τὸν αὐτὸν . . . χρόνον. There is no good reason to doubt the synchronism,
though most modern critics think it artificial. Duncker
(vi. 266, 271) uses it to explain the absence of the Phoenician fleet
in Scythia. The exact date, however, does not interest H., and
cannot be fixed; it must be earlier than the suppression of Aryandes'
revolt (cf. 166. 2 n.). H. gives the
πρόφασις in c. 167, where
he states the expedition was intended ‘to conquer Libyans’ (i. e. the
Eastern ones); this motive is probably the real one, though H.'s own
narrative (c. 203) does not agree with it, and the plan failed (cf. 197. 1).
τάδε. The account of the colonization of Thera and Cyrene.
H. seems deliberately to introduce this digression, in order to illustrate
this important feature in Greek life. Whether the facts are
true or not, they represent fifth-century thought as to colonization.
- I. Its causes:
- (1) στάσις. (a) The Minyae are in a position of inferiority
(146. 1); (b) Theras excluded from the throne (147. 3);
(c) Battus born out of wedlock (155. 1 n.).
- (2) Over-population (151. 1; but see n.).
- (3) Commercial enterprise.
- (4) Delphic sanction and guidance (passim, cf. v. 42 n.).
- II. The stages of colonization:
- (1) The reconnoitring expedition (151. 3; 156. 2).
- (2) The settlement off the coast, Platea.
- (3) The constitutional development (c. 161 ad fin.).
- III. The relations of Greeks and natives (especially
interesting):
- (1) At first friendly, but with suspicion (158. 2).
- (2) Then frankly hostile (c. 160).
- (3) In spite of this, great admixture.
For this last cf. common customs (c. 170; 189. 3); common
worships (186. 2; c. 189); actual intermarriage, e. g. Alazir (164. 4),
father-in-law to Arcesilaus III. This explains the brutal cruelty of
Pheretime (c. 202), which is quite un-Hellenic.
Some see (e. g. Macan ii. 265) in the two stories of the Minyan
settlement in Laconia, and of the settlement of Cyrene, ‘aetiological
legends’ explaining present facts; ‘the former justified the Spartan
supremacy in Laconia; the second the Spartan claim over Thera’
(cf. for this the similar legend as to Patrae,
Paus. iii. 2. 1).
That the stories are unhistorical in form needs no proof; and it
may be the case that the real connexion between Laconia and Thera
dates at earliest from the seventh century (Studniczka, vid. inf.).
But the only argument adduced (ib. p. 51) is that the Spartan Dorians
were at first too weak to send out colonies. This is valid against
the Herodotean version of the facts, but has no bearing on the
wider question, the date of the Dorization of Thera; this may well
have been part of the same movement that Dorized the Peloponnese.
This earlier date is partly confirmed by the 700 years which the
Melians claim for their city in 416 B. C. (
Thuc. v. 112. 2).
The story of the two foun dations is examined by F. Studniczka
in a book (‘Cyrene’, 1890) full of ingenious hypotheses, most of
which are unprovable and many of which are improbable. For his
summary cf. Roscher, ii. 1734 f. His main conclusions are:
(1) The fact that the legends always connect the nymph Cyrene
with Thessaly (pp. 39 f., 45) shows that the colonists came from this
part of the world.
(2) Their route was by Attica, as is shown by the occurrence of
Attic place-names in the island (p. 65; cf. Busolt, i. 353).
(3) The connexion of Dorians with Thera was later than the first
Messenian war, and led to troubles in Thera, and ultimately to the
expulsion of the original colonists, who go to Cyrene (cf. 156. 3 n.).
(4) Dorian encroachment spreads to Cyrene (p. 103, cf. cc. 159,
161), and ultimately leads to the expulsion of the royal house.
(5) Cyrene herself is a form of Artemis (cf. the name
Θήρα, p. 146),
who is degraded into a heroine; her worship is superseded when the
Cyrenian democracy is established (p. 173, cf.
Arist. Pol. vi. 4, 1319 b,
quoted on 161. 3).
(6) The connexion of the Minyae with Lemnos, their settlement
in Thera, and the connexion of Theras with Thebes are all cut out
as later inventions.
All these guesses and combinations are as devoid of real evidence
as the story in H.; they have the additional disadvantage of being
more than 2,000 years further from the facts.
