Hellenica

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• Publisher: The Floating Press
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781776535057
• Topic: Historia
• Subtopic: Historia antigua

Xenophon was a Greek soldier who played a key role in several military skirmishes and attacks throughout his life. Later in his life, he began to write down his recollections of these battles and other key political and cultural events, thus becoming one of ancient Greece's most important historians. Hellenica offers Xenophon's first-hand account of many events in the Peloponnesian War. It is the only surviving account of the final years of the war and the period immediately following the war's conclusion.

Endnotes

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[1] Lit. "after these events"; but is hard to conjecture to what events the author refers. For the order of events and the connection between the closing chapter of Thuc. viii. 109, and the opening words of the "Hellenica," see introductory remarks above. The scene of this sea-fight is, I think, the Hellespont.

[2] Lit. "as he opened" {os enoige}. This is still a mariner's phrase in modern Greek, if I am rightly informed.

[3] The original has a somewhat more poetical ring. The author uses the old Attic or Ionic word {eona}. This is a mark of style, of which we shall have many instances. One might perhaps produce something of the effect here by translating: "the battle hugged the strand."

[4] Or, "came to their aid along the shore."

[5] This is the common spelling, but the coins of Calchedon have the letters {KALKH}, and so the name is written in the best MSS. of Herodotus, Xenophon, and other writers, by whom the place is named. See "Dict. of Greek and Roman Geog." "Chalcedon."

[6] "Epistoleus," i.e. secretary or despatch writer, is the Spartan title of the officer second in command to the admiral.

[7] Reading {'Errei ta kala} (Bergk's conjecture for {kala}) = "timbers," i.e. "ships" (a Doric word). Cf. Aristoph., "Lys." 1253, {potta kala}. The despatch continues: {Mindaros apessoua} (al. {apessua}), which is much more racy than the simple word "dead." "M. is gone off." I cannot find the right English or "broad Scotch" equivalent. See Thirlwall, "Hist. Gr." IV. xxix. 88 note.

[8] Hermocrates, the son of Hermon. We first hear of him in Thuc. iv. 58 foll. as the chief agent in bringing the Sicilian States together in conference at Gela B.C. 424, with a view to healing their differences and combining to frustrate the dangerous designs of Athens. In 415 B.C., when the attack came, he was again the master spirit in rendering it abortive (Thuc. vi. 72 foll.) In 412 B.C. it was he who urged the Sicilians to assist in completing the overthrow of Athens, by sending a squadron to co-operate with the Peloponnesian navy—for the relief of Miletus, etc. (Thuc. viii. 26, 27 foll.) At a later date, in 411 B.C., when the Peloponnesian sailors were ready to mutiny, and "laid all their grievances to the charge of Astyochus (the Spartan admiral), who humoured Tissaphernes for his own gain" (Thuc. viii. 83), Hermocrates took the men's part, and so incurred the hatred of Tissaphernes.

[9] The matter referred to is fully explained Thuc. viii. 85.

[10] The reader will recollect that we are giving in "the Deceleian" period of the war, 413-404 B.C. The Spartan king was in command of the fortress of Deceleia, only fourteen miles distant from Athens, and erected on a spot within sight of the city. See Thuc. vii. 19, 27, 28.

[11] Of Clearchus we shall hear more in the sequel, and in the "Anabasis."

[12] The Proxenus answered pretty nearly to our "Consul," "Agent," "Resident"; but he differed in this respect, that he was always a member of the foreign State. An Athenian represented Sparta at Athens; a Laconian represented Athens at Sparta, and so forth. See Liddell and Scott.

[13] The MSS. here give a suspected passage, which may be rendered thus: "The first of Olympiad 93, celebrated as the year in which the newly-added two-horse race was won by Evagorias the Eleian, and the stadion (200 yards foot-race) by the Cyrenaean Eubotas, when Evarchippus was ephor at Sparta and Euctemon archon at Athens." But Ol. 93, to which these officers,and the addition of the new race at Olympia belong, is the year 408. We must therefore suppose either that this passage has been accidentally inserted in the wrong place by some editor or copyist, or that the author was confused in his dates. The "stadium" is the famous foot-race at Olympia, 606 3/4 English feet in length, run on a course also called the "Stadion," which was exactly a stade long.

[14] Peltasts, i.e. light infantry armed with the "pelta" or light shield, instead of the heavy {aspis} of the hoplite or heavy infantry soldiers.

[15] Reading {apelusen}. Wolf's conjecture for the MSS. {katelousen} = stoned. See Thirlwall, "Hist. Gr." IV. xxix. 93 note.

[16] Technically {armostes} (harmost), i.e. administrator.

[17] The MSS. here give the words, "in the ephorate of Pantacles and the archonship of Antigenes, two-and-twenty years from the beginning of the war," but the twenty-second year of the war = B.C. 410; Antigenes archon, B.C. 407 = Ol. 93, 2; the passage must be regarded as a note m...

Table of contents

• HELLENICA
• Contents
• Hellenica
• Book I
• I
• II
• III
• IV
• V
• VI
• VII
• Book II
• I
• II
• III
• IV
• Book III
• I
• II
• III
• IV
• V
• Book IV
• I
• II
• III
• IV
• V
• VI
• VII
• VIII
• Book V
• I
• II
• III
• IV
• Book VI
• I
• II
• III
• IV
• V
• Book VII
• I
• II
• III
• IV
• V
• Endnotes