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ἀπίκατο ἐς τὰς Ἀθήνας: eorrected, both as to time and place, just below into ἀπίκοντο ἐς τὸ Φάληρον. The city-name might pass for the country, cp. 9. 17.
Πάριοι had paid dearly for Medism in 489 B.C.; ep. 6. 133-5. They now ‘remained behind’ (ὑπολειφθέντες, cp. 5. 61, 9 53) in Kythnos—itself on the patriotic side, c. 46 supra—and like the Korkyreans in the west, ἐκαραδόκεον τὸν π., cp. 7. 168. This attitude of the Parians seems to show—like the desertion of the Lemnian and the Tenian— that the islanders by no means regarded the triumph of the king as a foregone conelusion.
οἱ δὲ λοιποί: the δέ resumptive, after a parenthesis; ep. 7. 95 tot. verb. τὸ Φάληρον, c. 66 supra. In 6. 116 it is deseribed as ‘at that time (490 B.C.) the Athenian arsenal (ἐπίνειον）’ —perhaps beeause in the narrative there the remark is of especial point in view of the threatening pause of the Persian fleet in the offing; or perhaps beeause when Hdt. wrote that passage he had a personal acquaintance with the Attic harbours, which he still lacked when writing this, Introd. §§ 6, 7.
κατέβη αὐτὸς Ξέρξης: the king doubtless rode, or was driven down in his open ehariot or closed carriage (cp. 7. 41 supra); he surely would not be walking from Athens. But it was an effort of condescension; for Xerxes might have summoned the council of war to Athens if he had merely wished to take advice. The king had not reviewed his fleet properly sinee Doriskos, or at least since Therme (cp. 7. 44, 100, 127).
σφι: not the ships, but the men, or their eommanders. τῶν ἐπιπλεόντων: cp. 7. 98 supra. With συμμεῖξαι cp. c. 58 supra.
προΐζετο: sedem altiorem, praecipuam, cepit (occupabat?), Baehr. The others ἵζοντο, just infra. Cp. 4. 88 Δαρεῖον ἐν προεδρίῃ κατήμενον, and 7. 44 —the προεξέδρη on which Xerxes sat (ἵζετο) at Abydos to review the fleet. Similarly προκατιζόμενος 5. 12, and the same word in the active 1. 14, 97. ταξίαρχοι, as in 7. 99.
ὁ Σιδώνιος [βασιλεύς]: cp. App. Crit. Stein defends the βασιλεύς on account of the proximity of ταξίαρχοι, in which case Σιδωνίων would be more usual. Tetramnestos was his name, 7. 98 supra; the Tyrian's was Mapen, ib.
Μαρδόνιον: why is Mardonios, one of the six field-marshals (7. 82), thus employed on this occasion, when there were four admirals, including two ‘of the blood,’ who commanded the fleet (7. 97)? Blakesley replied that much greater confidence was plaeed in his strategic talents, and that he was perhaps regarded as the commander-in-chief of both services. But Xerxes himself surely occupies at present this position. Mardonios figures here perhaps for literary reasons, because he is one of the leading dramatis personae, and it is high time that something more were heard of him; he is needed as a foil to Artemisia; cp. cc. 100-102 infra. One must not take this council too seriously; the Persian admirals are conspicuous by their absence.
ἀποπειρώμενος ἑκάστου: cp. 6. 48.
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