Arrian\'s \"Ektaxis kat\' Alanon\" transl issue

[Sean Manning]

Actually he does... The whole text starts with an infinitive " Ἡγεῖσθαι μὲν τῆς πάσης στρατιᾶς..." Unfortunately, infinitives were sometimes used without finite verbs, when the writer thought that the latter was self-evident.

Well, yes, but the verb is almost always “to be” “to have” or “to say.” If A. is using that construction here, he is being unusually loose. I think that 1.1, which you cited, is a good example: Ἡγεῖσθαι μὲν τῆς πάσης στρατιᾶς τοὺς κατασκόπους ἱππέας ἐπὶ δυοῖν τεταγμένους σὺν τῷ οἰκείῳ ἡγεμόνι. “(Order) the scout cavalry to go before your army in two divisions with their own leader.”

I think that the following sentences (section 31) affect how we understand section 30: ὑπερβαλλόντων δὲ τὰ κέρατα ἑκάτερα ἢ ὁπότερον οὖν, πᾶσα ἤδη ἀνάγκη πλαγίους μὲν αὐτοῖς γίνεσθαι τοὺς ἵππους, πλαγίους δὲ τοὺς κοντούς. ἐνταῦθα δὴ ἐμβαλλόντων ἐς αὐτοὺς οἱ ἱππεῖς, μὴ ἀκοντισμῷ ἔτι ἀλλὰ ταῖς σπάθαις αὐτοῖς συμφερόμενοι, οἳ δὲ τοῖς πελέκεσιν. οἱ δὲ Σκύθαι γυμνοί τε ὄντες καὶ τοὺς ἵππους γυμνοὺς ἔχοντες ***

Here A. seems to be explaining what to do if the Scythians break through the extended wings, until the text breaks off.

One possibility are that δοκιμαζω is a mistake for δοκεω. Sanders van Dorst translates the passage this way, but this is a lectio facilior so an unlikely corruption. Another is that the final clause is a gloss which has crept into the text. This also seems unlikely because the Ektaxis seems more like notes which were preserved by chance than a polished literary work which received generations of scholarly attention.