But unhappily, while a Horace ode, or an early Christian hymn may lend itself to structural analysis, continuous prose is less tractable. 108.4 appears to balance 105.3 in Diagram 3, though walls are missing from 105.3. It is not clear why the Eretrians should have been singled out for attack, though Bosworth suggests that Hdt. 5.99.1 may provide a clue. It seems improbable that, if ships employed by the Persians were operational in the Euboean Gulf in 499, this should have otherwise passed unnoticed in extant Greek literature.
Diplomacy is here in part a euphemism for bribery.
Ryder thinks of bribery as intended to buy a friendly voice, but it could also be used to secure the harmless ritualisation of the rhetoric of resistance. Its significance goes beyond what is suggested by its modest title. The carrying capacity of Macedonia justifies the assumption that Alexander did not drain Macedonia of manpower. In this Badian usefully develops points made by Hans Droysen in 1885. But in the longer term the permanent removal of so many young men must have had a negative effect on population growth.