ἐν Σάμῳ. The alliance of Arcesilaus and Samos is commemorated in the types of a Cyrenaic tetradrachm, with the lion's head (of Samos) as well as the silphium (Hill, G. and R. C. p. 114 and Pl.i. 15).
χρᾷ. The oracle is done into prose, but the tags of hexameters are obvious. It throws an interesting but perplexing light on the date when H. gathered his materials. It is obviously a prediction post eventum, made after the eighth and last Battiad had been deposed; this was about 460 B. C. Pindar certainly knew nothing of it in 466, when he sang the glory of the Battiads (Pyth. iv. 115).
τὴν ἀμφίρρυτον is clearly Barca (cf. ἁμαρτὼν τοῦ χρησμοῦ inf.); but Weld-Blundell (B. S. A. ii. 126-7) finds the epithet appropriate to Cyrene; ταῦρος ὁ καλλιστεύων = King Alazir; perhaps we may quote (Stein) Il. ii. 480, where Agamemnon is compared to ‘a bull’.
