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Θρήικες: as immediately appears, these are ‘Asianic’ Thracians, alias Βιθυνοί. Of the European origin of the ‘Bithynians,’ i.e. of the real presence of ‘Thrakians’ in NW. Asia Minor, there can be no donbt. Whether the name Bithynian was first acquired in Asia, and that moreover in lieu of Στρυμόνιοι, seems more open to doubt. The Θυνοί of Xenophon (Anab. 7. 2. 22) are a warlike tribe in European Thrace, unknown to Hdt. (for 1. 28 is a gloss). It may be that the Θυνοί migrated from the Strymon to Asia, and there acquired the handle to their name. The identity of the ‘Thracians’ in Europe and in Asia, subject, of course, to the recognition of (a) sub-divisions, (b) intermixture with ‘non-Thracian’ elements, is indubitable, and the invasion postHomeric, i.e. almost historical. Rawlinson cites Xenophon (Anab. 7. 4. 4) to show that the Thracians in Thrace wore exactly the same costume as that here assigned to the Thracians in Asia; and the linguistic argument, as far as it goes, fully bears out the ethnical identity (cp. Kretschmer, Einleitung, p. 211).
ἀλωπεκέας: sc. δοράς. Cp. c. 69 supra. Their ‘fox’ skins no doubt had the hair, and perhaps the heads, on. Cp. Xenoph. l.c. τὰς ἀλωπεκίδας ἐπὶ ταῖς κεφαλαῖς φορου_σι καὶ τοῖς ὦσι.
κιθῶνας, ‘undergarments,’ perhaps of Thracian κάνναβις, 4. 74, cp. Xenoph. l.c. χιτῶνας οὐ μόνον περὶ τοῖς στέρνοις ἀλλὰ καὶ περὶ τοῖς μηροῖς. ζειρὰς ... ποικίλας: c. 69 supra; cp. Xenoph. l.c. ζειρὰς μέχρι τῶν ποδῶν ἐπὶ τῶν ἴππων ἔχουσιν, ἀλλ᾽ οὐ χλαμύδας. Hdt. is describing footmen.
πέδιλα νεβρῶν, ‘fawn-skin boots reaching half up the leg,’ not unlike the ‘Paphlagonian’; c. 72 supra.
πέλτας: the most characteristic item of Thracian equipment, and destined to a great futnre, was the small shield, or target (round, square, or various? cp. Pauly i.2 1721), probably of wood, covered with leather; cp. c. 89 infra, Thucyd. 2. 29. 5, 4. 111. 1, 7. 27. 1, Xenoph. Hell. 2. 4. 12 etc.
ὡς αὐτοὶ λέγουσι ... φασί. These assertions in regard to his sources or authorities are vague and unconvincing: that the ‘Bithynians’ had come from the Strymon is likely enough, but that their proper or original name was ‘Strymo<*>i’ is doubtful, while their reported assertion that they were driven to migrate by the Teukro-Mysian invasion is (a) demonstrably a false tradition; cp. note to c. 20 supra: rather they had invaded the ‘Mysians’; and (b） singularly ill-placed in their own mouth.
Βασσάκης ὁ Ἀρταβάνου: an Achaimenid, brother of Artyphios (c. 66) and of Ariomardos (c. 67), but otherwise unknown to fame. His name resembles Μασσάγης, c. 71 supra.
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