Note 103 — ARRIAN ON COURSING.

Spelman’s Translation of Xenophon’s Anabasis. Note.

Οἱ προσκυνοῦντες. From what Callisthenes says to Alexander (Arrian. Exped. Alexand. L. iv. c. xi.) it appears that Cyrus, the founder of the Persian empire, was the first person to whom adoration was paid on earth by his fellow-men; and it was continued and enjoined to his successors, as a political homage. The ordinary compliments of the modern Greeks are called προσκυνήματα. See Arrian’s account of the προσκυνήσις, loco citato; and Xenophon, Cyropædia, L. viii. for the first occasion of it, πρόσθεν δὲ Περσῶν οὐδεὶς Κῦρον προσεκύνει.