CHAPTER L
ἀργυρολόγων νεῶν—‘sent to collect arrears, or to exact extraordinary contributions. The regular
φόρος appears to have been paid at Athens, at the great Dionysia’ (Jowett, citing Böckh). The same word is used in (
iii. 19) of a squadron of twelve ships despatched in 428. Six ships were also sent in 430 (
ii. 69). The absence of the article with
Ἀθηναίων is to be noticed: see note on ch. 18, 11.
παρὰ βασιλέως—from the Persian court.
βασιλεύς, without an article, is commonly used to denote the Persian sovereign:
ii. 62,
οὔτε βασιλεὺς οὔτε ἄλλο οὐδὲν ἔθνος=neither the Persians nor any other nation: cf.
i. 18 etc.
μεταγραψάμενοι—‘having caused to be transcribed’: we have the act.
i. 132,
μεταγράψαι τι, ‘to make some alteration’.
ἐκ τῶν Ἀσσυρίων γραμμάτων—‘i.e. the cuneiform characters, which the Persians employed in their public inscriptions (
Hdt. iv. 87), as here in a public document. They were, in various forms, the common alphabet of several langnages’ (Jowett). See also Poppo and Arnold. Here ‘transcription’ no doubt implies a translation.
πολλῶν ἑλθόντων—at the beginning of the war we find the Lacedaemonians preparing to send envoys to the Persians and other
βάρβαροι (
ii. 7); and in 430 a body of Peloponnesian ambassadors on their way to Persia were seized in Thrace and given up to the Athenians (
ii. 67).
σαφὲς λέγειν—so in
vi. 21 the MSS. reading is
ἄξιον δρᾶν, where Arnold inserts
τι.
πέμψαι—‘they must send’, as if
κελεύειν had gone before. A similar construction to that found in treaties etc.: cf. ch. 16, 5.
ὡς αὐτόν—referring to the primary subject, sc
βασιλέα. When two subjects are expressed or implied, the former is often denoted by the oblique cases of
αὐτός, when in Latin we should expect se. (Caesar frequently uses is in the same way, e.g.
B. G. i. 5, Helvetii persuadent Rauracis ut una cum iis (=secum) proficiscantur.) In
ii. 65 is a noticeable instance,
έπειρᾶτο τοὺς Ἀθηναίους τῆς έπ᾽ αὐτὸν ὀργῆς (=
ἣν ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸν εἶχον)
παραλύειν: cf. ch. 71, 3. For this idiom see Poppo on
I. 17, and the appendix to Buttmann's Meidias ‘do formis
αὑτόν et
αὐτόν.’
