Chapter 8

[187]A small town of Arcadia, to the north-west of Clitor.[188]Ἐν λάκκοις κονιατοῖς.] The Athenians and other Greeks used to make large excavations under ground, some round, some square, and, covering them over with plaster, laid up their wine and oil in them; they called them λάκκοι. Schol. ad Aristoph. Eccl., cited by Hutchinson. Spelman translates λάκκοι κονιατοί, "plastered cisterns," a term which Ainsworth adopts. "The plastered cisterns noticed by Xenophon," says he, "are also met with throughout Kurdistan, Armenia, and Syria. They are especially numerous around some of the ancient villages of the early Christians of those countries, as more especially between Semeïsát and Bireh-jik, and have frequently been a subject of discussion as to their former uses. This notice of Xenophon serves to clear up many doubts upon the subject, although, since the Kurds have become Mohommedans, and rejected the use of wine, there is no doubt they are sometimes used for depots for corn or hay, and even sometimes for water. They were generally closed by a single large stone."Travels in the Track, &c.p. 164.[189]Ἐγγύθεν φεύγοντες.] "Fleeing from near," i. e. when they were at no great distance before us.[190]Τῷ ἀριστερῷ ποδὶ προσβαίνοντες.] All the manuscripts have προσβαίνοντες: προσβαινοντες is a conjecture of Wesseling ad Diod. Sic. iii. 8, which all the recent editors have adopted, but by which it does not appear that anything is gained, as πρὸς τὸ κάτω του τόξου precedes. Spelman, who was himself an archer, has illustrated the passage very clearly by a quotation from Arrian, Indie. 16: "Resting one end of the bow upon the ground, and stepping forward with the left foot, (τῷ ποδὶ τῷ ἀριστερῷ ἀντιβάντες,) they thus discharge the arrow, drawing the string a long way back, the arrow being nearly three cubits long." See also Diod. Sic. l. c., where he speaks of the archery of the Æthiopians; Strabo, xvi. p. 1117; Suidas in Ἄραβες, cited by Weiske. Schneider and Halbkart, strangely enough, think that Xenophon is speaking ofcross-bows, which few besides themselves have supposed to have been known in Xenophon's time.[191]Ἐναγκυλῶντες.] "Fitting them with ἀγκύλαι." The ἀγκύλη is generally supposed to be the same with the Latinamentum, a strap or loop fastened to the middle of a javelin, or the shaft of a spear, that it might be hurled with the greater force. The writer of the articleAnsain Smith's Dict. of G. and R. Ant. thinks, however that the two were not the same.[192]Yet "the Carduchian mountains," observes Rennell, "in effect presented an asylum to the Greeks, who could no other way have escaped, at least, the reiterated attacks of such a host of enemies, whose numbers also were augmenting instead of diminishing. But as a Persian army could not subsist, or their cavalry act, within the wide range of these mountains, the Greeks, by ascending them, got rid of their dreaded enemy. And although, in the mean time, they had to contend with an enemy much more brave and persevering, their numbers were fewer, and they might reasonably expect an earlier escape from them than from the Persians. Had they known that the Tigris was fordable under the Zaco hills, and passed into Mesopotamia, they would still have had the Euphrates to cross, a yet more difficult river, in the line which they must have pursued. Therefore, according to our limited view of things, it appears that nothing less than such a barrier as these mountains presented, could have saved the Greeks from eventual destruction, from the attacks of the Persians."Illustrations of the Exp. of Curas, p. 173.[193]Orontes was satrap of Armenia,iii. 5. 17; Artuchas is nowhere else mentioned.[194]Διαβαίνειν.] "Ingredi, pedem proferre."Kühner. His fetters being removed, he was able to put his legsapart, and walkwith stability; as is indicated, says Weiske, by the preposition διά.[195]Ἐγχεῖν.] This passage is commonly taken thus: κέλευε τοῖς νεανίσκοις ἐγχεῖν, "he ordered the young men to pour (wine) into (the cup for themselves)," for the purpose of making a libation. Kühner, however, makes it ἐκελευε (τοὺς περὶ αὐτὸν) ἐγχεῖν τοῖς νεανίσκοις, he ordered those about him (the attendants) to pour into the cup for the young men. The former mode is the more simple, κελεύω being sometimes found with the dative, and agrees better with what follows.[196]Στεφανωσάμενος.] According to the custom of the Lacedæmonians, of which Xenophon speaks de Repub. Lacedæm. 13. 8; Hellen. iv. 2. 12; see also Plutarch, Lycurg. c. 22.Schneider.[197]Τοὺς λόχους ὀρθίους.] Seeiv. 2. 11.[198]Ἐσφαγίζουτο εἰς τὸν ποταμόν.] Offering a sacrifice to the gods inhabiting the river, as Alexander in the middle of the Hellespont sacrificed a bull to Neptune and the Nereids: see Arrian i. 11. 10, cited by Hutchinson. "They slew the animals so as to allow the blood to flow into the river."Poppo.