Πρωτεσίλαος (fr. 42)

211

married Cotys’ daughter (named Thressa in Nepos); but Davies 1971. 249-50
argues cogently on the basis of relationships mentioned at D. 23.129 and the
reconstruction of the Thracian royal family (see Hock 1891. 89-116) that the
woman was instead Cotys’ sister. The date of the wedding is disputed as well.
It is normally placed ca. 381 BC on the assumption that Cotys must have
been granted Athenian citizenship before the wedding but would not have
been given it prior to his taking the throne in 384 or 383 BC.88 Regardless of
whether this assumption is as important in the case of a sister as it may be
for a daughter, Iphicrates’ son Menestheus (PA 9988; PAA 645115; LGPNII, s. v.
22) was strategos in 356/5 BC (in which year Iphikrates himself was general
for the last time); this strongly suggests that he was 30 by then, which places
his birth, and thus the marriage of his parents, in 386 BC at the latest. Davies
adds further evidence that the citizenship of Menestheus was not uncontested,
and the earlier date ought thus to be favored.
4-29 The description of the wedding of Iphicrates provides an example
of an outrageously extravagant feast as a point of comparison for the one
described afterward. The emphasis is on the enormous size of the event (cf.
Ar. Ach. 73-89) and its implements, but also on the Thracians’ ignorance (or
disregard) of proper etiquette (e. g. the barbarians were dirty [9], the host
himself served the guests [12-13] and became drunk early on [14-15]). But the
point is not to disparage this feast but to create an exemplar of fantastic excess
beyond which the feast described in the latter part of the fragment will go.
This extended passage in indirect discourse is nearly unparalleled in po-
etry; the only comparable passage is A.R. 3.579-604 (where the acc. + inf.
construction is reintroduced by a second verb of speaking at 594). The effect
is presumably prosaic, although the parallel in Apollonius suggests that this
need not be the case.
5 βουβαυκαλόσαυλα A comic compound apparently derived from (1)
βοϋς (cf. Chantraine 1968-1980 s. v. βου- 3 for the word adding the sense ‘large’
or ‘great’ in compounds); (2) βαύκαλον (EM p. 192.20 βαύκαλον· μαλακιζό-
μενον, τρυφερόν και ώραϊστήν; cf. Hsch. β 364 (= ΑΒ ρ. 225.26); Phot, β 104);
and (3) σαύλος (Phot, σ 97 σαϋλον· τρυφερόν; Hsch. σ 267; Anacr. PMG 498; Ε.
Cyc. 40; Ar. V. 1173). It thus means something like ‘great-luxurious-lascivious’.
6 κατά την αγοράν The phrase re-enforces the scale of the banquet;
only an expanse as large as an agora is capable of accommodating such a
crowd. The phrase may also suggest a large, public feast, as at a major festival,
and thus further emphasizes the size of the affair; for the scale and the enter-

88 For the evidence, with brief discussion, of his Athenian citizenship, see Osborne
1981-1983 III.49-50 (T 36).