[205] Or, sound a charge. The design of it was to precipitate the enemy's flight. Compare sect. [32].
[206] Orontes: [iii. 5. 17]; [4. 3, 4]. He was the satrap, as Krüger thinks, of Eastern Armenia; Tiribazus being called satrap of Western Armenia, sect. [4].
[207] Τύρσεις.] Apparently intended for a sort of defences, should the people be attacked by any of their neighbours. Compare v. 2. 5.
[208] Καλὸς μὲν, μέγας δ' οὔ.] I have, with Bornemann and Poppo, restored this reading, in which all the manuscripts concur. Muretus, from Demetrius Phalereus, sect. 6 and 121, has given έγας μὲν οὔ, καλὸς δέ, and Hutchinson and all other editors down to Bornemann have followed him. It cannot be denied that this is the usual order in such phrases; as in [iv. 8. 2]; vi. 4. 20; but passages are not wanting in which the contrary order is observed; see [iv. 6. 2]. Kühner. As the piece attributed to Demetrius Phalereus is not genuine, little attention need be paid to it.
[209] It would seem to have been the palace of Tiribazus, as the one mentioned in sect. [2] was that of Orontes. Schneider.
[210] See Diod. Sic. xiv. 28.] Ainsworth speaks of the cold in the nights on these Armenian uplands, p. 173. "When Lucullus, in his expedition against Mithridates, marched through Armenia, his army suffered as much by the frost and snow as the Greeks under Xenophon; and, when Alexander Severus returned through this country, many of his men lost their hands and feet through excessive cold. Tournefort also complains that at Erzeroum, though situated in a plain, his fingers were so benumbed with cold, that he could not write till an hour after sunrise. (See Plutarch in Lucull., and Zonaras's Annals.)" Spelman.
[211] There being no cause to apprehend the approach of an enemy during such deep snow.
[212] Διαιθριάζειν.] The commentators rightly interpret this word disserenascere, "to clear up." Kühner; who, however, prefers συναιθριάζειν, for which there is good manuscript authority. He translates it, with Bornemann, simul disserenascere, "to clear up at the same time;" so that the one word has little advantage over the other. Sturz disapproves of the interpretation disserenascere, and would have both verbs to signify sub dio agere, "to bivouack in the open air;" but the other sense appears preferable.
[213] See [note on i. 2. 22]. Oil made of sesamum, or sesama, is mentioned, says Kühner, by Plin. H. N. xiii. 1, xviii. 10; Q. Curt. vii. 4. 23; Dioscorid. 2. 119-121; Theophrast. de Odoribus, p. 737, ed. Schneid.; Salmas. Exercit. Plin. p. 727; Interp. ad Aristoph. Pac. 865.
[214] Rennell, p. 214, and Kinneir, p. 485, think this distance too great for troops marching through deep snow. Πέντε occurs in one manuscript, and Kühner has admitted it into his text.