BOOK IX

The campaigns of Plataea (ch. 1-89) and of Mycale (90-122). 1-5 Advance of Mardonius on Athens. Renewed negotiations.

o(/kou [gap in text] parela/mbane. For the construction cf. iii. 51. 3; viii. 52. 1, 115. 2.

For a list of the Greek allies, reckoned at 50,000 (ch. 32), cf. viii. 66.

Doubtless they had gone on furlough during the winter.

*qessali/hs h(geome/noisi. For the Aleuadae as princes of Thessaly and their Medism cf. vii. 6. 2 n. Thorax, head of the house (ch. 58. [p. 287] 1), is mentioned in an early poem of Pindar (Pyth. x. 64, circ. 500 B. C.).

parh=ke: H., always anxious to emphasize the guilt of the Aleuadae (vii. 6. 2 n., 130. 3, 172. 1), speaks as if the Thessalian were free to act as he chose. But this is inconsistent with viii. 126. 2, 131. 1; nor can we doubt that the Persians kept Thermopylae in their own hands.

katela/mbanon, tried to hold back; cf. iii. 36. 1.

e)pithdeo/teros. It was suitable for cavalry (cf. vi. 102), but the advantages here put forward are its convenience as a base of supply and as head-quarters for negotiations. From οὐκ . . . ἔων a word such as ἐκέλευον must be supplied; cf. v. 82. 2; vii. 104. 5, 143. 3.