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ὃ δ᾽ ἀμείβετο: Themistokles responds, and gives himself completely away. Had he really been playing the very dangerous game ascribed to him, and attempting to outwit not the Persians but his colleagues, he would have known how to contain himself in the presence of his personal enemy. But perhaps we take the record too seriously, and Themistokles, in this private interview, preserved his discretion, and said to Aristeides—something quite other than this report? A la bonne heure! But then, what becomes of any private speech or conversation reported by Hdt.?
διακελεύεαι: referring to the honourable and magnammous στάσις to which Aristeides has challenged him. διακελεύεσθαι, ‘to encourage one another’; cp. 1. 1, 3. 77. It is also used more simply, ‘to exhort,’ ‘command,’ as in c. 84 infra. ἐδεόμην, ‘I was wanting,’ c. 59 supra.
αὐτόπτης: sc. αὐτῶν or τούτων. ἐξ ἐμέο is predicative. ἔδεε, sc ἐμέ. παραστήσασθαι, trans., sc. ἐς μάχην. ἑκόντες ἤθελον, redundant, for the sake of the ἀέκοντας to follow. αὐτά, ‘what you have said,’ ‘the news.’
δόξω πλάσας λέγειν, ‘I shall be thought to have invented what I say.’ Such, alas, was his reputation! οὐ πείσω, ὡς οὐ ποιεύντων ... τ<*>ῦτα, ‘I shall not persuade them, as (they are convinced) the barbarians are not doing that.’ This ὡς has a good deal to carry, but is eased a little by the δόξω πλάσας just before. But cp. App. Crit.
παρελθών: sc. right into the presence of the Synedrion of generals.
περιεχόμεθα πανταχόθεν: a stronger phrase than περιεχόμεθα κύκλῳ supra, and hardly accurate unless the whole island were surrounded.
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