Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/515

 wicked, who are captivated by the charms of love or of eloquence[C], or who are held in bondage by superstition. But by far the most distinct, expressive and important of its metaphorical applications, was to the mode of besieging a city by encircling it with one uninterrupted line of soldiers, or sweeping away the entire population of a certain district by marching in similar order across it. Of this the first example occurs in Herodotus iii. 145:—

[Greek: Tên de Samon sagêneusantes hoi Persai paredosan Solysônti, erêmon eousan andrôn].

"The Persians, having dragged Samos, delivered it, being now destitute of men, to Solyson."

As we speak of dragging a pit, so the Greeks would have spoken, in this metaphorical sense, of dragging an island. In the sixth book (ch. xxxi.) Herodotus particularly describes this method of capturing the enemy. According to this account the Persians landed on the northern side of the island. They then took hold of one another's hands so as to form a long line, and thus linked together they walked across the island to the south side, so as to hunt out all the inhabitants. The historian here particularly mentions, that Chios, Lesbos, and Tenedos were reduced to captivity in this manner. It is recorded by Plato, that Datis, in order to alarm the Athenians, against whom he was advancing at the head of the Persian army, spread a report that his soldiers, joining hand to hand, had.—Lucian, Timon, § 25. tom. i. p. 138, ed. Reitz.], but the particular kind of net is indicated by the participle [Greek: sagêneutheis].

[Greek:              Tônde mathêtên, Hoi kosmon glykerêsi Theou dêsanto sagênais],

i. e. "A disciple of those who bound the world in the sweet seans of God."—Greg. Nazianz. ad Nemesium, tom. ii. p. 141, ed. Paris, 1630. (See Chap. III, p. 53.)], literally, in [Greek: imatia], or blankets, which had not been fulled, or cleansed by the [Greek: gnapheus]), even when the enemy were setting the ladders to scale the walls, did not rise up, but remained, as if inclosed in one sean, namely, superstition, ([Greek: ôsper en sagênêmia, tê deisidaimonia, syndedemenoi])."—Opp. tom. vi. De Superstit. p. 647, ed. Reiske.]