[199]Τὸν πόρον.] The ford mentioned insect. 5, 6.[200]Behind the enemy.Kühner. Or behind the cavalry that were pursuing the enemy.[201]Those mentioned insect. 3.[202]Ἐπὶ φάλαγγος.] This disposition of a company was in opposition to λόχοι ὄρθιοι (iv. 2. 11): see c. 8, sect, 10. The expression ἐπὶ φάλαγγος, says Kühner, properly meansfor a phalanx, orso that a phalanx(oracies)might be formed.[203]Διηγκυλωμένους.] The verb διηγκυλοῦσθαι is rightly interpreted by Hesychius τὸ ἐνεῖραι τοῦς δακτύλους τῇ ἀγκύλη (h. e. amento) τοὺ ἀκοντίου.Sturz. The following ἐπιβεβλημένους must be similarly explained.[204]Ἀσπὶς ψοφῇ.] From the enemy's missiles striking upon it.Kühner. Hutchinson, Weiske, and Zeune think that a clashing of shields on the part of the Greeks is meant, preparatory to an onset; but, without doubt, erroneously.[205]Or,sound a charge. The design of it was to precipitate the enemy's flight. Compare sect.32.[206]Orontes:iii. 5. 17;4. 3, 4. He was the satrap, as Krüger thinks, of Eastern Armenia; Tiribazus being called satrap of Western Armenia, sect.4.[207]Τύρσεις.] Apparently intended for a sort of defences, should the people be attacked by any of their neighbours. Compare v. 2. 5.[208]Καλὸς μὲν, μέγας δ' οὔ.] I have, with Bornemann and Poppo, restored this reading, in which all the manuscripts concur. Muretus, from Demetrius Phalereus, sect. 6 and 121, has given έγας μὲν οὔ, καλὸς δέ, and Hutchinson and all other editors down to Bornemann have followed him. It cannot be denied that this is the usual order in such phrases; as iniv. 8. 2; vi. 4. 20; but passages are not wanting in which the contrary order is observed; seeiv. 6. 2.Kühner. As the piece attributed to Demetrius Phalereus is not genuine, little attention need be paid to it.[209]It would seem to have been the palace of Tiribazus, as the one mentioned in sect.2was that of Orontes.Schneider.[210]See Diod. Sic. xiv. 28.] Ainsworth speaks of the cold in the nights on these Armenian uplands, p. 173. "When Lucullus, in his expedition against Mithridates, marched through Armenia, his army suffered as much by the frost and snow as the Greeks under Xenophon; and, when Alexander Severus returned through this country, many of his men lost their hands and feet through excessive cold. Tournefort also complains that at Erzeroum, though situated in a plain, his fingers were so benumbed with cold, that he could not write till an hour after sunrise. (See Plutarch in Lucull., and Zonaras's Annals.)"Spelman.[211]There being no cause to apprehend the approach of an enemy during such deep snow.[212]Διαιθριάζειν.] The commentators rightly interpret this word disserenascere, "to clear up."Kühner; who, however, prefers συναιθριάζειν, for which there is good manuscript authority. He translates it, with Bornemann,simul disserenascere, "to clear up at the same time;" so that the one word has little advantage over the other. Sturz disapproves of the interpretationdisserenascere, and would have both verbs to signifysub dio agere, "to bivouack in the open air;" but the other sense appears preferable.[213]Seenote on i. 2. 22. Oil made of sesamum, or sesama, is mentioned, says Kühner, by Plin. H. N. xiii. 1, xviii. 10; Q. Curt. vii. 4. 23; Dioscorid. 2. 119-121; Theophrast. de Odoribus, p. 737, ed. Schneid.; Salmas. Exercit. Plin. p. 727; Interp. ad Aristoph. Pac. 865.[214]Rennell, p. 214, and Kinneir, p. 485, think this distance too great for troops marching through deep snow. Πέντε occurs in one manuscript, and Kühner has admitted it into his text.[215]Ὀργυιά.] A great depth. We cannot suppose the snow to have been of that depth everywhere. None of the commentators make any remark.[216]Ἐβουλιμίασαν.] Spelman quotes a description of the βουλιμία or βούλιμος from Galen Med. Def., in which it is said to be "a disease in which the patient frequently craves for food, loses the use of his limbs, falls down, turns pale, feels his extremities become cold, his stomach oppressed, and his pulse feeble." Here, however, it seems to mean little more than a faintness from long fasting.[217]That this number is corrupt is justly suspected by Weiske, and shown at some length by Krüger de Authent. p. 47. Bornemann, in his preface, p. xxiv., proposes ἑπτὰ καὶ ἑκατὸν, a hundred and seven. Strabo, xi. 14, says that the satrap of Armenia used to send annually to the king of Persia twenty thousand horses.Kühner. Krüger, 1. c., suggests that Xenophon may have written Σ'two hundred, instead, of ΙΖ',seventeen. In sect.35we find Xenophon taking some of these horses himself, and giving one to each of the other generals and captains; so that the number must have been considerable.