[520] Herodot. v, 28. Μετὰ δὲ οὐ πολλὸν χρόνον, ἄνεως κακῶν ἦν—or ἄνεσις κακῶν—if the conjecture of some critics be adopted. Mr. Clinton, with Larcher and others (see Fasti Hellen. App. 18, p. 314), construe this passage as if the comma were to be placed after μετὰ δὲ, so that the historian would be made to affirm that the period of repose lasted only a short time. It appears to me that the comma ought rather to be placed after χρόνον, and that the “short time” refers to those evils which the historian had been describing before. There must have been an interval of eight years at least, if not of ten years, between the events which the historian had been describing—the evils inflicted by the attacks of Otanês—and the breaking out of the Ionic revolt; which latter event no one places earlier than 504 B. C., though some prefer 502 B. C., others even 500 B. C.
If, indeed, we admitted with Wesseling (ad Herodot. vi, 40; and Mr. Clinton seems inclined towards the same opinion, see p. 314, ut sup.) that the Scythian expedition is to be placed in 508-507 B. C., then indeed the interval between the campaign of Otanês and the Ionic revolt would be contracted into one or two years. But I have already observed that I cannot think 508 B. C. a correct date for the Scythian expedition: it seems to me to belong to about 515 B. C. Nor do I know what reason there is for determining the date as Wesseling does, except this very phrase οὐ πολλὸν χρόνον, which is on every supposition exceedingly vague, and which he appears to me not to have construed in the best way.
[521] Herodot. v, 96. Ὁ δὲ Ἀρταφέρνης ἐκέλευέ σφεας εἰ βουλοίατο σόοι εἶναι, καταδέκεσθαι ὀπίσω τὸν Ἱππίην.
[522] Herodot. v, 31. Plutarch says that Lygdamis, established as despot at Naxos by Peisistratus (Herodot. i, 64), was expelled from this post by the Lacedæmonians (De Herodot. Malignitat. c. 21, p. 859). I confess that I do not place much confidence in the statements of that treatise, as to the many despots expelled by Sparta: we neither know the source from whence Plutarch borrowed them, nor any of the circumstances connected with them.
[523] Herodot. v, 30, 31.
[524] Herodot. v, 34, 35.
[525] Herodot. v, 35: compare Polyæn. i, 24, and Aulus Gellius, N. A. xvii, 9.
[526] Herodot. v, 36.
[527] Compare Herodotus, v, 121, and vii, 98. Oliatus was son of Ibanôlis, as was also the Mylasian Herakleidês mentioned in v, 121.
[528] Herodot. v, 36, 37; vi, 9.