ταξάμενοι, ‘having put themselves in battle - array.’ οἱ Ξέρξεω (unconsciously) suggests the presence of his majesty, who thus preserves in this, as in the previous chapter, the sovran power and command.
μηνοειδὲς ... ἐκυκλοῦντο: cp. c. 10 supra ἐκυκλοῦντο αυτοὺς ές μέσον. The manœuvres are apparently identical.
ἐπανέπλεον: just as on the first day (c. 9 supra), after all, without waiting to be actually attacked; cp. c. 11 supra.
παραπλήσιοι ἀλλήλοισι ἐγίνοντο. This phrase cannot mean that the Greeks and Persians had equal forces engaged (as a result of the efforts of the Deus ex machina of c. 13 supra), for Hdt. goes on at once to admit that μέγαθος and πλῆθος were both conspicuous on the side of the king's fleet (στρατός). But if the forces were still unequal, ‘they came to be on an equality,’ because the μέγαθος and the πλῆθος turned rather to the disadvantage of the barbarians, as Hdt. explains. The obvious tendency of the passage is apologetic, and apologetic in the Greek interest, for in view of their derring deeds of the two previons days (and, it might be added, in view of the sequel at Salamis), surely a crowning victory was now to have been expected. No such victory conld be claimed for Artemision; but with great subtilty the argument is converted into an explanation of the failnre of the larger and more numerous force to effect the complete discomfiture of the smaller! (This view seems better than to see in this passage the intention of an Asianic source to explain the failure of the king's fleet.)
αὐτὸς ὑπ᾽ ἑωυτοῦ ἔπιπτε: a formula afterwards enlarged and converted into the chief rationale of the Persian failure in the whole war; cp. Thucyd. 1. 69. 5.
ἀντεῖχε καὶ οὐκ εἶκε: an unfortunate jingle. δεινὸν χρῆμα ἐποιεῦντο: cp. c. 15 supra. The plain truth is that the Persian fleet did not give way, notwithstanding its cumbrous size and numbers, but inflicted very heavy losses upon the Greek. The tense in ἀγωνιζόμενοι is remarkable; cp. πρήσσουσι in c. 14, and App. Crit. χωρίς is pleonastic.
