Reception — how the record has been read; the house quotes the fighters and picks no side

How & Wells refereeing Herodotus

audit · 1912 · dated secure · ascription secure receipt — the reception record

The modern commentary reads the Histories clause by clause — sustaining a charge here, dismissing one there — with Plutarch's old prosecution repeatedly called to the stand. The referee's notes below are cited page-anchored from the founder's own volumes, never reprinted.

The reader / the read — who reads, and who stands accused or defended

the reader

W. W. How & J. Wells — Oxford, 1912.

the read

Herodotus of Halicarnassus, The Histories. his witness card. The target is served: The Histories.

The reader's stance — his own method, in his own words

The audit's frame: the impartiality of Herodotus weighed as a moral question.

The question of the impartiality of H. is largely a moral one; How & Wells, A Commentary on Herodotus, vol. I (1912), p. 43 cited, never reprinted — the apparatus shelf

The charges and the findings — blow by blow; where the struck passage is served, it stands beside the blow

The marvels charge is granted, sharpest on the numbers: the estimate of the Persian army is called hopeless. charge

This charge is of course true, especially in the matter of numbers; H.’s estimate of the Persian army (vii. 185-6) is hopeless. How & Wells, A Commentary on Herodotus, vol. I (1912), p. 44 cited, never reprinted — the apparatus shelf

Salamis, the Corinthian flight: the malice charge is dismissed — the tale belongs to Herodotus' bitter Athenian informants. rebuttal

We should not, with Plutarch (/. ¢.), ascribe such tales to the malignity of H. but to the bitter feelings of his Athenian informants How & Wells, A Commentary on Herodotus, vol. II (1912), p. 267 cited, never reprinted — the apparatus shelf

the passage under attack — served as the record carries it: The Athenians say that when the ships joined battle, the Corinthian general Adeimantus, struck with bewilderment and terror, hoisted his sails and fled away. Hdt. 8.94 The Histories · Herodotus

the deed: sea-fight at Salamis

Thermopylae, the Theban hostages: Plutarch's attack is sustained — 'rightly attacks' — the detention read as adding to Leonidas' own danger. charge

rightly attacks the view that the Thebans could have been detained as hostages, a course which would only have added to Leonidas’ own danger. How & Wells, A Commentary on Herodotus, vol. II (1912), p. 229 cited, never reprinted — the apparatus shelf

the passage under attack — served as the record carries it: The Thebans remained against their will and desire, for Leonidas kept them as hostages. Hdt. 7.222 The Histories · Herodotus

the deed: battle of Thermopylae

Plataea: the account upheld against the de Malignitate — the attack's fresh evidence weighed and found vague. rebuttal

It is of course attacked in the de Malignitate Herodoti (ch. 41-3), but even there the only fresh evidence consists in some rather vague inscrip- tions. How & Wells, A Commentary on Herodotus, vol. II (1912), p. 396 cited, never reprinted — the apparatus shelf

the deed: battle of Plataea · the year: 479 at the chronology desk

The source named for the Theban slander: 'malignant Athenian gossip,' with Leontiades suffering for the sins of his son. charge

we must admit that H. has been misled by malignant Athenian gossip, and that Leontiades, like Adeimantus, has suffered for the sins of his son How & Wells, A Commentary on Herodotus, vol. II (1912), p. 229 cited, never reprinted — the apparatus shelf

the deed: battle of Thermopylae

The bribed oracle weighed: supported by parallels, denied by Plutarch, and possibly a fiction covering a change of Spartan policy. charge

The alleged bribery of the oracle is supported by other instances (cf. vi.66n.). It is, however, in this case denied by Plutarch (de Malign. Herod. ch. 23) and may be a fiction to cover a change in Spartan policy. How & Wells, A Commentary on Herodotus, vol. II (1912), p. 30 cited, never reprinted — the apparatus shelf

the passage under attack — served as the record carries it: These men, as the Athenians say, established themselves at Delphi and bribed the Pythian priestess to bid any Spartans who should come to inquire of her on a private or a public account to set Athens free. Hdt. 5.63 The Histories · Herodotus

The verdict — the reading's own summary, never the house's

The audit's sum: the traces of malice come from over-faithful reproduction of stories told him, 'not from any native malignity.'

We may sum up that, 1f nowand then there are traces of malice and calumny in the work of H., they come from an over-faithful reproduction of the stories told him, and not from any native malignity How & Wells, A Commentary on Herodotus, vol. I (1912), p. 43 cited, never reprinted — the apparatus shelf

The aftermath — how this reading has itself been read

Who audits the auditors: the shelf's latest referee has no referee yet. No book on the estate's shelf reads How & Wells as they read Herodotus; the commentary stands, for now, as the last word served here — a fact about the shelf, not a verdict on the audit.

The record here: 166 works · 12,119 episodes served · a reception entry asserts that a named reader read the record this way — never that the reading is right · every blow carries its receipt; 3 struck passages served beside their blows

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