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ἀπό: not a mere περί, but suggesting the report, ‘brought back’ to the Confederates, ‘from’ Sicily. τὰ ἀπὸ τούτων τῶν ποταμῶν 4. 54 seems less natural.
παρελάμβανον, ‘tried to win over,’ imperfect. Cp. infra in the Korkyrean speech.
τοὺς αὐτοὺς λόγους could only apply to c. 157 supra. But which was piior, the speech at Syracuse, or the speech at Korkyra? The tenses παρελάμβανον, ἀπίκοντο, ἔλεγον do not appear to decide the point absolutely; though ἀπίκοντο might have temporally a pluperfect force, it need not have that force, and might here be used because Hdt. has previously recorded the embassy to Gelon as the more important part of the service of these envoys; while ἔλεγον certainly is no pluperfect. Doubtless the envoys went to Sieily via Korkyra, and may have had interviews with the authorities there both on the outward and homeward voyage.
ὑπίσχοντο: imp. from ὺπίσχομαι. Hdt. uses also the form ὑπισχνέομαι, cp. 9. 109. φράζοντες, ‘declaring.’
τῇ πρώτῃ τῶν ἡμερέων, ‘without a day's delay.’
τιμωρητέον εἴη: by a sort of attraction to περιοπτέη (ἐστί) the verbal adjective is used; but an indicative promise —ἀλλὰ αὐτοὶ τιμωροὶ ἔσονται—would have been more conclusive.
εὐπρόσωπα=εὐπρεπῆ. ἐπεὶ δὲ ἔδει, ‘when the time came for . .’
ἄλλα νοέοντες (καὶ ἄλλα λέξαντες): cp. 9. 54 (ἄλλα φρονέειν). ἑξήκοντα: was that half their navy? They had 120 in 435 B.C., Thucyd. 1. 25. 4. μόγις, ‘with much ado.’
προσέμειξαν, as in 6. 96; ἀνεκώχευον, as in 6. 116.
γῆς τῆς Λακεδαιμονίων goes with Πύλον as much as with Ταίναρον. Hdt. regards ‘Pylos’ as in Lakonian land, since the Spartans had conquered Messenia; cp. Kardamyle 8. 73 infra (“ἐν τῇ Μεσσηνίᾳ ποτὲ οὔσῃ γῇ” Thuc. 4. 3. 2), and “Μεθώνη τῆς Λακωνικῆς” Thuc. 2. 25. 1. For Tainaron, the most southerly point of Peloponnese (Cape Matapan), cp. 1. 24, 25; Thuc. 1. 128. 1, 7. 19. 4 (a point of departure on the voyage to Sicily). Van Herwerden's emendation Οἴτυλον (Τύλον） gets rid of the difficulty of coupling Pylos and Tainaron in one breath as the station of the Korkyrean fleet. Oitylos (now Vitylo) is a harbour on the west coast of Tainaron: Il. 2. 585; Strabo 360; Pausanias 3. 25. 10 (HitzigBluemner). καραδοκέοντες . . πεσέεται: cp. c. 163 supra. This story, and the story of Gelon's mission of Kadmos, belong to the same earlier draft of the Book, into which cc. 165-7 have been inserted; cp. Introduction, § 9.
ἀελπτέοντες μὲν ... δοκέοντες δέ κτλ.: a merely verbal contrast. ἀελπτέοντες desperantes; cp. Il. 7. 310, ἐξ ἀελπτοῦ Hdt. 1. 111. The description of the attitude of Korkyra in 481 B.C. may be substantially correct; they committed themselves, perhaps, even less deeply to the Greeks than the story here seems to suggest; cp. Thuc. 1. 32. 4 ξύμμαχοί τε γὰρ οὐδενός πω ἐν τῷ πρὸ τοῦ χρόνῳ ε<*>κούσιοι γενόμενοι: but the motivation, and especially the address to Xerxes, are open to suspicion, as coloured by the unpopularity which the Korkyreans earned, and deserved, by their ignoble neutrality. This feeling would have asserted itself from the first, and there is nothing in this passage (me iudice) to carry down the composition to the date of the Peloponnesian war; cf. Introduction, § 8.
ὐπερβαλέεσθαι: f. midd. (‘to over come,’ ‘surpass’), ‘despairing of ultimate victory for the Hellenes’; contr. ὑπερβαλεῖν infra.
ἐποίευν ... ἵνα ἔχωσι ... λέγειν: cp. ἐποίησαν ad init. c.; ἐπιτηδές 8. 141. ἔχοιεν might be more regular, but ἔχωσι is more graphic, and agrees with the point of view in the context (δοκέοντες . . ἄρξειν). The report of this address to the king, in oratio recta, though it was admittedly never delivered, shows the very strong animus excited by the Korkyreans. The king would hardly have thanked the Korkyreans for their mere neutrality; though Hdt. seems to think they would have benefited by the plea had things come to the worst.
παραλαμβανόντων (imperf.): cp. παραλαμψομένους c. 157 supra.
ἄν implies the hypothetical condition: εἰ τοῖσι Ἕλλησι συνεπολεμήσαμεν. μετά: c. 139 supra.
σκῆψις, 1. 147. ἐπεποίητο is a little curious in tense, or in sense. They had apparently ‘made’ the excuse before they ‘used’ it; i.e. they had an excuse ready.
ὑπὸ δὲ ἐτησιέων ἀνέμων. ‘The annual winds’ blow from the north during the months of August and September, coinciding with the period of the Nile flood, cp. 2. 20. ὑπό, ‘by the action of . .’ The ‘winds’ are perhaps, in Hdt.'s philosophy, hardly neutral agents. ὑπερβαλεῖν Μαλέην: here a nautical term, to round, ‘make,’ get past Malea. “τὸ δ᾽ εύώνυμον αὐτοῖς ὑπερεβεβλήκει ἤδη τὴν ἄκραν ἢ Κυνὸς σῆμα καλεῖται” Thuc. 8. 104. 4 (cp. the v.l. ὑπερβαλοῦσαι Σούνιον ib. 95. 1). In 8. 137 infra ὑπερβαλόντες of crossing mountains; contr. ὑπερβαλέεσθαι supra. Malea (Cape Angelo), the SE. promontory of Peloponnese; cp. 4. 179. In 1. 82 Μαλέαι.
κακότητι, predicative: ‘it was not owing to cowardice they had failed to appear at the sea-fight.’
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