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Search results for chi,444 in Adler number:
Headword:
Chôris
hippeis
Adler number: chi,444
Translated headword: cavalry away!
Vetting Status: high
Translation: When Datis[1] had invaded Attica, they say that the Ionians, after his withdrawal, climbed trees and signalled to the Athenians that the cavalry were away; and on learning that they had gone Miltiades[2] charged and so won a victory. Hence the proverb is said in reference to those breaking ranks.
Greek Original:Chôris hippeis: Datidos ekbalontos eis tên Attikên, tous Iônas phasin, anachôrêsantos autou, anelthontas epi ta dendra sêmainein tois Athênaiois, hôs eien chôris hoi hippeis: kai Miltiadên sunienta tên apochôrêsin autôn, sumbalein houtôs kai nikêsai. hothen kai tên paroimian lechthênai epi tôn taxeis dialuontôn.
Notes:
Such an episode appears neither in
Herodotus 6.109 ff (web address 1) nor in any other writer on the Battle of
Marathon (490 BCE), from
Ephorus to
Plutarch. (Adler notes that Crusius attributed it -- on no discernible basis -- to the Attidographer
Demon [FGrH 327].) Hignett (below) 65-6 insists that the story is demonstrably absurd. Others, in sharp contrast, take it as one of two items of reliable evidence (the other is Nepos,
Miltiades 5.3) that the Persians had re-embarked their cavalry in preparation for sailing to
Athens and attacking the city before the Spartans could arrive; Miltiades got wind of this, and attacked. For this see
Rhodes (below) 4.
Such a 'proverb', in any event, appears only here, i.e. not in any of the paroemiographers; and the headword phrase itself is otherwise attested only once and with a different sense (
Procopius,
History of the Wars of Justinian 8.13.14).
[1] cf.
delta 89.
[2] cf.
mu 1067,
mu 1068.
References:
C. Hignett, Xerxes' Invasion of Greece (Oxford 1963)
P.J. Rhodes, 'The battle of Marathon and modern scholarship', BICS supplement 124 (2013) 3-21
Associated internet address:
Web address 1
Keywords: biography; daily life; ethics; geography; historiography; history; military affairs; proverbs; zoology
Translated by: David Whitehead on 26 November 2001@04:42:26.
Vetted by:
No. of records found: 1
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