Note 190 — Chapter II

Τῷ ἀριστερῷ ποδὶ προσβαίνοντες.] All the manuscripts have προσβαίνοντες: προσβαινοντες is a conjecture of Wesseling ad Diod. Sic. iii. 8, which all the recent editors have adopted, but by which it does not appear that anything is gained, as πρὸς τὸ κάτω του τόξου precedes. Spelman, who was himself an archer, has illustrated the passage very clearly by a quotation from Arrian, Indie. 16: "Resting one end of the bow upon the ground, and stepping forward with the left foot, (τῷ ποδὶ τῷ ἀριστερῷ ἀντιβάντες,) they thus discharge the arrow, drawing the string a long way back, the arrow being nearly three cubits long." See also Diod. Sic. l. c., where he speaks of the archery of the Æthiopians; Strabo, xvi. p. 1117; Suidas in Ἄραβες, cited by Weiske. Schneider and Halbkart, strangely enough, think that Xenophon is speaking of cross-bows, which few besides themselves have supposed to have been known in Xenophon's time.