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πρώτῃ. Phocaea as leader is attacked first; cf. 152. 1 for a Phocaean spokesman. Harpagus changed the plan of campaign; Mazares had attacked the Ionian towns of the south (c. 161). The Thalassocracy of Phocaea is variously dated 602-560 and 577-533 B.C. (Myres, J. H. S. xxvi, pp. 102-3). Cf. Thuc. i. 13. 6 for their foundation of Massilia (which H. does not mention, though he knows the town: v. 9. 3), and for their ‘repeated victories’ over the Carthaginians; by this colony they secured the ‘tin-route’ across Gaul. For their coinage cf. Hill, G. C. pp. 8-11; Head, H. N. 587-9; it was both early and widespread. The coins of Phocaea, with those of Mytilene and Cyzicus, formed the chief currency for the coast towns of west Asia till the time of Alexander. οἱ καταδέξαντες. H. rightly lays stress on the Phocaeans being ‘openers-up’ (not the discoverers; cf. iv. 153. 2 for Samians at Tartessus) of the West. Their activity gave the name to the ‘Ionian’ sea, south of Italy. Myres (u. s., p. 102) refers these voyages to the last half of the eighth century, but Tartessus was a ‘virgin’ market in 630 B.C. when Colaeus discovered it. Ἀδρίην. The Adriatic Sea (cf. iv. 33. 1), named from the Etruscan town of Adria, near the mouth of the Po (Liv. v. 33. 8). Ἰβηρίην: only mentioned here by H. (but Iberians among other western peoples: vii. 165. 1); probably he means north-east Spain near the Ebro. The Greeks had a colony here, Rhodae (hod. Rosas) near Emporiae; Strabo (654) ascribes it to the Rhodians before the first Olympiad, an impossible date; he adds that it was afterwards colonized by the Massiliots. Probably his statement is a mere etymological guess, and Rhodae was connected from the first with Massilia (and so with Phocaea), which certainly owned it later. Ταρτησσόν: the region at the mouth of the Baetis, probably the Tarshish of the Old Testament (but cf. Hastings, D. B. s. v., where the evidence is fully given, for a different view). It was the Eldorado of the ancients (cf. Strabo, 146, for its gold, silver, brass, and iron); Stesichorus (Strabo, 148) sang of the ἀργυρόριζοι παγαί of the Tartessus river. Cf. Meyer, ii. 428-9, for the whole subject.
The Phocaeans, like the Elizabethan navigators, were buccaneers (cf. 166. 1 and Dionysius of P., vi. 17 n.) as well as traders; hence the character of their ships. The penteconter was the main Greek ship-of-war in the sixth century, although Thucydides (i. 13. 2-3) says that the Corinthians were building triremes by 700 B.C. (this is his meaning, in spite of Torr, A. S. p. 4, n. 8). The Samian and the Phocaean navies were mainly composed of penteconters; they had, however, a few triremes (Thuc. i. 14. 1). H.'s details as to Samos (contrast iii. 39. 3 and 44. 2) confirm this view, that the navies of the period were mixed. Thucydides further seems to suggest that large fleets of triremes were first formed in Sicily and at Corcyra. The lighter penteconter would be used in preference for a long voyage or for a piratical raid. In the penteconter there were twenty-five oars a side; but the principle of superimposed banks may be as old as the Homeric Catalogue (Il. ii. 510—the Boeotian ships have 120 men each; cf. Thuc. i. 10. 4). For its use in Phoenician warships as early as 700 B.C. cf. Torr, p. 4, and figs. 10 and 11.
The longevity of Arganthonius was proverbial (cf. Anacreon, fr. 8, in Strabo, 151); that he reigned eighty years is accepted as prope certum by Pliny (N. H. vii. 156), who gives (154-5) an amusing string of instances, ending in ‘Tyriorum regem DC. atque, ut parce mentitus, filium eius DCCC’. <ta\> pa/nta, ‘in all,’ as opposed to πάντα, ‘quite.’
λίθων μεγάλων. The wall obviously had been seen by H. (cf. 141. 1 n.).
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