Datis

• a general of the Medes, Nep. Milt. 4, 1; 5, 4.

(Δᾶτις), a Mede, who, together with Artaphernes, had the command of the forces which were sent by Dareius Ilystaspis against Eretria and Athens, and which were finally defeated at Marathon in B. C. 490. (Hdt. 6.94, &c.) [Artaphernes, No. 2.] When the armament was on its way to Greece through the Aegean sea, the Delians fled in alarm from their island to Tenos; but Datis re-assured them, professing that his own feelings, as well as the commands of the king, would lead him to spare and respect the birthplace of " the two gods." The obvious explanation of this conduct, as arising from a notion of the correspondence of Apollo and Artemis with the sun and moon, is rejected by Müller in favour of a far less probable hypothesis. (Hdt. 6.97 ; Müller, Dor. ii 5.6, 6.10; Thirlwall's Greece, vol. ii. p. 231; Spanheim, ad Callim. Hymn. in Del. 255.) The religious reverence of Datis is further illustrated by the anecdote of his restoring the statue of Apollo which some Phoenicians in his army had stolen from Delium in Boeotia. (Hdt. 6.118; Paus. 10.28; Suid. s. v. Δ̔ᾶτις). His two sons, Armamithres and Tithaeus, commanded the cavalry of Xerxes in his expedition against Greece. (Hdt. 7.88.) He admired the Greek language, and tried hard to speak it; failing in which, he thereby at any rate unwittingly enriched it with a new word--*Datismo/s. (Suid. l.c. ; Aristoph. Peace 289; Schol. ad loc. [E.E]

(Δᾶτις) is mentioned by the Ravenna Scholiast on Aristophanes (Aristoph. Frogs 86) as one of the four sons of Carcinus the elder [see p. 612], though other authorities speak only of three. That there were four is also distinctly stated by the comic poet Pherecrates. (Ap. Schol. ad Arist. Vesp. 1509.) By the Scholiast on the Peace (289), Datis is again mentioned as a tragic poet, and the Scholiast on the Wasps (1502) tells us that only one, viz. Xenocles, was a poet, while the other three were choral dancers. From these considerations, Meineke has conjectured with much probability that Datis was only a nickname for Xenocles, expressive of imputed barbarism of style, δατισμός. (Meineke, Hist. Crit. Com. Graec. p. 513, &c., where in p. 515, Philocles occurs twice erroneously for Xenocles.) [E.E]

(Δᾶτις). A Mede who commanded, along with Artaphernes, the Persian army that was defeated at Marathon, B.C. 490 (Herod.vi. 94).

• in command at Marathon with Artaphrenes of the expedition of 490 against Athens: Hdt. 6.94, Hdt. 6.97, Hdt. 6.118; Paus. 10.11.5
• his sons in Xerxes, army: Hdt. 7.88
• his piety: Paus. 10.28.6