DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.800#0160
142 ANCIENT ATHENS.
sustained under Callias, " seems not to have been great."i In that case,
Xenophon would hardly have mentioned it in his history as an event
so remarkable that it might serve to fix the chronology of the ' year,
together with the phenomenon of the moon rising eclipsed.2 Nor can we
follow Leake when he says that " the word employed by Xenophon
(eveTrpija0T)) implies only a conflagration;" meaning, we presume, a
partial one, though conflagration usually denotes a very extensive fire.
The word ep,iriirprifii, has indeed special reference to the act of setting
fire to anything; a purposed act, and therefore, in cases of a criminal
complexion, a wilful one. And thus it is used, both by Strabo and
Plutarch, of the act of Herostratus in burning the temple of Artemis
at Ephesus.3 In this sense it answers to our word to fire, and has
reference more to the act itself than to the effects of it. Yet it by no
means excludes the idea of total destruction. When Achilles in Homer
/117 drj Trvpos aldoptvom
vrjas eviirpr]<ra3at, (ptXou d' airo votrrov ZXaprai
{It. xvi. 81)
" For fear the ships should all be set on fire;
Then lost the Greeks are without remedy,
And to their country never shall retire "
(HOB3ES)
he means, lest they set fire to the ships and destroy them, otherwise
how should the return of the Greeks be cut off? And when Thucy-
dides says : to re TreSiov avaftavres iBr/ovv, ical rbv alrov eve-rrifiTrpaaav
(vi. 94), he means that the Athenians set fire to the corn and consumed
it. Hence, from this word alone, we should be inclined to suspect that
the burning of the Erechtheium was a wilful act, and therefore the
1 vol. i. p. 577. We may observe here Olym. 93.3, the archonship of Callias, has
that the words in Xenophon, w 17 re a-i\^vn been shown by Petavius (ap. Boeckh, Corp.
e£e\i7T(v to apxovros 8t KaXAiou 'A$i]vr]<riv, Inscr. Grsec. vol. i. p. 264).
are regarded by Miiller as a gloss ; but 3 o>? 8e tovtov (ro» vein/) 'Hpoo-rparos rts
this view is satisfactorily disposed of by iviirprjaev.—Strabo, xiv. p. 640; ko6' rjv
Boeckh, loc. cit. fjp.ipav 6 ri/s ''Eipetrias 'Apre/iiSos ivcirpri<r6r)
2 The fact of the moon rising eclipsed in veas.—Plut. Alex. M. c. 3.
sustained under Callias, " seems not to have been great."i In that case,
Xenophon would hardly have mentioned it in his history as an event
so remarkable that it might serve to fix the chronology of the ' year,
together with the phenomenon of the moon rising eclipsed.2 Nor can we
follow Leake when he says that " the word employed by Xenophon
(eveTrpija0T)) implies only a conflagration;" meaning, we presume, a
partial one, though conflagration usually denotes a very extensive fire.
The word ep,iriirprifii, has indeed special reference to the act of setting
fire to anything; a purposed act, and therefore, in cases of a criminal
complexion, a wilful one. And thus it is used, both by Strabo and
Plutarch, of the act of Herostratus in burning the temple of Artemis
at Ephesus.3 In this sense it answers to our word to fire, and has
reference more to the act itself than to the effects of it. Yet it by no
means excludes the idea of total destruction. When Achilles in Homer
/117 drj Trvpos aldoptvom
vrjas eviirpr]<ra3at, (ptXou d' airo votrrov ZXaprai
{It. xvi. 81)
" For fear the ships should all be set on fire;
Then lost the Greeks are without remedy,
And to their country never shall retire "
(HOB3ES)
he means, lest they set fire to the ships and destroy them, otherwise
how should the return of the Greeks be cut off? And when Thucy-
dides says : to re TreSiov avaftavres iBr/ovv, ical rbv alrov eve-rrifiTrpaaav
(vi. 94), he means that the Athenians set fire to the corn and consumed
it. Hence, from this word alone, we should be inclined to suspect that
the burning of the Erechtheium was a wilful act, and therefore the
1 vol. i. p. 577. We may observe here Olym. 93.3, the archonship of Callias, has
that the words in Xenophon, w 17 re a-i\^vn been shown by Petavius (ap. Boeckh, Corp.
e£e\i7T(v to apxovros 8t KaXAiou 'A$i]vr]<riv, Inscr. Grsec. vol. i. p. 264).
are regarded by Miiller as a gloss ; but 3 o>? 8e tovtov (ro» vein/) 'Hpoo-rparos rts
this view is satisfactorily disposed of by iviirprjaev.—Strabo, xiv. p. 640; ko6' rjv
Boeckh, loc. cit. fjp.ipav 6 ri/s ''Eipetrias 'Apre/iiSos ivcirpri<r6r)
2 The fact of the moon rising eclipsed in veas.—Plut. Alex. M. c. 3.