The history of Herodotus Volume I Part 24

93 [ {autoi}, i.e. in themselves as well as in their habits. Some MSS.

read {to} for {autoi}, which is adopted by several Editors; others adopt the conjecture {autois}.]

94 [ i.e. two in each hind-leg.]

95 [ {kai paraluesthai}: {kai} is omitted in some MSS. and by some Editors.]

96 [ {ouk omou}: some Editors omit {ouk}: the meaning seems to be that in case of necessity they are thrown off one after another to delay the pursuing animals.]

97 [ The meaning of the pa.s.sage is doubtful: possibly it should be translated (omitting {kai}) "the male camels, being inferior in speed to the females, flag in their course and are dragged along, first one and then the other."]

9701 [ See ii. 75.]

98 [ {metri}: the MSS. have {metre}, "womb," but for this Herod. seems to use the plural.]

99 [ {metera}: most MSS. have {metran}.]

100 [ Most of the MSS. have {auton} before {ta melea}, which by some Editors is omitted, and by others altered to {autika}. If {auton} is to stand it must be taken with {katapetomenas}, "flying down upon them,"

and so it is punctuated in the Medicean MS.]

101 [ {elkea}. There is a play upon the words {epelkein} and {elkea} which can hardly be reproduced in translation.]

102 [ {Ka.s.siteridas}.]

103 [ {o ka.s.siteros}.]

104 [ cp. iv. 13.]

105 [ {akinakea}.]

106 [ This is the second of the satrapies mentioned in the list, see ch. 90, named from its chief town. Oroites also possessed himself of the first satrapy, of which the chief town was Magnesia (ch. 122), and then of the third (see ch. 127).]

107 [ The satrapy of Daskyleion is the third in the list, see ch. 90.]

108 [ {su gar en andron logo}.]

109 [ Or, "banqueting hall," cp. iv. 95.]

110 [ {apestrammenon}: most of the MSS. have {epestrammenon}, "turned towards (the wall)."]

11001 [ "whenever he (i.e. Zeus) rained."]

111 [ This clause, "as Amasis the king of Egypt had foretold to him," is omitted in some MSS. and by some Editors.]

112 [ {oideonton eti ton pregmaton}: cp. ch. 76.]

113 [ i.e. satrapies: see ch. 89, 90.]

114 [ {apikomenon kai anakomisthenton}: the first perhaps referring to the slaves and the other to the rest of the property.]

115 [ i.e. the art of evasion.]

116 [ {es tou khrosou ten theken}: {es} is not in the MSS., which have generally {tou khrusou sun theke}: one only has {tou khrusou ten theken}.]

117 [ {stateras}: i.e. the {stater Dareikos} "Daric," worth about 1; cp. note on vii. 28.]

118 [ {ekaton mneon}, "a hundred minae," of which sixty go to the talent.]

119 [ This pa.s.sage, from "for this event happened" to the end of the chapter, is suspected as an interpolation by some Editors, on internal grounds.]

120 [ Tarentum. Italy means for Herodotus the southern part of the peninsula only.]

121 [ {restones}: so one inferior MS., probably by conjectural emendation: the rest have {krestones}. The Ionic form however of {rastone} would be {reistone}. Some would read {khrestones}, a word which is not found, but might mean the same as {kresmosunes} (ix. 33), "in consequence of the request of Demokedes."]

122 [ {kat' emporien strateuomenoi}: some MSS. read {kat' emporien, oi de strateuomenoi}, "some for trade, others serving in the army."]

123 [ {prothura}.]

124 [ {e tis e oudeis}.]

125 [ {isonomien}: see ch. 80, note.]

126 [ {all' oud' axios eis su ge}. Maiandrios can claim no credit or reward for giving up that of which by his own unworthiness he would in any case have been deprived.]

127 [ {ou de ti}: some read {oud' eti} or {ou de eti}, "no longer kept the purpose."]

128 [ {en gorgure}: the word also means a "sewer" or "conduit."]

129 [ {prosempikraneesthai emellon toisi Samioisi}.]

130 [ {tous diphroph.o.r.eumenous}: a doubtful word: it seems to be a sort of t.i.tle belonging to Persians of a certain rank, perhaps those who were accompanied by men to carry seats for them, the same as the {thronoi} mentioned in ch. 144; or, "those who were borne in litters."]

131 [ {sageneusantes}: see vi. 31. The word is thought by Stein to have been interpolated here.]

132 [ Or, "are very highly accounted and tend to advancement."]

133 [ "opposite to."]

134 [ The words "and to the Persians" are omitted in some MSS.]

BOOK IV. THE FOURTH BOOK OF THE HISTORIES, CALLED MELPOMENE

1. After Babylon had been taken, the march of Dareios himself 1 against the Scythians took place: for now that Asia was flourishing in respect of population, and large sums were being gathered in as revenue, Dareios formed the desire to take vengeance upon the Scythians, because they had first invaded the Median land and had overcome in fight those who opposed them; and thus they had been the beginners of wrong. The Scythians in truth, as I have before said, 2 had ruled over Upper Asia 3 for eight-and-twenty years; for they had invaded Asia in their pursuit of the Kimmerians, and they had deposed 4 the Medes from their rule, who had rule over Asia before the Scythians came. Now when the Scythians had been absent from their own land for eight-and-twenty years, as they were returning to it after that interval of time, they were met by a contest 5 not less severe than that which they had had with the Medes, since they found an army of no mean size opposing them. For the wives of the Scythians, because their husbands were absent from them for a long time, had a.s.sociated with the slaves.