Note 1. The assault expected was in November, 1642, after the indecisive skirmish at Edgehill, fought on October 23, when the Parliamentary army under Essex withdrew to Warwick, and the Royal army advanced along the Thames valley upon London. The king was opposed by a strong Parliamentary force of twenty-four thousand at Turnham Green, and withdrew to Colnbrook, and the city was saved from assault. [back]
Note 2. Emathian: Macedonia, from Emathius, the capitol city. [back]
Note 3. Conqueror: Alexander the Great, by whom Thebes was sacked, B.C. 333. The tradition is related in Pliny, Natural History, 7, 19, that after Alexander had conquered Thebes, the city in which Pindar had passed most of his life, he commanded that the poet’s house should be spared from destruction. It is supposed that Alexander’s clemency was not altogether out of regard for the poet, but in recognition of Pindar’s odes in praise of Alexander of Macedon, his ancestor. [back]
Note 4. Sad Electra’s poet: Euripides, whose tragedy of Electra was produced B.C. 415–13. [back]
