Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1901 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XI THE CAMPAIGN OF PLATVEA. H. viii. While these events were occurring in Middle Greece, I3i- Mardonius, in the far North, was preparing to move. It is said that before starting he despatched an envoy to make inquiries of the oracles of Northern Greece, at Lebadeia, Abae, and Mount Ptoon, on what subject Herodotus is unable to say with certainty--on the circumstances of the time, he is inclined to think. H. viii. A much more important envoy was despatched to Athens "36- in the person of Alexander, the son of Amyntas, a member of the royal house of Macedonia, who was connected with the Persians by family ties, and with the Athenians by his having held for them the position of Proxenos, or consular agent, in his own country. It may fairly be doubted whether Herodotus got the tale of Alexander's mission from an Athenian or from a Macedonian source, or whether he combined information H. viii. derived from both. The reference to the character of the l36- Athenian people has, on the one hand, a strong Attic H. viii. flavour about it, while the knowledge of the Macedonian metseqq. r0yal famj]y displayed here and elsewhere in his work suggests that Herodotus acquired his information on the spot in the course of a visit to that country.* This tale might, consequently, be derived from Macedonia. This supposition is, however, rendered unlikely, owing to the excessively mistaken forecast which Alexander is described to have made of forthcoming events; and * It has already been remarked that his description of Thermopylae is that of a traveller coming from the north--" from Achaia "--as he himself says. Chap, xi.] MARDONIUS AND ATHENS. 437 its Attic origin is the more probable. It is needless to say that that does not make for the veracity of...
