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

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ὁ στρατός. The description which follows is far from being adequate to cover the tribes and nations enumerated in the Army-list afterwards (cc. 61-88), or even those which crossed the bridge, and one may suspect that in this place Hdt. has in view (though perhaps not quite consciously) only the troops who marched ἅμα αὐτῷ Ξέρξη̣, in fact mainly the levies of Upper Asia, which had mustered at Kritalla in the previous year (cp. c. 26 supra). That the column is described in marching order as it left Sardes merely shows that Hdt.'s sources did not date or hail from Upper Asia. (Cp. Introduction, § 10.) This observation does not preclude some of the Anatolian levies having mustered at Sardes; but the bulk probably made their way direct to Abydos; cp. c. 44 infra.

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οἱ σκευοφόροι τε καὶ τὰ ὑποζύγια. That the baggage-train marches first shows that the column is still in thoroughly friendly country. Moreover it was to cross by the Upper Bridge, and had therefore to arrive first at Abydos. Cp. τὰ ὑποζύγια καὶ ἡ θεραπηίη, c. 55 infra.

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σύμμικτος στρατὸς παντοίων ἐθνέων ἀναμίξ, οὐ διακεκριμένοι seems viciously redundant even for Hdt. Cp. App. Crit. The first four words recur c. 55 infra, and may be taken to cover the various tribes and nations of the eastern half of the empire, subsequently enumerated and described cc. 63-71. They formed the larger half (ὑπερημίσεες) of the column that left Sardes.

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διελέλειπτο is in neuter construction. The exact force of the pluperfect is not apparent, but it may be taken to emphasize the moment of the interval.

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ἱππόται χίλιοι, ‘a chiliad of cavalry’: the total number of Persian cavalry here, with that given in the next chapter, amounts to 12,000, cp. c. 84 infra.

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αἰχμοφόροι χίλιοι ... τὰς λόγχας κάτω ἐς τὴν γῆν τρέψαντες: τράποντες (τρέποντες) in c. 41 infra; the word here seems to describe the corps as it marched out of Sardes or its Laager. The normal way of carrying the spear was point upwards; cp. next chapter.

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Νησαῖοι καλεόμενοι ἵπποι δέκα. The reason given for the name ‘Ncsaean’ does not quite clearly show whether there were some large horses called ‘Nesaean’ without being of the true stock, or at least raised in the actual spot (even as ‘Limerick hams’ have been known to hail from Chicago); but the passage has the appearance of having been composed not merely before 9. 20, but before 3. 106, where τῶν Μηδικῶν, Νησαίων δὲ καλευμένων ἵππων are mentioned without any explanation of the name. Hdt. seems to make a poor jest in μέγα and μεγάλους. Greek horses were of course small. But cp. App. Crit.

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ἅρμα Διὸς ἱρόν: the chariot or car of Ahuramasda, no doubt; upon which not the king himself dared set foot. Xen. Kyrop. 8. 3. 12 (ἐξήγετο ἄρμα λευκὸν χρυσόζυγον ἐστεμμένον Διὸς ἱερόν, μετὰ δὲ τοῦτο Ἡλίου ἅρμα λευκόν, καὶ τοῦτο ἐστεμμένον ὥσπερ τὸ πρόσθεν: μετὰ δὲ τοῦτο ἄλλο τρίτον ἅρμα ἐξήγετο, φοινικίσι καταπεπταμένοι οἱ ἵπποι, καὶ πῦρ ὄπισθεν αὐτοῦ ἐπ᾽ ἐσχάρας μεγάλης ἄνδρες εἵποντο φέροντες) describes a procession with three sacred cars, one of Zeus, one of Mithra, and one of the sacred Fire. But that was a pacific, this a warlike occasion. (Rawlinson suspects in that a corruption of the Persian religion between the days of Hdt. and Xenophon!) This sacred chariot was left in Thrace and not recovered, 8. 115.

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παραβεβήκεε. Homeric παραιβάται are the warriors, not the charioteers (“ἂν δ᾽ ἔβαν ἐν δίφροισι παραιβάται ἠνίοχοί τε” Il. 23. 132), and so generally. The verb is here used in a less technical sense, as in Il. 11. 522 of Hektor's driver, Kebriones.

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Ὀτάνεω ἀνδρὸς Πέρσεω παῖς. Who the mother of Patiramphes was does not seem to matter. The father Otanes could hardly be the son of Pharnaspes, cp. 6. 43, but might very well be the son of Sisamnes, cp. 5. 25, and identical with the father of Amestris, c. 61 infra.