[218]"This description of a village on the Armenian uplands applies itself to many that I visited in the present day. The descent by wells is now rare, but is still to be met with; but in exposed and elevated situations, the houses are uniformly semi-subterraneous, and entered by as small an aperture as possible, to prevent the cold getting in. Whatever is the kind of cottage used, cows, sheep, goats, and fowls participate with the family in the warmth and protection thereof."Ainsw. Travels, p. 178.[219]Οἶνος κρίθινος.] Something like our beer. See Diod. Sic. i. 20, 34; iv. 2; Athenæus i. 14; Herod, ii. 77; Tacit. Germ. c. 23. "The barley-wine I never met with."Ainsw.p. 178.[220]The reeds were used, says Krüger, that none of the grains of barley might be taken into the mouth.[221]Xenophon seems to meangrape-wine, rather than to refer to the barley-wine just before mentioned, of which the taste does not appear to have been much liked by the Greeks. Wine from grapes was not made, it is probable, in these parts, on account of the cold, but Strabo speaks of the οἶνος Μοναρίτης of Armenia Minor as not inferior to any of the Greek wines.Schneider.[222]Σκηνοῦντας.]Convivantes, epulantes. Comp. v. 3. 9; vii. 3. 15.Kühner. Having no flowers or green herbs to make chaplets, which the Greeks wore at feasts, they used hay.[223]This is rather oddly expressed; for the guide and the chief were the same person.[224]Not the Colchian Phasis, which flows into the Euxine, but a river of Armenia (Ἀράξης, nowAras) which runs into the Caspian. See Ainsworth, Travels, p. 179, 247. However Xenophon himself seems to have confounded this Phasis with that of Colchis. See Rennell, p. 230.Kühner.[225]Ἐπὶ φάλαγγος.] See oniv. 3. 26.[226]Τῶν ὁμοίων.] The ὅμοιοι at Sparta were all those who had an equal right to participate in the honours or offices of the state;qui pari inter se jure gaudebant, quibus honores omnes æqualiter patebant. Cragius de Rep. Lac. i. 10, cited by Sturz in his Lex. Xenoph. See Xenophon De Rep. Lac. 13. 1 and 7; Aristot. Polit. 5. 7. 8. "A similar designation to that of ὁμότιμοι in the Cyropædia,"Schneider. See Hellen. iii. 3. 5.[227]A native of the country about Mount Œta in Thessaly. There was also however a town of that name in the south of Thessaly: Thucyd. iii. 92.[228]Ἀντὶ τῶν πτερύγων.] That this is the true sense of this word appears from Xen. de Re Equest. 12. 4.[229]Having one iron point at the upper end, as in v. 4. 12, and no point at the lower for fixing the spear in the ground.Schneider.[230]The word ἱερόν, which precedes ὄρος in the older editions, is enclosed in brackets, as being probably spurious, by most of the modern editors, and actually ejected by Dindorf. Yet something seems to be wanting in connexion with ὄρος, for the guide (sect. 20) says merely that he will bring them to α χωρίον, and on the fifth day after it is said that they come tothe mountain.[231]They appear to be the hides of oxen offered up as a sort of sacrifice to the gods.Balfour.[232]In order, says Krüger, to render them useless, so that they might not be carried off by any of the neighbouring people.[233]i. 1. 9.[234]A stream running into the Tchórúk-sú, according to Ainsworth, Travels, p. 189.[235]The Greeks cut down the trees in order to throw them into the stream, and form a kind of bridge on which they might cross.Schneider.[236]They threw stones into the river that they might stand on them, and approach nearer to the Greeks, so as to use their weapons with more effect.Bornemann.[237]Kárá Kapán, or Kóhát Tágh, according to Ainsw. p. 190.[238]Κατὰ φάλαγγα.] See oniv. 3. 26.[239]Λόχους ὀρθίους.] See oniv. 2. 11.[240]Ὠμοὺς —— κατάφαγεῖν.] "Eat up raw," without waiting to cook them; a metaphorical expression forto extirpate utterly and at once, taken from Homer, Il. v. 35: Ὠμὸν βεβρώθοις Πρίαμον Πρίαμοιό τε μαῖδας.[241]See the payment of these vows in sect.25.[242]That there was honey in these parts with intoxicating qualities, was well known to antiquity. Pliny, H. N. xxi. 44, mentions two sorts of it, one produced at Heraclea in Pontus, and the other among the Sanni or Macrones. The peculiarities of the honey arose from the herbs to which the bees resorted, the first came from the flower of a plant called ægolethron, or goats'-bane; the other from a species of rhododendron. Tournefort, when he was in that country, saw honey of this description. See Ainsworth, Travels in the Track, p. 190, who found that the intoxicating honey had a bitter taste. See also Rennell, p. 253. "This honey is also mentioned by Dioscorides, ii. 103; Strabo, xii. p. 826; Ælian, H. A. v. 42; Procopius, B. Goth. iv. 2."Schneider.[243]Lion and Kühner have a notion that these skins were to be given as prizes to the victors, referring to Herod, ii. 91, where it is said that the Egyptians, in certain games which they celebrate in honour of Perseus, offer as prizes cattle, cloaks, and δέρματα, hides. Krüger doubts whether they were intended for prizes, or were given as a present to Dracontius.

