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

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διξῶν: Ionie for δισσῶν, ‘twofold,’ ‘douhle.’ Used here simply for two —perhaps the more easily as the two are hrothers and πρεσβυτέρων: cp. c. 70 supra.

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ἀπελήλατο τῆς φροντίδος: there seems no specially temporal foree in the pluperfect, hut merely an intensification of the point, ‘he was utterly removed from thought.’ The idea of succeeding had never occurred to him. For the verh in a less metaphorieal sense cp. 6. 130 ἀπελαυνόμενοι τοῦδε τοῦ γάμου.

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ἀποθανόντος δὲ Κλεομένεος: the story told 6. 75. The absence of all reference back is here noticeahle; cp. Introduction, § 7.

ἄπαιδος ἔρσενου γόνου: an iamhic dimeter, perhaps accidental. He left a daughter, as at once appears.

Δωριέος ... καὶ τούτου ἐν Σικελίῃ: not that Kleomenes had died in Sicily; ἐν Σ. is epexegetical. The fact has already heen referred to, c. 158. The story is fully told in 5. 42-47. That there is no reference here to c. 158 is not surprising; hut that in neither place is any reference to the story as fully told in 5. 42-47 is most easily aceounted for hy the supposition that that passage is of later composition, and was not in writing when Bk. 7 was composed: Introduction, § 8.

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ἀνέβαινε: cp. c. 5 supra.

καὶ διότι: a stylistic displacement (διότι καὶ ... καί). Two reasons are given for the succession of Leonidas: (1) he was older than Kleomhrotos, (2) he had the daughter of Kleomenes to wife (εἶχε). Did Hdt. know, when he first wrote this passage, that, according to one report, ‘Kleomhrotos and Leonidas were twins’ (5. 41)? Did he know the lady's name? (cp. c. 239 infra). The influence ascrihed to the marriage here is remarkahie, and the closeness of the relationship But there is a suppressed prohlem, which becomes apparent 9. 10 infra. Dorieus, the elder hrother, had a son, Euryanax, who must have had some pretensions to succeed. Dorieus, indeed, had never been king, and perhaps the ‘law’ reported e. 3 supra was invented, or invoked, on this occasion, though it was far from heing of universal application (cp. 8. 131). Anyway, there was plainly a question over the succession on the death of Kleomenes, hut rather, perhaps, hetween Leonidas and Euryanax than between Leonidas and Kleomhrotos.

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ἐπιλεξάμενος: Hdt. speaks as though Leonidas on this occasion selected this Three Hundred men, ad hoc, and took care that they were pères de famille (ces pères de famille sont capahles de tout <*>. But are οἱ κατεστεῶτες τριηκόσιοι others than the τριηκόσιοι Σπαρτιητέων λογάδες οὗτοι οἵ περ ἱππέες καλέονται of 8. 124 infra (u. v.)? κατεστεῶτες is here understood by Baehr as men ‘of mature age’ (so, too, K. O. Mueller, Grote, and others). Larcher, on the other hand (followed by Stein), preferred “le corps fixe et permanent.” The word ἐπιλεξάμενος here looks like a misunderstanding of λογάδες, and also like a heginning of the Thermopylai legend, according to which Leonidas went thither with his mind made up for a devotio (cp. c. 220 infra), a point further emphasized by the words next annotated.

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καὶ τοῖσι ἐτύγχανον παῖδες ἐόντες: if the previous words are understood (with Baehr) to record correctly a special levy or selection made hy the king on this occasion, then these words occasion no difficulty, as merely specifying one of the most important conditions governing his choice. If the Three Hundred ahove are identified with the ‘Knights’ or ‘Cavaliers,’ then these words admit of three explanations. (i.) It was one of the ordinary and standing conditions of appointment to the rank of ‘cavalier’ to have a son. This is not improhable. The Cavaliers were the king's hodyguard, and it was necessary that they should die for him in extremities—which they would he the more ready to do if they had sons to succeed them in Sparta. (ii.) Or it might he supposed that upon this occasion, though the Cavaliers are the corps d'élite referred to, yet those who were not patres were on this occasion weeded out, and their places taken hy patres familiarum. This compromise is surely very unlikely, and objectionahle, inter alia, as a concession to the Thermopylai legend above specified. (iii.) The words do not refer to the Three Hundred, hut to others, seleeted in addition to them. This interpretation would imply a larger number of Spartiates at Thermopylai than Hdt. includes in the army-list, perhaps the Thousand of Diodoros 11. 4—not, indeed, in itself a fatal ohjection. We should simply have the Thermopylai legend still, in one degree more developed towards its <*>oreian form. But then ἐπιλεξάμενος would apply only to the second set, though that again is not a fatal ohjection. The simplest interpretation is, however, the hest. The Three Hundred in question were the hippeis, and went with the king as a matter of course; hut Hdt. has a little misunderstood the arrangement. For the ἱππεῖς cp. 1. 67, 6. 56, 8. 124.

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τοὺς ἐς τὸν ἀριθμὸν λογισάμενος εἶπον, in c. 202 supra: the expression illustrates the εἶπον in e. 196 supra; the reference hack is noticeahle as made simply to the immediate context.

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Λεοντιάδης ὁ Εὐρυμάχου: the first name is much the same as that of the Spartan king; ep. c. 204 supra. The Thehan is mentioned here, perhaps, without prejudice; but ep. e. 233 infra. He is son of one and father of another Eurymaehos. Aristophanes of Boeotia gave the commander's name as Anaxandros, Fr. 5 (F.H.G. iv. 338).

τοῦδε δὲ εἵνεκα. Hdt.'s motivation (hut it is prohahly not his own in the first instance) seems rather at fault. Leonidas is especially anxious to have the Thehans (under his namesake) with him because they were accused as traitors. Did he wish to give them an <*>rtunity of purging themselves? Or <*> he wish to involve them in the foreseen and impending disaster? Neither of the two: he simply wished to know whether the accusation was, or was not, true! He seems (according to Hdt.) to have helieved it, for later on he is represented as retaining them to the last as ‘hostages,’ e. 222 infra, u.v.

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κατηγόρητο: the pluperfeet here has its full temporal significance. But how far a formal κατηγορία, and how far mere gossip is in question, does not quite surely appear. Anyway the information was prohahly of Plataian or Athenian origin. Had not the Thehans been formally represented at the Isthmian Congress (c. 145 supra)?

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ἄλλα φρονέοντες: cp. App. Crit.; ἄλλα νοέοντες, c. 168 supra; ἄλλα φρονέοντες, 9. 54; ἀλλοφρονῆσαι in 5. 85 to he out of one's mind. Anyway Hdt. endorses the κατηγορία.