ἀνεχώρησε: like ἀναβαίνειν (i. 109. 4; vii. 205. 1), ἀναλαμβάνειν (vii. 154. 1), of regular succession by an heir, opposed to περιχωρέειν, περιελθεῖν (i. 7. 1 n.), when a kingdom passes into strange hands.
Cf. Aesch. Pers. 236 “στρατὸς τοιοῦτος ἔρξας πολλὰ δὴ Μήδους κακά”: and for similar imitations vii. 8. γ 3, 16. α 1, 103.4; viii. 68. γ, 109. 3; and in general, Introduction, § 18.
ἀλλ᾽ εἰ ... πρήσσοις. Stein says εἰ with optative is here a mild imperative; cf. Hom. Il. x. 111; xv. 571; xvi. 559 ἀλλ᾽ εἴ μιν ἀεικισσαίμεθ᾽ ἑλόντες, and xxiv. 74. Cf. Monro, Homeric Grammar, § 311. Goodwin (§ 723) regards these as optatives in a wish with εἰ, which was probably in origin a protasis, with apodosis suppressed.
τιμωρός: better construed ‘demanding vengeance’ than=σύμμαχος, ‘that helped him,’ for which cf. v. 65. 1; vii. 6. 1.
δένδρεα. The Persians took great pride in the cultivation of fruittrees and gardens. Cf. Vendidad, iii, § 4, l. 12: ‘Which is the third place where the Earth feels most happy.’ Ahuramazda answered, ‘It is the place where one of the faithful cultivates most corn, grass, and fruit’; and iii, § 23, l. 76. So Xerxes pays great honour to a splendid plane-tree (ch. 31), and Darius commends his servant Gadatas for acclimatizing crops and fruit-trees in lower Asia (Hicks, 20). Kings and satraps rivalled each other in laying out gardens and orchards (Xen. Oecon. 4).
