Reginald Walter Macan, Herodotus, The Seventh, Eighth, & Ninth Books with Introduction and Commentary

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οἱ δὲ κατηγεόμενοι=οἱ κατηγεμόνες τῆς ὁδοῦ c. 128 supra; κατηγήσομαι c. 8 supra, in a different sense.

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εἰρομένου κτλ.: not a very wise question under the circumstances! perhaps only asked for sake of the answer. The king, however, was accustomed to rivers with many mouths.

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ἐξήλυσις ἐς θάλασσαν κατήκουσα: ἐξήλυσις is used in 3. 117, in a passage which might, perhaps, have suggested this criticism on Thessaly and its possibilities as a colossal reservoir; cp. ἀποκεκληιμένου δὲ τοῦ ὕδατος τῆς ἐξόδου τὸ πεδίον τὸ ἐντὸς τῶν ο<*>ρέων πέλαγος γίνεται ἐνδιδόντος μὲν τοῦ ποταμοῦ, ἔχοντος δὲ οὐδαμῇ ὲξήλυσιν: the passage on Thessaly and this anecdote of the king belonging to the second or third draft of this book; cp. Introduction, § 9.

κατήκουσα: cp. ἐς θάλασσαν κατῆκον of Mount Athos, c. 22 supra, and κατήκουσα of an ἀκτή, c. 33 supra.

ἀλλ᾽ ἥδε αὐτή, “nisi hic solus,” Baehr; cp. αὐτά 5. 68, αὐτόν 5. 86.

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περιεστεφάνωται: “tanquam montium corona,” Baehr.

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λέγεται: by whom? (cp. λέγεται, c. 129 supra). Is this really a genuine anecdote (from Demaratos, or some of the Greeks in the king's train, or from αὐτοὶ Θεσσαλοί), or is it a façon de parler introducing a critique by Hdt. himself, suggested to him, perhaps, by the hydraulic works described in 3. 117?

σοφοί, ‘no fools,’ 5. 23.

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ταῦτ᾽ ἄρα ... ταχυάλωτον: a sentence not devoid of obscurity; to what do ταῦτα and τἆλλα exactly and respectively refer? Stein takes ταῦτα as equivalent to the sentence ὅτι χώρην ἄρα κτλ., viz. “the natural disadvantages of their country,” and τἆλλα, “mypower.” Sitzler takes ταῦτα to cover καὶ τἆλλα καὶ ὅτι κτλ., meaning “on this account” (deshalb), τἆλλα καὶ ὅτι meaning “on all other grounds as also because . .”

πρὸ πολλοῦ, sc. χρόνου. The ‘Thessalians’ as such had only declared for the <*> short time before (c. 172 ff. infra); l<*>t. has therefore to explain subsequently that the king fell on this occasion into the mistake of supposing that the Aleuadai had been speaking (c. 6 supra) in the name of the Thessalians as a whole. But this inconsequence, by which a fact not recorded till c. 172 infra is yet necessary to the comprehension of this passage, helps to mark this passage as a later insertion. The inconsequence would not be removed by understanding πρὸ πολλοῦ pretii.

γνωσιμαχέοντες is a disputable word. Stein takes it to mean “coming to a better mind,” “changing their mind for the better” (sich eines Besseren besinnend), and cps. 3. 25; so too Rawlinson, “to change their minds in time”; and Schweighaeuser, “laudateos quod mutassent sententiam et melius sibi consuluissent”; others (e.g. L. & S.), there and here, take it simply to mean ‘submit,’ ‘give way.’ But in 8. 29 infra it appears to have the sense of ‘admit,’ ‘confess,’ ‘recognize,’ constructed with infin. It might therefore here go with what follows: γν. καὶ τἆλλα και<*> ὁτι (that). ταῦτα in that case would go with ἐφυλάξαντο and refer not to ὀτι, nor to καὶ τἆλλα καὶ ὅτι κτλ., but to what has gone before, οὐκ ἔστι ἄλλη ἐξήλυσις ἐς θάλασσαν, or if to what follows, then to what follows in the next sentence, τὸν γὰρ ποταμόν κτλ.

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πρῆγμα ἂν ἦν μοῦνον, ‘one would merely have had to . .’: πρῆγμα εἶναι (slightly different), c. 12 supra.

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ἐπεῖναι: cp. c. 176 infra, 9. 49. Aristoph. Frogs 133 “τόθ᾽ εἶναι καὶ σὺ σαυτόν”.

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ἔξω is not locative but exceptional; cp., howevei, App. Crit.

ὑποβρυχέα: ὑποβρυχής, an Hapaxlegomenon. L. & S. do not recognize this form at all. Abicht reads ὑπόβρυχα, and understands it as adverbial neut. from ὑπόβρυχος, as in Homer. (So too L. & S.) Cp. App. Crit.

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ἔχοντα ... ές, ‘referring to’; cp. c. 143.

τοὺς Ἀλεύεω παῖδας: cp. 6 supra, 9. 58, 5. 49. Rather epic than logographic style.

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ἀπό, ‘on behalf of . .’

ἐπαγγέλλεσθαι, c. 1 supra.