The history of Herodotus Volume II Part 18

Mr. Whitelaw suggests to me that {epikarsios} ({epi kar}) may mean rather "head-foremost," which seems to be its meaning in Homer (Odyss.

ix. 70), and from which might be obtained the idea of intersection, one line running straight up against another, which it has in other pa.s.sages. In that case it would here mean "heading towards the Pontus."]

35 [ {tas men pros tou Pontou tes eteres}. Most commentators would supply {gephures} with {tes eteres}, but evidently both bridges must have been anch.o.r.ed on both sides.]

36 [ {eurou}: Stein adopts the conjecture {zephurou}.]

37 [ {ton pentekonteron kai triereon trikhou}: the MSS. give {ton pentekonteron kai trikhou}, "between the fifty-oared galleys in as many as three places," but it is strange that the fifty-oared galleys should be mentioned alone, and there seems no need of {kai} with {trikhou}.

Stein reads {ton pentekonteron kai triereon} (omitting {trikhou} altogether), and this may be right.]

38 [ i.e. in proportion to the quant.i.ty: there was of course a greater weight altogether of the papyrus rope.]

39 [ {autis epezeugnuon}.]

40 [ {ekleipsin}: cp. {eklipon} above.]

41 [ Or, according to some MSS., "Nisaian."]

42 [ i.e. not downwards.]

43 [ {tina autou sukhnon omilon}.]

44 [ {to Priamou Pergamon}.]

45 [ {en Abudo mese}: some inferior authorities (followed by most Editors) omit {mese}: but the district seems to be spoken of, as just above.]

46 [ {proexedre lothou leukou}: some kind of portico or loggia seems to be meant.]

47 [ {daimonie andoon}.]

48 [ {ena auton}.]

49 [ {to proso aiei kleptomenos}: "stealing thy advance continually,"

i.e. "advancing insensibly further." Some take {kleptomenos} as pa.s.sive, "insensibly lured on further."]

50 [ {neoteron ti poiesein}.]

51 [ Or, according to some MSS., "the Persian land."]

52 [ Lit. "the name of which happens to be Agora."]

53 [ i.e. 1,700,000.]

54 [ {sunnaxantes}: a conjectural emendation very generally adopted of {sunaxantes} or {sunapsantes}.]

55 [ {apageas}, i.e. not stiffly standing up; the opposite to {pepeguias} (ch. 64).]

56 [ {lepidos siderees opsin ikhthueideos}: many Editors suppose that some words have dropped out. The {kithon} spoken of may have been a coat of armour, but elsewhere the body armour {th.o.r.ex} is clearly distinguished from the {kithon}, see ix. 22.]

57 [ {gerra}: cp. ix. 61 and 102.]

58 [ Cp. i. 7.]

59 [ {mitrephoroi esan}: the {mitre} was perhaps a kind of turban.]

60 [ {tesi Aiguptiesi}, apparently {makhairesi} is meant to be supplied: cp. ch. 91.]

61 [ {eklethesan}, "were called" from the first.]

62 [ These words are by some Editors thought to be an interpolation. The Chaldeans in fact had become a caste of priests, cp. i. 181.]

63 [ {kurbasias}: supposed to be the same as the tiara (cp. v. 49), but in this case stiff and upright.]

64 [ i.e. Areians, cp. iii. 93.]

65 [ {sisurnas}: cp. iv. 109.]

66 [ {akinakas}.]

67 [ {sisurnophoroi}.]

68 [ {zeiras}.]

69 [ {toxa palintona}.]

70 [ {spathes}, which perhaps means the stem of the leaf.]

71 [ {gupso}, "white chalk."]

72 [ {milto}, "red ochre."]

73 [ Some words have apparently been lost containing the name of the nation to which the following description applies. It is suggested that this might be either the Chalybians or the Pisidians.]

74 [ {lukioergeas}, an emendation from Athenaeus of {lukoergeas} (or {lukergeas}), which might perhaps mean "for wolf-hunting."]

75 [ {anastpastous}: cp. iii. 93.]

76 [ Some Editors place this clause before the words: "and Smerdomenes the son of Otanes," for we do not hear of Otanes or Smerdomenes elsewhere as brother and nephew of Dareios. On the other hand Mardonios was son of the sister of Dareios.]

77 [ {tukhe}, "hits."]

78 [ {keletas}, "single horses."]

79 [ This name is apparently placed here wrongly. It has been proposed to read {Kaspeiroi} or {Paktues}.]

80 [ {ippeue}: the greater number of MSS. have {ippeuei} here as at the beginning of ch. 84, to which this is a reference back, but with a difference of meaning. There the author seemed to begin with the intention of giving a full list of the cavalry force of the Persian Empire, and then confined his account to those actually present on this occasion, whereas here the word in combination with {mouna} refers only to those just enumerated.]

81 [ i.e. 80,000.]

82 [ {Suroisi}, see note on ii. 104.]