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Τρηχὶς δὲ πόλις. The predecessor of Herakleia, from which it was apparently less than a mile distant. Ἡράκλεια—ἡ Τραχὶν καλουμένη πρότερον, Λακεδαιμονίων κτίσμα: διέχει δὲ τῆς ἀρχαίας Τραχῖνος περὶ ἓξ σταδίους ἡ Ἡράκλεια, Straho 428. Cp. Thuc. 3. 92. 1 (anno 426 B.C.) ὑπὸ δὲ τὸν χρόνον τοῦτον Λακεδαιμόνιοι Ἡράκλειαν τὴν ἐν Τραχινίᾳ ἀποικίαν καθίσταντο. Although the argument a silentio must not be unduly pressed, yet it is worth while remarking that Hdt. makes no allusion whatever to this Lakedaimonian foundation. The passage here before us belongs to the earliest draft of the Book; but a referenee to the colonial act of 426 B.C. would easily and naturally have been inserted, had Hdt. known of it. Cp. Introduction, § 9.
δισχίλιά τε γὰρ καὶ δισμύρια πλέθρα τοῦ πεδίου ἐστί. 22,000 plethra, in long measure, would amount to 420 (odd) miles, a manifest absurdity: therefore, either the figure is wrong, or else the measurement is square. After εὐρύτατον one expects a simple measure of length. Rawlinson challenges the reading, and suggests κβ (=22) as possibly corrupted into <*>κ <*>β (=22.000). 22 plethra would be less than half a mile. That seems rather little even for antiquity. Leake (so too Stein) took the measurements here to he square: the amount on this hypothesis would be 5025 acres. Rawlinson objects (1) Hdt. never gives areas; (2) the particle γάρ. What γάρ has to say to long rather than quadrate measure, I do not see. Stein suggests that Hdt. gives the square measure here, probably because the Persian camp (c. 201) was pitched here. This suggestion is acceptable; but does it mean that the camp covered 5000 acres? If so, we have a kind of criterion of the numbers of the Persian host before Thermopylai. (Allowing 4 acres for 1000 infantry and 10 acres for 1000 cavalry, 5000 acres would accommodate 1,250,000 infantry or 500,000 cavalry! or say, 1,000,000 infantry and 100,000 cavalry!) At any rate, it leads to two further inferences: (i.) Hdt. is here following medizing sources (not the patriotic southern Greek sources from which the description in c. 176 was drawn); (ii.) he has not obtained this measurement from a source connected with the Spartan foundation of Herakleia in 426 B.C. The 5025 acres, for example, are not the territory of the new colony (but they might be the measurement of the Τρηχινίη χώρη).
τὸ περικληίει τὴν γῆν τὴν Τρηχινίην. This mountain might be identical with the Τρηχινίαι πέτραι of c. 198, which are there (erroneously) said to enclose πᾶσαν τὴν Μηλίδα γῆν. διασφὰξπρὸσμες αμβρίην Τρηχῖνος. Hdt. ought here to say east rather than south (cp. c. 176 supra), although the error in this case is not so great, as the Asopos-gorge does extend south of (the site of) Trachis. Strabo 428 quotes and endorses this passage.
Ἀσωπός: the modern name is Καρβουναριά (Buisian, i. 92). The stream now flows into the Spercheios, not into the sea.
παρὰ τὴν ὑπωρέην τοῦ ὄρεος seems to refer to the projecting spur, which forms the Western Gate of the pass; cp. c. 176 supra.
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