Ἐπιβολή

Notes (3)

1. [1] Also, according to Adler, in the Ambrosian Lexicon (1448). The two primary definitions are apparently extracted from a longer set. For the diverse meanings of the headword see LSJ (at web address 1), and cf. epsilon 2238 and epsilon 2240.
2. 2This quotation (also at epsilon 3141) is from the end of Polybius’s account (15.9-16) of Hannibal’s defeat at Zama↗ (OCD(4) 1586-7) in 202 BC by Scipio Africanus. The accidental event (tau)to/maton) is one that happens of its own accord ('automatically'), i.e. outside any possible calculation. In saying that no such event happened at Zama↗, Polybius implies that everything depended on the skill of the two successful generals in planning their tactics and implementing the plan; the better man won. This is designed as a compliment to his patron, Scipio Aemilianus. ↩
3. 3This proverb is the second line of an elegiac couplet, listed as of unknown authorship in Iambi et Elegi, ed. M.L. West, vol.2 (2nd. edn., Oxford, 1992) §10. O.Crusius argued that the epigram is Hellenistic (Philologus 48, 1889, 1799), but later commentators compare it to the collection of epigrams attributed to Theognis [OCD(4) 1459-60]: Bergk (Poetae Lyrici Graeci 3.690); Foulon and Weil (Polybius, Budé edn., vol.10, p.63n.), cf. West p. 9. The use of a)nte/tuxen is markedly similar to the same verb at [Theognis] line 642, in a sequence where the end of a successful enterprise may not be what you wish, yet you cannot tell your true friends until you meet in your turn serious trouble; 2.1334, where, for using cruel words now, the boy sought may meet the same in his turn; cf. [Simonides], Epigrams 7.516, where the poet prays that those who kill him should in their turn meet men like themselves. The uses of the compound exemplify well the root meaning of tugxa/nw; cf. epsilon 3344 and its cross-references. ↩
4. 4The Suda mss wrongly give his name as 'Euchemus the Aegeatan'; see also epsilon 3821. Echemus (or Echemedon) of Tegea↗, king of the Arcadians and a renowned wrestler (the winner at the legendary first Olympic Games, Pindar, Olympians 10.66 and scholia to 79, 80), defeated Hyllus in single combat as the Heraclids first tried to enter the Peloponnese (Herodotus 9.26). See RE 5.1913; Hesiod fr. 23a.31, 176.3 Merkelbach/West; Diodorus Siculus 4.58.3-5; etc. Pausanias saw the battle depicted on a stele at Tegea↗ (8.53.10). We have no other evidence of the proverb being used of this fight, but he was the great hero of Tegea↗ and it is appropriate there.