[145] Κρηπὶς δ' ὑπῆν λιθίνη, κ. τ. λ.] The foundation appears to have risen twenty feet above the ground; so that the whole height of the wall would be a hundred and twenty feet. Mr. Ainsworth says that he found the ruins of the brick wall at Resen, which he considers to be the same with Larissa, "based on a rude and hard conglomerate rock, giving to them all the solidity and characteristics of being built of stone." Travels in the Track, p. 139.
[146] Cyrus the Great.
[147] Ἐλάμβανον.] That the Medes did not willingly submit, but were overcome by force, is testified by Herodotus, and is apparent from what is said here; whence it follows that λαμβάνειν τὴν ἀρχὴν παρά τινος may be applied even when those who lose the government are forcibly deprived of it. Xenophon however is at variance with himself in the Cyropædia, where Cyrus is said to have succeeded to the throne by a marriage with the daughter of Cyaxares. Kühner.
[148] Ἥλιον δὲ νεφέλη προκαλύψασα ἠφάνισε.] This reading has been adopted by Dindorf and others, from a conjecture of Brodæus or Muretus; the manuscripts have all ἥλιος δὲ νεφέλην προκάλυψας, except two, one of which has the ν erased in νεφέλην, and the other νεφέλῃ. Those who read with Dindorf refer to Plutarch de Placit. Philosoph. ii. 24, where the cause of an eclipse of the sun is said by some philosophers to be a condensation of clouds imperceptibly advancing over the disc. Bornemann and Kühner restore the reading of the manuscripts, which Langius thus interprets: sol nubem sibi prætendens se obscuravit; than which no better explanation has been offered. That we are not to suppose an eclipse of the sun to be signified in the text, is well observed by Bornemann; as Thales had previously ascertained the causes of such eclipses, and had foretold one, according to Herodotus i. 74; hence it is impossible to believe that Xenophon would have spoken of a solar eclipse himself, or have made the inhabitants speak of one, so irrationally. Hutchinson and Zeune absurdly understand τὴν πόλιν with ἠφάνισε.
[149] Ἐξέλιπον.] Hutchinson and Weiske interpret this word animis defecerunt. Abreschius (Dilucid. Thucyd. p. 274) makes it reliquerunt sc. urbem; an interpretation adopted by Porson, Schneider, Kühner, and all the modern editors.
[150] Εὖρος.] We must understand the length of each side.
[151] Ἐπὶ ταύτης.] There might be steps on the outside on which they might climb.
[152] Τεῖχος.] Now called Yarumjah, according to Ainsw. Travels, p. 139.
[153] Κογχυλιάτον.] "It is a curious fact, that the common building-stone of Mosul (near Mespila) is highly fossiliferous, and indeed replete with shells, characteristic of a tertiary or supra-cretaceous deposit; and the same lime-stone does not occur far to the north or south of Mosul, being succeeded by wastes of gypsum."' Ainsw. Travels, p. 140.
[154] Ἐμβροντήτους ποιεῖ.] "Jupiter makes the inhabitants thunderstruck." "He rendered them," says Sturz, "either stupid or mad."