Reginald Walter Macan, Herodotus, The Seventh, Eighth, & Ninth Books with Introduction and Commentary

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συνελέχθησαν: this will be the second or the third meeting, according as ec. 49 and 56 are interpreted of one and the same meeting, or of two different meetings.

πρὶν ἢ ... τοὺς στρατηγούς: if προθεῖναι τὸν λόγον means ‘to give account of,’ ‘to explain,’ the statement appears again to be designed to discredit Themistokles; in any case, the commanderin-chief must surely have offered some reason for the extraordinary summons of this meeting, which is apparently to be conceived as taking place at night.

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πολλὸς ἦν ... ἐν τοῖσι λόγοισι: i.e. π. ἦν λέγων, surely not simply ‘made a long speech,’ or even ‘said a great many things,’ but rather ‘was vehement’; cp 7. 158 supra, 9. 91 infra. But what, by the way, could he have said, if Eurybiades had the subject of debate still in petto?

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οἶα κάρτα δεόμενος: cp. c. 3 supra.

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προεξανιστάμενοι: so in the aorist, 9. 62 infra, προ- with the force of ‘too soon,’ ‘prematurely,’ ‘before they are bidden.’ Competitors are referred to, not merely spectators, as, indeed, the answer of Themistokles implies.

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ῥαπίζονται: by the ῥαβδοῦχοι, who kept order in the ring. Our athletes would hardly appreeiate this severity. For the word cp. 7. 35.

ἀπολυόμενος, ‘trying to excuse himself,’ sc. τὴν αἰτίην, τὴν διαβολήν. He understood the value of the soft answer, which, however, failed on this occasion Plutarch, Them. 11, substitutes Eurybiades for Adeimantos in this duel of wit, and adds a second mot by Themistokles to Eurybiades, who raises his baton to strike: πάταξον μὲν ἄκουσον δέ. In the Mor. 185 he restores the remark to the Korinthian.

δέ γε, ‘yes, but . .’

ἐγκαταλειπόμενοι, i.e. who get a bad start, not “longe in cursu post tergum relicti victique,” Wesseling, nor “qui cunctanter ad certamen prodeunt,” Sintenis. 2 Cor. 4. 9 διωκόμενοι ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ ἐγκαταλειπόμενοι does not help us.