- Source
- Thucydides. Historiae, Vol 1-2. Jones, Henry Stuart, editor. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1910. (1942 printing).
- Translation
- AI-generated (gemini-3.5-flash) — machine translation; may contain errors
- Languages
- 日本語 · English · 简体中文 · 한국어
- CTS URN
- urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0003.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:2.59.1-2.59.3
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-10-23
Suffering from the second Peloponnesian invasion and the plague, the Athenians seek peace and direct their anger towards Pericles, who then calls an assembly to address them.
μετὰ δὲ τὴν δευτέραν ἐσβολὴν τῶν Πελοποννησίων οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι, ὡς ἥ τε γῆ αὐτῶν ἐτέτμητο τὸ δεύτερον καὶ ἡ νόσος ἐπέκειτο ἅμα καὶ ὁ πόλεμος, ἠλλοίωντο τὰς γνώμας, καὶ τὸν μὲν Περικλέα ἐν αἰτίᾳ εἶχον ὡς πείσαντα σφᾶς πολεμεῖν καὶ δι’ ἐκεῖνον ταῖς ξυμφοραῖς περιπεπτωκότες,1πρὸς δὲ τοὺς Λακεδαιμονίους ὥρμηντο ξυγχωρεῖν· καὶ πρέσβεις τινὰς πέμψαντες ὡς αὐτοὺς ἄπρακτοι ἐγένοντο. πανταχόθεν τε τῇ γνώμῃ ἄποροι καθεστηκότες ἐνέκειντο τῷ Περικλεῖ.
After the second invasion of the Peloponnesians, the Athenians, as their land had been ravaged for the second time and the plague as well as the war was pressing upon them at the same time, changed their minds. On the one hand, they held Pericles in blame as having persuaded them to make war and as having fallen into these misfortunes because of him, while on the other hand, they were eager to come to terms with the Lacedaemonians; indeed, they sent some ambassadors to them, but without success. Standing thus completely at a loss in their minds, they pressed hard upon Pericles.
ὁ δὲ ὁρῶν αὐτοὺς πρὸς τὰ παρόντα χαλεπαίνοντας καὶ πάντα ποιοῦντας ἅπερ αὐτὸς ἤλπιζε, ξύλλογον ποιήσας (ἔτι δ’ ἐστρατήγει) ἐβούλετο θαρσῦναί τε καὶ ἀπαγαγὼν τὸ ὀργιζόμενον τῆς γνώμης2 πρὸς τὸ ἠπιώτερον καὶ ἀδεέστερον καταστῆσαι· παρελθὼν δὲ ἔλεξε τοιάδε.
But he, seeing them angry at the present situation and doing exactly everything that he himself had expected, called an assembly (for he was still general) and wished to encourage them and, by leading away the angry part of their minds, to restore them to a calmer and less fearful state; so, coming forward, he spoke as follows.
- 2.59.2ὡς πείσαντα σφᾶς πολεμεῖν καὶ δι’ ἐκεῖνον ταῖς ξυμφοραῖς περιπεπτωκότες
The particle ὡς (meaning "on the grounds that") governs two participles in different cases. The first, πείσαντα (accusative singular masculine), agrees with the object of the main clause, Περικλέα, while the second, περιπεπτωκότες (nominative plural masculine), agrees with the subject of the main clause (the Athenians). This syntactic asymmetry allows the blending of two actions with different subjects—Pericles' persuasion and the Athenians' own misfortunes—into a single compound clause explaining why they blamed Pericles.
- 2.59.3τὸ ὀργιζόμενον τῆς γνώμης
A characteristic Thucydidean abstract expression combining the neuter singular present participle τὸ ὀργιζόμενον ("the angry part") with the partitive genitive τῆς γνώμης ("of their mind"), functionally meaning "their angry feeling" or "their angry state of mind."