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τοῦτον τὸν χρόνον. Corinth had twice saved Athens from Spartan aggression about 506 B. C. (v. 75, 92), and had long found it to her interest to support Athens against the stronger power of Aegina. Her friendship did not survive the creation of the great Athenian navy by Themistocles (vii. 144), as is shown by the enmity of Adimantus in 480 B. C. (viii. 61 f.). It turned into active hostility circ. 458 B. C. (Thuc. i. 105 f.).

πενταδράχμους: five drachmas (i.e. francs) a piece is of course a nominal price.

For the Corinthians' conduct cf. Thuc. i. 41νεῶν γὰρ μακρῶν σπανίσαντές ποτε πρὸς τὸν Αἰγινητῶν ὑπὲρ τὰ Μηδικὰ πόλεμον παρὰ Κορινθίων εἴκοσι ναῦς ἐλάβετε”.

The number of the Athenian ships, fifty, making with twenty Corinthian vessels the total seventy, may be an inference from the fifty naucraries of the Cleisthenic constitution (Cleidemus, fr. 8, F. H. G. i. 360). In ch. 132 the Athenian fleet sent to Paros is seventy sail, as is the Aeginetan in ch. 92. 1; but these numbers may rest on the total given here, the Aeginetan fleet being presumed to be equal in number to the enemy; and even if the number of Miltiades' fleet be correct, we may suppose that it included as transports ships unfit for action, or, again, that the Athenian navy had been allowed to decay between 489 and 486 B. C. Macan indeed argues that though the principal war is subsequent to Marathon, the Corinthian loan of ships must be placed earlier (possibly during the Ionic revolt, 498 B. C.), because ‘(1) Miltiades took seventy ships to Paros, (2) it is scarcely credible the Corinthian gift to Athens was after Marathon’. But the loan of ships can hardly be separated from the great war which he rightly places circ. 486 (cf. inf. ch. 93 n.), and Corinth would still prefer Athens to Aegina till Themistocles made the navy of Athens superior; so it is easier to suppose an error in the number of Miltiades' fleet than to dislocate the whole narrative of Herodotus.

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  • Commentary references from this page (2):
    • Thucydides, Histories, 1.105
    • Thucydides, Histories, 1.41
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