53-4. Bacchanal. A follower of Bacchus, the god of wine.
55-6. The Pyrrhic dance was so named from Pyrrhichus, who invented it. The Pyrrhic phalanx derives its name from Pyrrhus, king of Epirus. A phalanx is a serried formation of troops.
59. The alphabet is said to have been introduced into Greece by Cadmus, a Phœnician, who lived about 1450, B.C.
63-5. Polycrates, who ruled over the Island of Samos, was the patron of Anacreon. Tyrant in the Greek sense meant simply “ruler” or “master,” and as here used the word does not imply harshness or cruelty.
68. Chersonese. The word literally means a peninsula. Here it refers to the Tauric Chersonnesus, the modern Crimea.
72. That is, he bound the Greeks together to resist their enemies.
74. Suli. A mountainous district inhabited by a mixed Greek and Albanian people.
Parga. A fortified town on the coast of Albania.
76. Doric mothers. Spartan mothers. The Spartans belonged to the Dorian race.
78. Heracleidan blood. The descendants of Heracles (Hercules).