Θεμιστοκλέα: not mentioned in the account of the first council (συνέδριον） on shore, chez Eurybiades; cc. 49 ff. But, of course, if any such meeting had been held, if any such decision arrived at, Themistokles had been there and against the making of it.
Μνησίφιλος ἀνὴρ Ἀθηναῖος: a shrewder man than Themistokles, and one well and significantly named! Plutarch, Them. 2, makes him a demote of Themistokles, and in Mor. 795 an older man, quite naturally! But more critically in the de Hdti. malig. 37 f., Mor. 869, he points out the improbability of this tale, according to which Themistokles was dishonestly indebted to Mnesiphilos for the arguments in favour of giving battle at Salamis. Going beyond Plutarch, one might suspect that Mnesiphilos was a pure fiction, the only evidence of his existence being this apocryphal anecdote. Of course Hdt. did not invent him: the story is part of the Themistoklean legend, and perhaps among the older elements therein, forming perhaps the reply by some detractor to the foundation by Themistokles of the ναὸν Ἀριστοβούλης Ἀρτεμίδος ἐν Μελίτῃ.
βεβουλευμένον ... δεδογμένον, ‘the matter of their deliberations,’ ‘the thing decided on’: both words might seem to imply a joint decision; yet cp. 7. 12 supra δεδογμένων οἱ.
εἶπε: Hdt. and his sources do not hesitate to reproduce in oratio recta the ipsissima verba of Mnesiphilos to Themistokles: a device which adds nothing to the probability of the story in the eyes of a critical reader. Who else was present at the interview? Did Themistokles report it? Or Mnesiphilos?
οὔτ᾽ ἄρα is answered by ἀπολέεταί τε infra. For ἄρα cp. Index.
ἀπαείρωσι: cp. c. 60 infra.
περὶ οὐδεμιῆς ἔτι πατρίδος ναυμαχήσεις: ‘thou wilt no longer have a country to fight for at sea’ might mean one of three things: (a) that Attica will be lost for ever—the context and explanation seem to rule this out as inadequate; (b) that there will no longer be any country belonging to any of the Greek peoples taken severally, to fight for—this would be far-fetched; (c) that Hellas will no longer exist to fight for. On the whole this appears to be the meaning—albeit it anticipates the second clause, and the use of πατρίς for the whole of Hellas is remarkable. The double negative οὔτε . . οὐδεμιῆς is purely intensive. The reading in Plutarch, Mor. 869, οὐκ ἄρα . . οὐδὲ περὶ μιῆς ἔτι πατρίδος ναυμαχήσεις: κατὰ γὰρ πόλεις ἕκαστοι τρέψονται appears to mean, the country for which you are going to fight will no longer be one and united; or, you will be fighting for a country divided into as many sections as states. The expression is not Herodotean (Krueger)
ὥστε μὴ οὐ διασκεδασθῆναι τὴν στρατιήν: an instance of a genuinely idiomatic μὴ οὐ, which follows not merely the alternative negatives οὔτε ... οὔτε . . but also perhaps the subordinate negation contained in the word κατέχειν, to restrain, prevent, prohibit. Cp. c. 100 infra οὐ γάρ ἐστι Ἕλλησι οὐδεμία ἔκδυσις, μὴ οὐ δόντας λόγον κτλ., c. 119 ἐν μυρίῃσι γνώμῃσι μίαν οὐκ ἔχω ἀντίξοον, μὴ οὐκ ἂν ποιῆσαι βασιλέα τοιόνδε.
διαχέαι, to upset, confound, undo. The verb is used in the literal sense 6. 119.
τὰ βεβουλευμένα = τὰ δεδογμένα.
μεταβουλεύσασθαι: cp. 7. 12 supra μετὰ δὴ βουλευέαι—there too of a change of decision, resolve, counsel, by a single individual; cp. l. 3 supra.
