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

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οὐ βουλομένων δὲ ... φθόνῳ: the sentenee may be taken to refer to the judicial fiasco just recorded. τῶν Ἑλλήνων=τῶν στρατηγῶν. But withont much pressing the passage might be taken to refer to a refusal to decide the question on appeal, ἑκάστων (each set and each contingent) just below favouring that too. ἀκρίτων is plainly active, ‘without giving a decision.’

φθόνος is the besetting sin of Greek citizenship, cp. 7. 236 supra, and was not eliminated between confederates.

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ἐβώσθη τε κτλ.: cp. 6. 131 οὕτω Ἀλκμεωνίδαι ἐβώσθησαν ἀνὰ τὴν Ἑλλάδα.

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θέλων τιμηθῆναι: this motivation again betrays animus (cp. c. 112 supra). The visit of Themistokles to Lakedaimon in the autumn or winter (480-79) was probably by invitation (cp. Plutarch Themist. 17), and may have had deeper political and diplomatic ends in view than the Herodotean historiography has reckoned with.

The honours heaped upon the Athenian in Sparta Diodoros 11.27 (Ephoros) traces to Spartan apprehensions of reprisals on the part of the Athenians and Themistokles, for the set-back after Salamis; they may have been intended, at least in part, to promote a naval policy for the future (cp. c. 108 supra), as well as to reward its past success. They do not appear to have turned his head, much less won Themistokles to sacrifice Athenian to Spartan interests. Within a twelvemonth he is in Sparta again, for a very different purpose, and at considerable risk to himself; cp. Thucyd. 1. 89-92. The Themistoklean legend had attempted to discount his services to Athens in Sparta by ignoring the visit after PlataiaMykale, and caricaturing the visit after Salamis; Thucydides' record is a part of the Rettung of Themistokles, which he favours. Cp. Appendix VII. § 4.

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Εὐρυβιάδῃ, who must, according to the antecedent anecdote, have voted the prize to himself at the Isthmos.

σοφίης δὲ καὶ δεξιότητος: the distinction between the ‘ethical’ (ἀνδρηίη, cp. App. Crit.) and the ‘intellectual’ virtues, and their rewards, shows that the Spartans had some philosophy in them! The award is the same in each case, an olive-wreath; and the co-ordination (which justifies our understanding ἀριστήια before σοφίης) is emphasized by the words καὶ τούτῳ (et ipsi; cp. καὶ οὗτοι 7. 40, Stein).

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ὄχῳ τῷ ἐν Σπάρτῃ καλλιστεύσαντι. Stein observes the astonishing use here of the aorist. Perhaps when the chariot reached Athens it was not so much thought of!

αἰνέσαντες might seem grammatically to belong to the τριηκόσιοι, but κατὰ σύνεσιν, a reference to the previous subject (Λακεδαιμόνιοι) seems more pointed and natural. The αἶνος perhaps took the form of songs or orations in his honour; cp. Thuc. 2. 25. 2. It is followed by the ‘pomp,’ or escort, to the frontier.

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τριηκόσιοι Σπαρτιητέων λογάδες: perhaps the royal body-guard, “οἱ τριακόσιοι ἱππῆς καλούμενοι” Thuc. 5. 72. 4 (but cp. 6. 56, 7. 205 supra), apparently identical with the corps d' élite of hoplites, described by Xenophon, Laced. Rep. 4, as chosen by the three Hippagretai, each choosing 100 men, the Hippagretai themselves having been selected by the Ephors; the corps would then be annually recruited, and a fresh levy may have been made since Thermopylai. There were no real riders in the Spartan army of this date, but the title was an interesting survival. Cp. 1. 67, a passage which suggests that the corps of Hippeis at Sparta was paitially reciuited every year, the thirty seniors perhaps taking their discharge (and furnishing the five Ἀγαθοεργοί), while thirty juniors would be admitted to the corps, the whole being thus normally renewable every decade. But provision must, of course, have been made for occasional vacancies.

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μοῦνον δὴ τοῦτον π. ἀνθ. τ. ήμεῖς ἴδμεν: cp. Athenian orator ap. Thuc. 1. 74. 1 “καὶ αὐτὸν διὰ τοῦτο ὑμεῖς ἐτιμήσατε μάλιστα δὴ ἄνδρα ξένον τῶν ὡς ὑμᾶς ἐλθόντων”. On the Herodotean formula cp. c. 105 supra. The asyndeton is observable; cp. 9. 35 μοῦνοι δὲ δὴ πάντων κτλ.