[126] See [ii. 2. 20].
[127] Τών καλλίστων ἐαυτὸν ἀξιώσαντα.] "Thinking himself worthy of the most beautiful (equipments)."
[128] Τὸν θεόν.] Jupiter the Preserver. Kühner.
[129] Αὔθις ἀφανιούντων.] Weiske, Schneider, and others omit the αὔθις. Bornemann, Dindorf, and Kühner preserve it, as it is found in six manuscripts, giving it, with Spohn, Lect. Theocr. i. p. 33, the sense of back again, as if the Persians had intended to make Athens disappear again as if it had never been. I think the word better left out. An American editor has conjectured αὐτὰς.
[130] Γοῦν.] Some copies have οὖν. "The sense of γοῦν is this; ceteris rebus prætermissis, hoc quidem certissimum est, eos fugisse." Kühner.
[131] Εἰ ἄρα, κ. τ. λ.] Krüger admonishes the reader that these words must be taken negatively: whether—not.
[132] Διήσουσιν.] Eight manuscripts have Διήσουσιν, which Bornemann has preferred. Dindorf also gave the preference to it in his first edition, but has subsequently adopted the other reading. Μήτε διοίσουσιν is interpreted by Bornemann, "if the rivers shall present no difference in any part of their course; if they be as broad at their sources as at their mouths."
[133] Αὐτοὶ εἴδομεν.] The Greeks had passed through a part of Lycaonia in their march up the country, [i. 2. 19]; when, however, it is not indicated that they saw much.
[134] The allusion is to Odyss. ix. 83, where the lotus-eaters are mentioned:
The trees around them all their food produce,
Lotus the name, divine nectareous juice,
(Thence called Lotophagi,) which whoso tastes,
Insatiate riots in the sweet repasts,
Nor other home, nor other care intends,
But quits his house, his country, and his friends. Pope.