[187]A small town of Arcadia, to the north-west of Clitor.

[188]Ἐν λάκκοις κονιατοῖς.] The Athenians and other Greeks used to make large excavations under ground, some round, some square, and, covering them over with plaster, laid up their wine and oil in them; they called them λάκκοι. Schol. ad Aristoph. Eccl., cited by Hutchinson. Spelman translates λάκκοι κονιατοί, "plastered cisterns," a term which Ainsworth adopts. "The plastered cisterns noticed by Xenophon," says he, "are also met with throughout Kurdistan, Armenia, and Syria. They are especially numerous around some of the ancient villages of the early Christians of those countries, as more especially between Semeïsát and Bireh-jik, and have frequently been a subject of discussion as to their former uses. This notice of Xenophon serves to clear up many doubts upon the subject, although, since the Kurds have become Mohommedans, and rejected the use of wine, there is no doubt they are sometimes used for depots for corn or hay, and even sometimes for water. They were generally closed by a single large stone."Travels in the Track, &c.p. 164.

[189]Ἐγγύθεν φεύγοντες.] "Fleeing from near," i. e. when they were at no great distance before us.

[190]Τῷ ἀριστερῷ ποδὶ προσβαίνοντες.] All the manuscripts have προσβαίνοντες: προσβαινοντες is a conjecture of Wesseling ad Diod. Sic. iii. 8, which all the recent editors have adopted, but by which it does not appear that anything is gained, as πρὸς τὸ κάτω του τόξου precedes. Spelman, who was himself an archer, has illustrated the passage very clearly by a quotation from Arrian, Indie. 16: "Resting one end of the bow upon the ground, and stepping forward with the left foot, (τῷ ποδὶ τῷ ἀριστερῷ ἀντιβάντες,) they thus discharge the arrow, drawing the string a long way back, the arrow being nearly three cubits long." See also Diod. Sic. l. c., where he speaks of the archery of the Æthiopians; Strabo, xvi. p. 1117; Suidas in Ἄραβες, cited by Weiske. Schneider and Halbkart, strangely enough, think that Xenophon is speaking ofcross-bows, which few besides themselves have supposed to have been known in Xenophon's time.

