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Athens and Aegina, 510–480 B.C.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2013

Extract

At v. 94–5 Herodotus has often been accused of combining into a single war events separated in fact by half a century. At v. 81–9 and vi. 87–93 his critics take a different turn. He here presents us with three wars between Athens and Aegina, one (v. 82–8) in remote antiquity, another (v. 81 and 89) about 505 B.C., and another (vi. 87–93) between 491 and 490: and it is sometimes asserted that he has here split up a single war and scattered its parts over some twenty years, or even over several centuries.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1937

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References

page 1 note 1 Aristoteles und Athen ii, 280 ff.

page 1 note 2 For this war see Mr. T. J. Dunbabin's article in this volume, 83 ff.

page 1 note 3 Meyer, , Geschichte des Altertums III 1. 353Google Scholar, ‘dem Kern nach historisch’: cf. also Wilamowitz, loc. cit., Busolt, , Griechische Geschichte II 2. 448Google Scholar, Beloch, , Griechische Geschichte I 2. 401–2, etc.Google Scholar

page 1 note 4 Herodotus IV–VI ii. 108 ff.

page 1 note 5 CAH iv. 254–9.

page 1 note 6 Köhler, , Rhein. Mus. 1891 1 ff.Google Scholar, Wilamowitz, p. 281, Macan, p. 109, Walker, pp. 258–9, Meyer, loc. cit., Busolt II2, 644 n. 3, Beloch II2, 25 n. 3.

page 2 note 1 There is perhaps an earlier instance in Diod. viii. fr. 32.

page 2 note 2 Some trouble was taken to gain their aid at Salamis (Her. viii, 64 ff.).

page 2 note 3 This sense is certain in Xen. Anab. iii. iii. 5, Dem. xviii. 262 etc. Plato, Laws 626a could be taken either way, but I know of no passage where it certainly bears the meaning ‘an undeclared war,’ and would prefer to give it here its normal meaning.

page 2 note 4 Wilamowitz attributes the precinct to 458: but this makes it almost impossible to explain Herodotus' account, and surely Herodotus would know if a precinct had been dedicated in 458.

page 2 note 5 Indeed, it could not to Herodotus or to anyone who dated the oracle to c. 504, if they gave a moment's thought to the matter.

page 3 note 1 vii. 144, vii. 145, cf. Thuc. i. 14 Professor J. Enoch Powell's ‘rage’ (Lexicon to Herodotus, 5) seems rather highly coloured for

page 3 note 2 I imagine that they were in fact decreed in the archon-year 483/2 and built in 482/1 with the intention of fighting in 481, but that this intention was frustrated by the conference of reconciliation (Her. vii. 145).

page 3 note 3 See below, pp. 4 ff.

page 3 note 4 Macan's hypothesis of a war in 498 is not destroyed by the objections made above to transplanting the war of c. 505.

page 3 note 5 I believe it to be mainly ante eventum, though the figure thirty will be interpretation post eventum (cf. Walker, p. 258). For an oracle wholly post eventum (Wilamowitz and Macan) it is very involved. The alternative form suggests that it was designed to influence policy, and R. L. Beaumont pointed out to me that it appears to come to Athens of its own accord without consultation, an unusual detail which may be genuine and if genuine is decisive.

page 3 note 6 Walker p. 256.

page 3 note 7 Ibid.; cf. Wilamowitz pp. 280–1 and succeeding note.

page 4 note 1 Wilamowitz appears, however, to believe that Herodotus is regularly guilty of stylistic transitions which are historically meaningless.

page 4 note 2 I think it is this that needs explanation rather than the misapprehension of motive, that is, I do not imagine that he begins with the misconceived motive and then arranges the facts round it. In general he relates fact (though he is not always merely credulous of his sources) and speculates on motive, and his attribution of motive is often, as here, affected by his preference for what is personal and easily digested—the main root of his alleged malignitas.

page 4 note 3 Wilamowitz fills this gap from v. 86, finding there the real issue of the Argive intervention which has been perverted in vi. 92 by Athenian patriotism and the of Sophanes of Decelea.

page 4 note 4 Compare the structure of v. 94–5, where the intrusive stories of the earlier war form similarly a closed unit (v. 95). The connections, are not closely-woven narrative connections, and little damage is done to Herodotus by supposing them false.

page 5 note 1 Intransitively, Thuc. i. 49, iv. 73 etc. (cf. vi. 88), hardly differing from νικάω: with the genitive Thuc. i. 30, ii. 93, viii. 48 etc., meaning ‘gain control of’, or ‘get the better of’: for Herodotus cf. Powell, op. cit. s.v.

page 5 note 2 The language is, after all, Thucydides', however Corinthian the sentiments.

page 5 note 3 Conon in 407 reduced the Athenian fleet from over 100 to 70 (Xen. Hell. i. v. 20): in 435 the Corcyreans, by a special effort, raise 120 ships (Thuc. i. 29), in 433 they man 110 (i. 47).

page 6 note 1 As cause, effect or coincidence.

page 6 note 2 Arist., Ἀθ. πολ. xxii, 3Google Scholar, and xxii. 5.

page 6 note 3 Ibid. xxii. 6.

page 6 note 4 If the expenditure on a trireme for Sunium in Lysias xxi. 5 could be reckoned to the expenses of the archonship of Eukleides (xxi. 4), we might have a secure date for the Sunium But xxi. 5 has very much the appearance of a supplementary list of minor expenses not charged to any particular year.