[729] Σαγηνεύομαι πρὸς αὐτῶν.—Lucian, Timon, § 25. tom. i. p. 138, ed. Reitz.

[730] Brunck, Anal. iii. 157. No. 32. Here the sean is called by the general term δίκτυον, but the particular kind of net is indicated by the participle σαγηνευθείς.

[731]

Τῶνδὲ μαθητὴν,

Οἳ κόσμον γλυκερῇσι Θεοῦ δήσαντο σαγήναις,

i. e. “A disciple of those who bound the world in the sweet seans of God.”—Greg. Nazianz. ad Nemesium, tom. ii. p. 141, ed. Paris, 1630. (See Chap. III, p. 53.)

[732] Plutarch, evidently referring to the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, says, “The Jews on the Sabbath sitting down on coarse blankets (ἐν ἀγνάμπτοις, literally, in ἱμάτια, or blankets, which had not been fulled, or cleansed by the γναφεύς), even when the enemy were setting the ladders to scale the walls, did not rise up, but remained, as if inclosed in one sean, namely, superstition, (ὥσπερ ἐν σαγήνῃ μιᾷ, τῇ δεισιδαιμονίᾳ, συνδεδεμένοι).”—Opp. tom. vi. De Superstit. p. 647, ed. Reiske.

As we speak of dragging a pit, so the Greeks would have spoken, in this metaphorical sense, of dragging an island. In the sixth book (ch. xxxi.) Herodotus particularly describes this method of capturing the enemy. According to this account the Persians landed on the northern side of the island. They then took hold of one another’s hands so as to form a long line, and thus linked together they walked across the island to the south side, so as to hunt out all the inhabitants. The historian here particularly mentions, that Chios, Lesbos, and Tenedos were reduced to captivity in this manner. It is recorded by Plato[733], that Datis, in order to alarm the Athenians, against whom he was advancing at the head of the Persian army, spread a report that his soldiers, joining hand to hand, had taken all the Eretrians captive as in a sean. The reader is referred to the Notes of Wesseling and Valckenaer on Herod. iii. 149 for some passages, in which subsequent Greek authors have quoted Herodotus and Plato. We find σαγηνευθῆναι, “to be dragged,” used in the same manner by Heliodorus[734].

[733] De Legibus, lib. iii. prope finem.

[734] Lib. vii. p. 304. ed. Commelini.