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

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Αἰγύπτιοι. It is curious that the ‘Egyptians’ of all peoples should most have distingnished themselves in a sea-fight: perhaps the Egyptian Aristeia was a compliment to their Persian admiral Achaimenes (cp. 7. 236). or that special account was taken of their prejudices and inexperience! Diodoros 11. 13. 2 awards the prize (with more probability) to the Sidonians (perhaps from Hdt. 7. 44).

στρατιωτέων: cp. c. 12 supra. The five ships taken, men and all (αὐτοῖσι ἀνδράσι), were presumably not Athenian, notwithstanding c. 10 supra, or the Athenians could hardly have obtained the ἀριστεῖα on this day among the Greeks. Cp. Plutarch de malig. Hdti. 34 = Mor. 867 ὁ μὲν Πίνδαρος, οὐκ ὢν συμμάχου πόλεως, ἀλλὰ μηδίζειν αἰτίαν ἐχούσης, ὅμως τοῦ Ἀρτεμισίου μνησθεὶς ἐπιπεφώνηκεν, ὅθι παῖδες Ἀθαναίων ἐβάλοντο φαεννὰν κρηπῖδ᾽ ἐλευθερίας. There are three other citations of the same Pindaric laud in Plutarch's works, viz. Themist. 8; de glor. Ath. 7 = Mor. 350; de s. num. v. 6 = Mor. 552 C.

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Κλεινίης ὁ Ἀλκιβιάδεω. This Kleinias, son of Alkibiades, is, of course, the father of that better known Alkibiades, the pupil of Sokrates, and the author of so much woe to Athens from 421 B.C. onwards. The name ‘Alkibiades’ is probably rather a Spartan than an Athenian favourite (cp. Thuc. 8. 6. 3), and the elder Alkibiades, a member of the great clan of the Eurysakidai (Petersen, Hist. Gent. Att. 1880, p. 126), or rather of the Εὐπατρίδαι (cp. Toepffer, Attische Genealogie, 1889, pp. 175 ff.), had been at one time Spartan πρόξενος in Athens, but had renounced the office (Thuc. 5. 43. 2), perhaps in consequence of his relations with Kleisthenes and the Alkmaionidai, a daughter of which house, Deinarete by name, he espoused, Alkibiades the younger, their offspring, being thus related to Perikles the son of Agariste (6. 131) on the spindle side. The elder Alkibiades had probably (with Aristeides, Xanthippos, and others) opposed the naval policy of Themistokles, and had suffered ostracisin (see Appendix III. § 4), but, if still alive, would have returned with Aristeides (cp. c. 79 infra): that his son Kleinias here defrays the expenses, and more than all the expenses of a τριηραρχία, seems to show that the father was no longer alive in 480 B.C. (or that the son had an independent fortune?). A further question arises whether the said Kleinias was alive or dead when this passage was written by Hdt. But alas! this passage is consistent with either alternative, and cannot be used as conclusive of the date of composition. Kleinias fell in the disastrous battle of Koroneia in 447 B.C. (Plutarch, Alkib. 1), and the fact that his death is not here mentioned might be taken to prove that this passage was originally written during his lifetime (cp. per contra the case of Sophanes 9. 75); but, on the other hand, (i.) this record might well have been taken from a sepulchral monument; (ii.) the disaster at Koroneia might better he passed over in silence; (iii.) Hdt. might easily have inserted a reference, had he wished to do so, in the final revision of his work; (iv.) he has not always recorded the deaths of eminent men, his dramatis personae, e.g. Aristeides, Themistokles, Xanthippos, and others.

δαπάνην οἰκηίην: οἰκηίῃ νηί: cp. 5. 47 for a parallel instance. At Athens, in Hdt.'s time, the state provided the ‘trierarch’ with the hull, mast, pay and rations for the men. On the trierarchy cp. Appendix III. § 4.