[191]Ἐναγκυλῶντες.] "Fitting them with ἀγκύλαι." The ἀγκύλη is generally supposed to be the same with the Latinamentum, a strap or loop fastened to the middle of a javelin, or the shaft of a spear, that it might be hurled with the greater force. The writer of the articleAnsain Smith's Dict. of G. and R. Ant. thinks, however that the two were not the same.

[192]Yet "the Carduchian mountains," observes Rennell, "in effect presented an asylum to the Greeks, who could no other way have escaped, at least, the reiterated attacks of such a host of enemies, whose numbers also were augmenting instead of diminishing. But as a Persian army could not subsist, or their cavalry act, within the wide range of these mountains, the Greeks, by ascending them, got rid of their dreaded enemy. And although, in the mean time, they had to contend with an enemy much more brave and persevering, their numbers were fewer, and they might reasonably expect an earlier escape from them than from the Persians. Had they known that the Tigris was fordable under the Zaco hills, and passed into Mesopotamia, they would still have had the Euphrates to cross, a yet more difficult river, in the line which they must have pursued. Therefore, according to our limited view of things, it appears that nothing less than such a barrier as these mountains presented, could have saved the Greeks from eventual destruction, from the attacks of the Persians."Illustrations of the Exp. of Curas, p. 173.

[193]Orontes was satrap of Armenia,iii. 5. 17; Artuchas is nowhere else mentioned.

[194]Διαβαίνειν.] "Ingredi, pedem proferre."Kühner. His fetters being removed, he was able to put his legsapart, and walkwith stability; as is indicated, says Weiske, by the preposition διά.

[195]Ἐγχεῖν.] This passage is commonly taken thus: κέλευε τοῖς νεανίσκοις ἐγχεῖν, "he ordered the young men to pour (wine) into (the cup for themselves)," for the purpose of making a libation. Kühner, however, makes it ἐκελευε (τοὺς περὶ αὐτὸν) ἐγχεῖν τοῖς νεανίσκοις, he ordered those about him (the attendants) to pour into the cup for the young men. The former mode is the more simple, κελεύω being sometimes found with the dative, and agrees better with what follows.

[196]Στεφανωσάμενος.] According to the custom of the Lacedæmonians, of which Xenophon speaks de Repub. Lacedæm. 13. 8; Hellen. iv. 2. 12; see also Plutarch, Lycurg. c. 22.Schneider.

[197]Τοὺς λόχους ὀρθίους.] Seeiv. 2. 11.

[198]Ἐσφαγίζουτο εἰς τὸν ποταμόν.] Offering a sacrifice to the gods inhabiting the river, as Alexander in the middle of the Hellespont sacrificed a bull to Neptune and the Nereids: see Arrian i. 11. 10, cited by Hutchinson. "They slew the animals so as to allow the blood to flow into the river."Poppo.

[199]Τὸν πόρον.] The ford mentioned insect. 5, 6.

[200]Behind the enemy.Kühner. Or behind the cavalry that were pursuing the enemy.

[201]Those mentioned insect. 3.

[202]Ἐπὶ φάλαγγος.] This disposition of a company was in opposition to λόχοι ὄρθιοι (iv. 2. 11): see c. 8, sect, 10. The expression ἐπὶ φάλαγγος, says Kühner, properly meansfor a phalanx, orso that a phalanx(oracies)might be formed.

[203]Διηγκυλωμένους.] The verb διηγκυλοῦσθαι is rightly interpreted by Hesychius τὸ ἐνεῖραι τοῦς δακτύλους τῇ ἀγκύλη (h. e. amento) τοὺ ἀκοντίου.Sturz. The following ἐπιβεβλημένους must be similarly explained.

[204]Ἀσπὶς ψοφῇ.] From the enemy's missiles striking upon it.Kühner. Hutchinson, Weiske, and Zeune think that a clashing of shields on the part of the Greeks is meant, preparatory to an onset; but, without doubt, erroneously.

[205]Or,sound a charge. The design of it was to precipitate the enemy's flight. Compare sect.32.

[206]Orontes:iii. 5. 17;4. 3, 4. He was the satrap, as Krüger thinks, of Eastern Armenia; Tiribazus being called satrap of Western Armenia, sect.4.

[207]Τύρσεις.] Apparently intended for a sort of defences, should the people be attacked by any of their neighbours. Compare v. 2. 5.

