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φήμη. As has been shown by Grote (v. 47 f.), the multitude in all ages is subject to ‘sudden unaccountable impressions’, whether of panic or encouragement, which in an age of faith are naturally attributed to divine intervention. The φήμη here is paralleled by that in Aeschines (in Timarch. § 128 f. and de Fals. Leg. § 144 f.; cf. also Paus. i. 17. 1) and by the ὄσσα of Homer (Il. ii. 93; Od. xxiv. 413). If, however, we are to find any real foundation for the report, we must either suppose with Grundy (p. 526) that it referred to one of the earlier successes of the Greeks in Boeotia, e. g. the death of Masistius, or we must give up the precise synchronism between Plataea and Mycale (§ 2, ch. 101. 2). Either is better than accepting the rationalizing suggestion of Ephorus (Diod. xi. 35; Polyaen. i. 33) that Leotychides invented the report to encourage his men, while the Persian generals told their troops that Xerxes was coming to their aid with a large force. The traditional precise synchronism between Plataea and Mycale (cf. Diod. xi. 34; Justin ii. 14) is a little discredited by the similar record as to the Himera and Salamis (vii. 166 n.), or the Himera and Thermopylae (Diod. xi. 24). Further, though no exact chronology is possible, if Mardonius was at Athens in June (ch. 3 n.), the battle of Plataea probably took place at the beginning of August (ch. 41. 1 n. and Busolt, ii. 725, n. 4). The dates in Plutarch, third Boedromion (Camill. 19, Moral. 349 F) and twenty-sixth Panemos=Metageitnion (Aristid. 19), seem to be those on which the victory was celebrated at Athens and at Plataea (cf. vi. 106. 3 n.). Mycale, on the other hand, is more naturally placed in the middle of August (Busolt, ii. 742, n. 2), since by the time that the Athenians have settled down to besiege Sestos it is autumn, i. e. mid-September, ch. 117 n. A fortnight's interval would give time for the rumour to cross the Aegaean.
τῆς αὐτῆς ἡμέρης. H. rather awkwardly confuses two ways of stating the same fact. (1) ‘The days of Plataea and that of Mycale were identical,’ and (2) the self-same day saw the battles of Plataea and Mycale.
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