[18] Σταθμοός.] The word σταθμός means properly a station or halting-place at the end of a day's march, of which the length varied, but was generally about five parasangs.
[19] The parasang in Xenophon is equal to thirty stadia; see [ii. 2. 6]. So Herodotus, ii. 6; v. 53. Mr. Ainsworth, following Mr. Hamilton and Colonel Leake, makes the parasang equal to 3 English miles, 180 yards, or 3 geographical miles of 1822 yards each. Travels in the Track, pref. p. xii. Thus five parasangs would be a long day's march; these marches were more than seven; and the next day's was eight. But Rennell thinks the parasang not more than 2.78 English miles. Mr. Hussey, Anc. Weights, &c., Append. sect. 12, makes it 3 miles, 787-1/2 yards.
[20] The plethrum was 100 Greek or 101.125 English feet. See Hussey, Append. sect. 10, p. 232.
[21] The king of Persia was called the Great King by the Greek writers, on account of the great extent of his dominions, or of the number of kings subject to him; a title similar to that of the successors of Mahomet, Grand Signior.
[22] This is the reading of the name adopted by Dindorf and Kühner; most other editors have Socrates, which occurs in four manuscripts; two have Sosias, and one Sostes.
[23] The word is here used, as Spelman observes, in a more general sense than ordinary, to signify all that were not heavy-armed.
[24] Τὰ Λύκαια.] The festival of Lycæan Jove is mentioned by Pausanias, viii. 2. 1, and the gymnastic contests held in it by Pindar, Ol. ix. 145; xiii. 153; Nem. x. 89. Schneider.—Mount Lycæum was sacred to both Jupiter and Pan. Kühner.
[25] Στλεγγίδες.] Generally supposed to be the same as the Latin strigilis, a flesh-scraper; an instrument used in the bath for cleansing the skin. To this interpretation the preference seems to be given by Kühner and Bornemann, to whom I adhere. Schneider, whom Krüger follows, would have it a head-band or fillet, such as was worn by women, and by persons that went to consult oracles. Poppo observes that the latter sort of prizes would be less acceptable to soldiers than the former. There were, however, women in the Grecian camp, as will afterwards be seen, to whom the soldiers that gained the prizes might have presented them. The sense of the word must therefore be left doubtful. The sense of strigilis is supported by Suidas; see Sturz's Lex. s. v.
[26] Τὸν Σάτυρον.] Silenus. See Servius ad Virg. Ecl. vi. 13.
[27] Κατὰ ἴλας καὶ κατὰ τάξεις.] Ἰλη signifies properly a troop of horse, consisting of 64 men; and τάξις, a company of foot, which Xenophon, in the Cyropædia, makes to consist of 100 men.