[208]Καλὸς μὲν, μέγας δ' οὔ.] I have, with Bornemann and Poppo, restored this reading, in which all the manuscripts concur. Muretus, from Demetrius Phalereus, sect. 6 and 121, has given έγας μὲν οὔ, καλὸς δέ, and Hutchinson and all other editors down to Bornemann have followed him. It cannot be denied that this is the usual order in such phrases; as iniv. 8. 2; vi. 4. 20; but passages are not wanting in which the contrary order is observed; seeiv. 6. 2.Kühner. As the piece attributed to Demetrius Phalereus is not genuine, little attention need be paid to it.

[209]It would seem to have been the palace of Tiribazus, as the one mentioned in sect.2was that of Orontes.Schneider.

[210]See Diod. Sic. xiv. 28.] Ainsworth speaks of the cold in the nights on these Armenian uplands, p. 173. "When Lucullus, in his expedition against Mithridates, marched through Armenia, his army suffered as much by the frost and snow as the Greeks under Xenophon; and, when Alexander Severus returned through this country, many of his men lost their hands and feet through excessive cold. Tournefort also complains that at Erzeroum, though situated in a plain, his fingers were so benumbed with cold, that he could not write till an hour after sunrise. (See Plutarch in Lucull., and Zonaras's Annals.)"Spelman.

[211]There being no cause to apprehend the approach of an enemy during such deep snow.

[212]Διαιθριάζειν.] The commentators rightly interpret this word disserenascere, "to clear up."Kühner; who, however, prefers συναιθριάζειν, for which there is good manuscript authority. He translates it, with Bornemann,simul disserenascere, "to clear up at the same time;" so that the one word has little advantage over the other. Sturz disapproves of the interpretationdisserenascere, and would have both verbs to signifysub dio agere, "to bivouack in the open air;" but the other sense appears preferable.

[213]Seenote on i. 2. 22. Oil made of sesamum, or sesama, is mentioned, says Kühner, by Plin. H. N. xiii. 1, xviii. 10; Q. Curt. vii. 4. 23; Dioscorid. 2. 119-121; Theophrast. de Odoribus, p. 737, ed. Schneid.; Salmas. Exercit. Plin. p. 727; Interp. ad Aristoph. Pac. 865.

[214]Rennell, p. 214, and Kinneir, p. 485, think this distance too great for troops marching through deep snow. Πέντε occurs in one manuscript, and Kühner has admitted it into his text.

[215]Ὀργυιά.] A great depth. We cannot suppose the snow to have been of that depth everywhere. None of the commentators make any remark.

[216]Ἐβουλιμίασαν.] Spelman quotes a description of the βουλιμία or βούλιμος from Galen Med. Def., in which it is said to be "a disease in which the patient frequently craves for food, loses the use of his limbs, falls down, turns pale, feels his extremities become cold, his stomach oppressed, and his pulse feeble." Here, however, it seems to mean little more than a faintness from long fasting.

[217]That this number is corrupt is justly suspected by Weiske, and shown at some length by Krüger de Authent. p. 47. Bornemann, in his preface, p. xxiv., proposes ἑπτὰ καὶ ἑκατὸν, a hundred and seven. Strabo, xi. 14, says that the satrap of Armenia used to send annually to the king of Persia twenty thousand horses.Kühner. Krüger, 1. c., suggests that Xenophon may have written Σ'two hundred, instead, of ΙΖ',seventeen. In sect.35we find Xenophon taking some of these horses himself, and giving one to each of the other generals and captains; so that the number must have been considerable.

[218]"This description of a village on the Armenian uplands applies itself to many that I visited in the present day. The descent by wells is now rare, but is still to be met with; but in exposed and elevated situations, the houses are uniformly semi-subterraneous, and entered by as small an aperture as possible, to prevent the cold getting in. Whatever is the kind of cottage used, cows, sheep, goats, and fowls participate with the family in the warmth and protection thereof."Ainsw. Travels, p. 178.

[219]Οἶνος κρίθινος.] Something like our beer. See Diod. Sic. i. 20, 34; iv. 2; Athenæus i. 14; Herod, ii. 77; Tacit. Germ. c. 23. "The barley-wine I never met with."Ainsw.p. 178.

[220]The reeds were used, says Krüger, that none of the grains of barley might be taken into the mouth.

[221]Xenophon seems to meangrape-wine, rather than to refer to the barley-wine just before mentioned, of which the taste does not appear to have been much liked by the Greeks. Wine from grapes was not made, it is probable, in these parts, on account of the cold, but Strabo speaks of the οἶνος Μοναρίτης of Armenia Minor as not inferior to any of the Greek wines.Schneider.

