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ὣς δὲ παραπλησίως: ep. ὣς δὲ αὔτως, c. 86 supra. οἱ ἐπεστεῶτες: sc. οἱ ἀραιρημένοι ἐπιστάται. ἀπεδείκνυσαν τὸν λόγον, ‘proved’ their accounts (on a similar scale) before the auditors. Heralds had been sent forward from Sardes to the Greek cities en route, προερέοντας δεῖπνα βασιλέι παρασκευάζειν, c. 32 supra. Those words were perhaps inserted in e. 32, at the same time as this addition (cc. 118-120) was made here.
προειρημένον, ‘bespoken,’ ‘commandeered,’ ‘requisitioned’; cp. προερέοντας, c. 32, and contr. c. 116. The change to the genitive absolute ποιευμένων is rather abrupt; πολλῶν or πάντων would soften it.
δασάμενοι σῖτον: at the general expense. In c. 121 infra δασάμενοι is used simply in an active sense.
ἄλευρά τε καὶ ἄλφιτα, ‘wheat-flour aud barley-meal’ (force of plural), ep. Plato, Rep. 372 B ἐκ μὲν τῶν κριθῶν ἄλφιτα σκευαζόμενος, ἐκ δὲ τῶν πυρῶν ἄλευρα: cp. Xenoph. Anab. 1. 5. 6 (famine prices!). Xenophon was mightily surprised to find villagers in Armenia everywhere living on the best, including wheat and barley bread: ib. 4. 5. 31 οὐκ ἦν δ᾽ ὅπου οὐ παρετίθεσαν ἐπὶ τὴν αὐτὴν τράπεζαν κρέα ἄρνεια, ἐρίφεια, χοίρεια, μόσχεια, ὀρνίθεια, σὺν πολλοῖς ἄρτοις τοῖς μὲν πυρίνοις τοῖς δὲ κριθίνοις. ἐποίευν: ἐποιεῦντο, l. 11 infra: the different force of the active and middle illustrated by the different relation of the population at large (πάντες) to bread-making and metal-work.
ἐξευρίσκοντες τιμῆς. The verb plainly refers here to what already exists before it is sought out and found (cp. 4. 79); τιμῆς is a market term (sc. μεγάλης) and ‘genitive of the price’ (Madvig, § 54 b) or value, in which sense τιμή is common in Attic (fourth century), e.g. Plato, Laws 917 B δύο εἰπεῖν τιμάς ‘to name two priees.’ The use is not Homeric, but an ‘honour’ soon degenerates into an ‘honorarium,’ an ideal into a material amende. And τιμή comes to mean both ‘penalty’ and ‘price’ (Hymn to Demeter 131 f. φεῦγον ὑπερφιάλους σημάντορας ὄφρα κε μή με ἀπριάτην περάσαντες ἐμῆς ἀποναίατο τιμῆς). (τιμή as an ‘office,’ c. 36 supra.）
λάκκοισι : λάκκος, an artificial pond or reservoir, cp. 4. 195. ἐς ὑποδοχὰς τοῦ στρατοῦ, ‘for the entertainment of the forces.’ In Thuc. 7. 74 (εἰς ὑποδοχὴν τοῦ στρατεύματος) of hostile reception. The plural is here significant, not of successive receptions by several cities, but of the multifarious character of the guests at each reception.
ὁμοσιτέουσι: cp. ὁμοτράπεζοι, 3. 132, and App. Crit. ἐπεποίητο: the pluperfect has its temporal force. φορβήν: c. 50. ἄλλῃ: cp. άλλη, l. 16 infra, idiomatic and superfluous (in English).
ἔσκε: ποιεέσκετο: ἔσκε: ἔχεσκον: almost too much of a good thing; cp. App. Crit.
σταθμόν (ποιεῖσθαι), ‘made his abode,’ ‘took up his quarters.’
δείπνου ὥρη, ‘dinner-time,’ presumably by day light. On ὥρη cp. 8. 14.
αὐτοῦ, ‘on the spot,’ where they had had their meal. νύκτα ἀγαγεῖν, or ἄγειν, not a common expression, and doubtless more significant than νυκτερεύειν: they made a long night of it, cp. Propertius 1. 11. 5 (ecquid te) Nostri cura subit memores ah! ducere noctes?
οὕτω ἀπελαύνεσκον, ‘they would never take their departure from a place until they had torn down (up) the tent and laid hands on all the furniture’— the rapacity of the Persians is half ludicrous, and perhaps wholly fabulous. The king's tent and its equipment were presumably the ones carried with him, cp. 9. 70, and not a new one daily supplied by the fresh locality.
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