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ταῦτα ὑποθεμένου: cum hocce consilium dedisset, Baehr. δεύτερα δή seems de trop, but serves to separate the action of the Hellenes from the suggestions of Leotychidas.
προσσχόντες τὰς νέας ἀπέβησαν ἐς τ. αἰγ. Hdt. records this remarkable operation without apparently the slightest apprehension of its military magnitude or significance. To debark on the shore in the presence of an army numerically superior (even if the ἓξ μυριάδες of c. 96 were not within hail), and in possession of a fortified camp, was surely a very brilliant achievement. Hdt. seems to regard it as something quite en règle, and keeps the Persians quietly looking on, as if they could never think of attempting to interfere. The inactivity of the Persians at this point is inexplicable except on the supposition that they despaired of the Ionians.
ὡς εἶδον ... παρασκευαζομένους . . παραινέσαντας: there is a double awkwardness in the sentence, the zeugma in εἶδον, and the hysteroproteron in the order of the participles, only partially corrected by the difference of tense. ‘On seeing the Hellenes making them ready to battle (after landing), and that they had addressed an appeal to the Ionians (before landing), the Persians took two precautions.’
τοῦτο μέν. ‘In the first place’ they disarm the Samians on a suspicion of Hellenic leanings. The suspicion is indeed an old one, for it is based upon an act of the previous winter, or autumn: and does the ὅπλων ἀπαίρεσις only take place now, at this point, after the landing of the Greeks at Mykale? ὑπονοέειν: c. 88 supra. τὰ Ἑλ. φρουέειν: cp. 7. 102 supra.
οἱ γὰρ ὦν Σάμιοι κτλ. This memorable little digression records a service of the Samians to Athens, which must have taken place months before. The king's ships had reached Samos in the previous autumn, 8. 130 supra; the Samians had redeemed 500 Attic prisoners, and had sent them home to Athens (ex hypothesi reoccupied) after duly providing them for the journey, or voyage (ἐποδιάσαντες). This note is somewhat startling. It presupposes an open sea between Samos and Athens. Had the 500 Athenians accompanied the Samian ambassadors in c. 90 supra, or preceded them? Such a pledge of good-will comes in for scant appreciation! There is doubtless some truth in the anecdote; but is it correctly chronologized? Were these Athenian prisoners liberated before the arrival of the Hellenes in Samos, c. 96 supra? Were they really redeemed, or had they been sold into slavery, in Samos, and liberated on the approach, or arrival of the Greek fleet?
ὑποψίην εἶχον, ‘were suspected . .,’ objects of suspicion; cp. αἰτίην εἶχον 5. 70, etc.
τοῦτο δέ. The second precaution taken by the Persians is the removal of the Milesians from the camp, on the plea that they are best qualified to guard the passes on Mykale. Precaution and plea are perplexing. The charge of the passes over Mykale interposes a suspected force between the Persians and Sardes, and the camp between that force and Miletos. Are the facts or the motives here rightly reported? If there were no Milesians in the Persian camp at Mykale, was it because the Persians had dismissed them? Or were there ‘Milesians’ and ‘Milesians’? If the Persians entrusted to Milesians the guard of the passes, that would rather point to a confidence in their loyalty! And who are these Milesians? According to 6. 19 f. the Milesians had been annihilated and the remnant expatriated in 494 B.C., i.e. fifteen years previously; their places had been taken by Persians and Karians, the former as landlords, the latter as labourers. Was there already a new agrarian question in Miletos (cp. 5. 29)? Or is the situation of 494 B.C. grossly exaggerated? In any case it is significant of Hdt.'s methods that he betrays no misgiving on this point. Possibly when he first composed this passage he was unacquainted with the story told in 6. 19, or at least had not incorporated it in his own work—the last three Books being of earlier composition. τὰς διόδους τὰς ἐς τὰς κορυφὰς . . φερούσας: the occupation of these passes might be for the purpose of preventing the Greeks from attacking the camp in the rear, or to obtain touch with Ephesos and the road to Sardes, in case a retreat became necessary. Mykale (as seen from the south on a fine April morning) is a grand mountain range, culminating in twin κορυφαί, east and west (4130 ft. and 3966 ft. in height respectively), with a gentle slope down to the western point, where the promontory becomes involved in the outline of Samos.
τοῖσι καὶ κατεδόκεον. This dative is puzzling. The normal construction is with accus. and infinitive. Valckenaer wished to insert ἐνεόν. Baehr takes δοκέειν = existimare, κατά in comp. contra aliquem, the dative being constructed with verbs compounded with κατά (though never anywhere else with καταδοκέειν). Stein explains the dative as used by analogy with συνειδέναι (and compares κατακρίνειν τινί τι 2. 133, 17. 146. 6). Kuehner, Gr. Gr. § 568. 1, ap. Baehr renders: sie glaubten bei ihnen, dass sie Neuerungen machten. νεοχμόν: cp. c. 104. 7 infra, νεοχμοῦν 4. 201, 5. 19.
δυνάμιος ἐπιλαβομένοισι, “if occasion offered,” Rawlinson; “if they found the occasion,” Macaulay. δύναμις as ‘potentiality,’ possibility, is remarkable in Hdt. The participle is here conditional. With the phrase cp. προφάσιος ἐπιλαβέσθαι 3. 36, 6. 49; also Plato Rep. 360 D εἴ τις τοιαύτης εξουσίας ἐπιλαβόμενος κτλ. προεφυλάσσοντο, ‘took precantions against beforehand,’ cp. 7. 176 supra; in the active more naturally of place, (νέα) τὴν προφυλάσσουσαν ἐπὶ Σκιάθῳ 8. 92 supra.
αὐτοὶ δὲ ... σφίσι. The exact relation of this ἕρκος of γέρρα to the ἕρκος καὶ λίθων καὶ ξύλων in c. 97 supra is problematical. The former is the fortified camp, from which all suspicious characters have been removed (or rendered innocuous); the ‘rampart of shields’ actually reappears in c. 102 infra; and we may suppose that here the Persians are drawn up, outside their camp, and have fixed their shields in the ground to act as a screen; but if they have advanced out beyond their fortified camp, all the more inexplicable does it appear that they should have allowed the Greeks to effect a landing without dispute, while the Greeks at their leisure landed, and drew up in battle-array, and then advanced to the attack. On the γέρρα cp. c. 61 supra.
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