[222]Σκηνοῦντας.]Convivantes, epulantes. Comp. v. 3. 9; vii. 3. 15.Kühner. Having no flowers or green herbs to make chaplets, which the Greeks wore at feasts, they used hay.

[223]This is rather oddly expressed; for the guide and the chief were the same person.

[224]Not the Colchian Phasis, which flows into the Euxine, but a river of Armenia (Ἀράξης, nowAras) which runs into the Caspian. See Ainsworth, Travels, p. 179, 247. However Xenophon himself seems to have confounded this Phasis with that of Colchis. See Rennell, p. 230.Kühner.

[225]Ἐπὶ φάλαγγος.] See oniv. 3. 26.

[226]Τῶν ὁμοίων.] The ὅμοιοι at Sparta were all those who had an equal right to participate in the honours or offices of the state;qui pari inter se jure gaudebant, quibus honores omnes æqualiter patebant. Cragius de Rep. Lac. i. 10, cited by Sturz in his Lex. Xenoph. See Xenophon De Rep. Lac. 13. 1 and 7; Aristot. Polit. 5. 7. 8. "A similar designation to that of ὁμότιμοι in the Cyropædia,"Schneider. See Hellen. iii. 3. 5.

[227]A native of the country about Mount Œta in Thessaly. There was also however a town of that name in the south of Thessaly: Thucyd. iii. 92.

[228]Ἀντὶ τῶν πτερύγων.] That this is the true sense of this word appears from Xen. de Re Equest. 12. 4.

[229]Having one iron point at the upper end, as in v. 4. 12, and no point at the lower for fixing the spear in the ground.Schneider.

[230]The word ἱερόν, which precedes ὄρος in the older editions, is enclosed in brackets, as being probably spurious, by most of the modern editors, and actually ejected by Dindorf. Yet something seems to be wanting in connexion with ὄρος, for the guide (sect. 20) says merely that he will bring them to α χωρίον, and on the fifth day after it is said that they come tothe mountain.

[231]They appear to be the hides of oxen offered up as a sort of sacrifice to the gods.Balfour.

[232]In order, says Krüger, to render them useless, so that they might not be carried off by any of the neighbouring people.

[233]i. 1. 9.

[234]A stream running into the Tchórúk-sú, according to Ainsworth, Travels, p. 189.

[235]The Greeks cut down the trees in order to throw them into the stream, and form a kind of bridge on which they might cross.Schneider.

[236]They threw stones into the river that they might stand on them, and approach nearer to the Greeks, so as to use their weapons with more effect.Bornemann.

[237]Kárá Kapán, or Kóhát Tágh, according to Ainsw. p. 190.

[238]Κατὰ φάλαγγα.] See oniv. 3. 26.

[239]Λόχους ὀρθίους.] See oniv. 2. 11.

[240]Ὠμοὺς —— κατάφαγεῖν.] "Eat up raw," without waiting to cook them; a metaphorical expression forto extirpate utterly and at once, taken from Homer, Il. v. 35: Ὠμὸν βεβρώθοις Πρίαμον Πρίαμοιό τε μαῖδας.

[241]See the payment of these vows in sect.25.

[242]That there was honey in these parts with intoxicating qualities, was well known to antiquity. Pliny, H. N. xxi. 44, mentions two sorts of it, one produced at Heraclea in Pontus, and the other among the Sanni or Macrones. The peculiarities of the honey arose from the herbs to which the bees resorted, the first came from the flower of a plant called ægolethron, or goats'-bane; the other from a species of rhododendron. Tournefort, when he was in that country, saw honey of this description. See Ainsworth, Travels in the Track, p. 190, who found that the intoxicating honey had a bitter taste. See also Rennell, p. 253. "This honey is also mentioned by Dioscorides, ii. 103; Strabo, xii. p. 826; Ælian, H. A. v. 42; Procopius, B. Goth. iv. 2."Schneider.

[243]Lion and Kühner have a notion that these skins were to be given as prizes to the victors, referring to Herod, ii. 91, where it is said that the Egyptians, in certain games which they celebrate in honour of Perseus, offer as prizes cattle, cloaks, and δέρματα, hides. Krüger doubts whether they were intended for prizes, or were given as a present to Dracontius.

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