ πάθεἰ τ. γ.) but was probably coming to the support of the encampment at Mykale, and naturally fell foul of Artayntes (c. 102 supra).

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γυναικὸς κακίω: cp. c. 20 supra.

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τὸν βασιλέος οἶκον: cp. 8. 102 supra, 5. 31.

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ἀκοῦσαι, ‘to be called . .’

δέννος: the verb δεννάζειν occurs twice in Sophokles, Antig. 759, Aias 243, and in Euripides, Rhes. 925. It is found previously also in Theognis 1211. The substantive (reproach, taunt) is rare.

ἐπεἱ πολλὰ ἤκουσε, ‘when he had heard more than enough . .’

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δεινὰ ποιεύμενος, ‘in a rage . .’

σπᾶται ἐπὶ ... τὸν ἀκινάκην, ‘draws his native sword upon Masistes,’ as we say. On ἀκινάκης cp. 7. 54 supra.

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φρασθείς (ubi animadvertit) seems less forcible than the Aldine φθάς (praevertens), but both would be de trop.

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Ξειναγόρης ὁ Πρηξίλεω. Prexileos, or Praxilas, is a very uncommon name, and nothing more is known of this Halikarnassian (Praxilla of Sikyon, Pausan. 3. 13. 5, is also unrivalled). Xeinagoras, or Xenagoras, is less rare. Of this man nothing more is known than is here by Hdt. recorded, but the record is significant: (a) There were Greeks with the Persian forces after Mykale: this man, to be sure, would be a subject of Artemisia (less probably an exile. or adventurer). (b) His appointment as ‘syennesis’ of Kilikia is remarkable, and probably the first instance of the investiture of a Greek subject with a Persian governorship. (c) This fact (which belongs to the history of the Pentekontaëteris) may be regarded as more certain than the cause or occasion alleged by Hdt. for it. (d) Nevertheless as himself a Halikarnassian Hdt. will have had special interest and information in regard to this fellow-citizen.

The predecessor of Xeinagoras in Kilikia was Syennesis, or the syennesis, son of Oromedon, mentioned 7. 98 supra, who according to Aischyl. Pers. 326 lost his life at the battle of Salamis, leaving presumably no son to succeed him. This Halikarnassian may have founded a dynasty in Kilikia: the next governor of Kilikia known to history is the ‘syennesis’ of the Anabasis; cp. l.c. supra. (Rawlinson ventures to say that “Xeinagoras can only have occupied a subordinate position”: thus indirectly charging Hdt. in this case with a serious and apparently wilful exaggeration of his fellow-citizen's greatness. Krueger's emendation shifts the venue to Lykia.)

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ἁρπάζει μέσον: cp. Terent. Ad. 3. 2. 18 “sublimem medium arriperem et capite pronum in terram statuerem.”

ἐξαείρας is here quite literally intended; cp. Xenoph. Kyr. 2. 4. 14 συναρπάσας ἐξῇρε, Aristoph. Knights 1359 “ἄρας μετέωρον εἰς τὸ βάραθρον ἐμβαλῶ” (Valckenaer).

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ταῦτα ἐργάσατο χάριτα ... τιθέμενος: χάριν τίθεσθαι, cp. c. 60 supra: an inverted predication (= ταῦτα ἐργαζόμενος χάριν ἐτίθετο).

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οὐδὲν ἐπὶ πλέον τούτων a mere confession of ignorance! For the formula cp. c. 41 supra. One would like to know what happened to Artayntes.