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βασιλεῦ. To H., speaking in his own person, Gelo is τύραννος (156. 3, 163. 1), though Scythes is βασιλεύς (vi. 23. 3 n.), but the Sicilian tyrants like Polycrates (iii. 42. 2) would be flattered by being addressed as ‘king’ (cf. Pind. Pyth. i. 60, iii. 70; Ol. i. 23). The ‘salutation of Gelo as king’ (Diod. xi. 26, 38) was in any case after the battle of Himera, and may well have been, in spite of Diodorus' statement, informal. Probably the official position held by Gelo, as by Dionysius, was that of στρατηγὸς αὐτοκράτωρ (Diod. xiii. 94; Polyaen. i. 27. 1). This is confirmed by the fact that Bacchylides (v. 2) addresses Hiero as στραταγέ; cf. Bury, Cl. R. xiii. 98; Freeman, S. ii, note 1; Jebb, Bacch. 465.


For the alleged claim of Athens to naval hegemony cf. viii. 2 n.


πάραλον, unparalleled in the sense of ναυτικόν, is perhaps poetic, as the sentence can be scanned as an iambic.

μετανάσται, ‘land-loupers’; cf. Il. ix. 648; xvi. 59.

It was a frequent ground for self-laudation among the Athenians that they, unlike most other Greeks, had always inhabited the same country and could claim to be autochthonous. It forms a regular topic in funeral orations (cf. 157 n.), e. g. that of Pericles (Thuc. ii. 36); cf. Plat. (?) Menex. 237 B; Lys. Epitaph. § 17; Ps. Dem. Epitaph. § 4; Hyperides, Epitaph. col. 5, and in other panegyrics; cf. Eur. Erechth. fr. 362, and especially Isocr. Paneg. § 24 οὕτω καλῶς καὶ γνησίως γεγόναμεν ὥστ᾽ ἐξ ἧσπερ ἔφυμεν, ταύτην ἔχοντες ἅπαντα τὸν χρόνον διατελοῦμεν, αὐτόχθονες ὄντες . . . καίτοι χρὴ τοὺς . . . περὶ τῆς ἡγεμονίας δικαίως ἀμβισβητοῦντας . . . τοιαύτην τὴν ἀρχὴν τοῦ γένους ἔχοντας φαίνεσθαι. The belief is accepted in substance by Thucydides (i. 2) and by H. (i. 56 n.), though the latter considers the Arcadians and Cynurians also autochthonous (viii. 73).

Ὅμηρος: cf. Il. ii. 552Μενεσθεύς”. | τῷ δ᾽ οὔ πώ τις ὁμοῖος ἐπιχθόνιος γένετ᾽ ἀνὴρ κοσμῆσαι ἵππους τε καὶ ἀνέρας ἀσπιδιώτας.

ὄνειδος, ‘we cannot be reproached for saying this.’ Gelo had treated the Greek claims as insulting (160. 1).

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  • Commentary references from this page (4):
    • Pindar, Pythian, 1
    • Thucydides, Histories, 2.36
    • Homer, Iliad, 2.552
    • Homer, Iliad, 9.648
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