previous next

διαδέξιον: best taken as a strong form of δεξιόν (αἴσιον), laetissimum omen captantes (Blakesley). They may have gone on the maxim ‘Who spills the foremost foeman's life, that party triumphs in the strife’ (Scott), cf. Tacitus, Germ. 10; but the act is more probably simply a sacrifice of the first-fruits of victory such as Procopius ascribes to the Scandinavian Thulitae (de Bell. Goth. ii. 15) τῶν ἱρείων σφίσι τὸ κάλλιστον ἄνθρωπός ἐστιν ὅνπερ ἂν δοριάλωτον ποιήσαιντο πρῶτον. For human sacrifices among the Phoenicians cf. ch. 167, and among the Persians ch. 114. 2 n.

τάχα δ᾽ ἄν, ‘perhaps he may have had his name to thank in part for his fate.’ For the construction cf. ix. 71. 4. For the importance of the name as an omen vi. 50; ix. 91; and among the Romans, e. g. in a delectus, lustratio, or other ceremony, Cic. de Div. i. 45, 102 f.; Tac. Hist. iv. 53.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: