l part of divine government; indispensable
to satisfy their ideas of the benevolence of the gods; since rational
and scientific prediction was so habitually at fault and unable to
fathom the phenomena of the future. (Grote.)

[88] =Traverse=: thwart.

[89] Though Xenophon accounted sacrifice to be an essential preliminary
to any action of dubious result, and placed great faith in the
indications which the victims offered, as signs of the future purposes
of the gods,--he nevertheless had very little confidence in the
professional prophets. He thought them quite capable of gross deceit.
(Grote.) Thus Silanus (see p. 92) pretends to find some unfavorable
indications in sacrifices which supported Xenophon.

[90] =Phasis=: on the Euxine; means the town of that name, not the
river. (Grote.)

[91] =Minae=: the Mina was about one pound by weight of silver, or $20.
Twenty minae would be therefore $400.

[92] =Pipe=: a fife or flute-like instrument.

[93] =Carpaean dance=: perhaps because one of the dancers represented a
sower of grain (from _karpos_, fruit), or possibly from _karpos_, wrist,
the wrists of one being bound.

[94] =Mysian=: from Mysia, Asia Minor.

[95] =Pyrrhic dance=: a kind of dance accompanied with every gesture of
the body used in giving and avoiding blows.

[96] This appears to have been said jocosely in reference to the Persian
King.

[97] Xenophon.

[98] =Trireme=: a war-vessel propelled by three ranks of rowers placed
one above the other.

[99] =Three thousand staters=: about $11,500; ten thousand staters would
be in round numbers about $38,000. The stater was a Greek gold coin; its
value is usually given at about $5.00, but Grote here makes it
considerably less.

[100] =Cities=: cities then were generally built with walls and gates,
so that it was easy to exclude any whom they did not wish should enter.

[101] =Philo-Laconian=: Sparta-loving (Sparta being in the district of
Laconia). Compare what is said of Xenophon on p. 41.

[102] =Byzantium=: this city (the modern Constantinople) was founded by
a Greek colony B.C. 657. It had a mixed population, and was at this time
under the rule of a Lacedaemonian or Spartan governor.

[103] =The Chersonesus= (the peninsula): a peninsula of Southern Thrace,
opposite Asia Minor, having numerous Greek cities, and noted for its
abundance of grain, much of which was exported to Athens.

[104] =Thrakion=: probably an open space or square near the Thr