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ἔυθα καί, repeated from c. 115 1. 16 supra, unless that passage is a later addition. ὁ τῶν Βισαλτέων βασιλεύς: on the position of Bisaltia cp. Strabo l.c., and 7. 115 supra. γῆ ἡ Κρηστωνική is not immediately north, but higher up, on the sources of the Cheidoros, 7. 124, 127. The king here is anonymous; but a king named ‘Mosses,’ dated about 500-480 B. C., is known from the coinage; cp. Head, Hist. Num. p. 179; G. Macdonald, Catalogue of Gk. Coins in the Hunterian Collection, i. (1899) p. 269.
ἔργον ὑπερφυὲς ἐργάσατο. The epithet here appears to be used in a dyslogistic sense; in 9. 78 eulogistically; in a purely matter-of-fact way, 2. 175. The word is not uncommon in the Attic writers.
ἑκὼν εἶναι: the substantive verb purely idiomatic, ‘at least willingly,’ in the negative sentenee (Madvig § 151. 2).
τὸ ὄρος τὴν Ῥοδόπην: one or other appositive might be a gloss; Rhodope has not been mentioned before in these Books, but occurs in 4. 49 as a mountain in Paionia. “The main skeleton of the country between the Danube and the Aegean” is well described in Arnold's note to Thuc. 2. 96. 4 (though Arnold's use of ‘Orbelus’ is hardly correct). Rhodope is that branch of the fourfold mountain system which runs down to the Aegean, dividing the valleys of the Hebros (Maritza) and Nestos (Kara Su), and breaking away into lower ranges further west, towards the Strymon. Cp. also Hogarth, Nearer East, pp. 24 f. ἀπηγόρευε μή: cp. c. 111 supra. This Bisaltian's apparent phil-Hellenism is noticeable: he did not take his cue from Macedon, nor perhaps anticipate the subsequent invasions of his territory by Athenian adventurers.
ἀλογήσαντες: c. 46 supra. ἢ ἄλλως ... ἐγένετο: the grammatical co-ordination is not exact. ἄλλως as in 4. 148, εἴ τε δή οἱ ἡ χώρη ἤρεσε, εἴτε καὶ ἄλλως ἠθἐλησε τοῦτο ποιῆσαι. But there is not really a true alternative involved.
ἀσινέες: cp. c. 19 supra. The fact does not support the traditions of the hardships of this campaign. ἐξώρυξε ... τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς: such a punishment was non-Hellenic, barbarous, as Aelian 5. 11. narrating this anecdote, expressly notices. Cp. 4. 2 supra. But Hdt. seems to suggest that they deserved it (τοῦτον τὸν μισθόν). The words διὰ τὴν αἰτίην ταύτην add nothing to the force of the passage, unless it be supposed that there was another view of the motive for the king's inhuman action, e.g a suspicion of a plot to depose him, or what not.
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