- 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-grc2:2.67.1-2.67.4
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-10-23
The Peloponnesian embassy traveling to negotiate with the Persian King is captured in Thrace due to the schemes of Athenian envoys, brought to Athens, and immediately executed.
καὶ τοῦ αὐτοῦ θέρους τελευτῶντος Ἀριστεὺς Κορίνθιος καὶ Λακεδαιμονίων πρέσβεις Ἀνήριστος καὶ Νικόλαος καὶ Πρατόδαμος καὶ Τεγεάτης Τιμαγόρας καὶ Ἀργεῖος ἰδίᾳ Πόλλις, πορευόμενοι ἐς τὴν Ἀσίαν ὡς βασιλέα,1 εἴ πως πείσειαν2 αὐτὸν χρήματά τε παρασχεῖν καὶ ξυμπολεμεῖν, ἀφικνοῦνται ὡς Σιτάλκην πρῶτον τὸν Τήρεω ἐς Θρᾴκην, βουλόμενοι πεῖσαί τε αὐτόν, εἰ δύναιντο, μεταστάντα τῆς Ἀθηναίων ξυμμαχίας στρατεῦσαι ἐπὶ τὴν Ποτείδαιαν, οὗ ἦν στράτευμα τῶν Ἀθηναίων πολιορκοῦν, καὶ ᾗπερ ὥρμηντο, δι’ ἐκείνου πορευθῆναι πέραν τοῦ Ἑλλησπόντου ὡς Φαρνάκην τὸν Φαρναβάζου, ὃς αὐτοὺς ἔμελλεν ὡς βασιλέα ἀναπέμψειν.
At the end of the same summer, Aristeus of Corinth, the Lacedaemonian ambassadors Aneristus, Nicolaus, and Pratodamus, Timagoras of Tegea, and a private Argive named Pollis, while traveling to Asia to visit the King in the hope of persuading him to provide money and join the war, arrived first in Thrace to visit Sitalces, the son of Teres. They wished, if possible, to persuade him to abandon the Athenian alliance and march to Potidaea, where an Athenian army was besieging the city, and also to proceed, as they had intended, through Sitalces’ territory across the Hellespont to Pharnaces, the son of Pharnabazus, who was to send them up to the King.
παρατυχόντες δὲ Ἀθηναίων πρέσβεις Λέαρχος Καλλιμάχου καὶ Ἀμεινιάδης Φιλήμονος παρὰ τῷ Σιτάλκῃ πείθουσι τὸν Σάδοκον τὸν γεγενημένον Ἀθηναῖον, Σιτάλκου υἱόν, τοὺς ἄνδρας ἐγχειρίσαι σφίσιν, ὅπως μὴ διαβάντες ὡς βασιλέα τὴν ἐκείνου πόλιν3 τὸ μέρος βλάψωσιν.
However, Learchus the son of Callimachus and Ameiniades the son of Philemon, Athenian ambassadors who happened to be present with Sitalces, persuaded Sadocus, Sitalces’ son, who had been made an Athenian citizen, to hand the men over to them, so that they might not cross over to the King and do some harm to his city.
ὁ δὲ πεισθεὶς πορευομένους αὐτοὺς διὰ τῆς Θρᾴκης ἐπὶ τὸ πλοῖον ᾧ ἔμελλον τὸν Ἑλλήσποντον περαιώσειν, πρὶν ἐσβαίνειν ξυλλαμβάνει, ἄλλους ξυμπέμψας μετὰ τοῦ Λεάρχου καὶ Ἀμεινιάδου, καὶ ἐκέλευσεν ἐκείνοις παραδοῦναι· οἱ δὲ λαβόντες ἐκόμισαν ἐς τὰς Ἀθήνας.
Sadocus was persuaded, and while they were traveling through Thrace to the boat on which they were to cross the Hellespont, he seized them before they embarked, having sent others with Learchus and Ameiniades, and ordered them to be handed over to them; and they, having taken them, brought them to Athens.
ἀφικομένων δὲ αὐτῶν δείσαντες οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι τὸν Ἀριστέα μὴ αὖθις σφᾶς ἔτι πλείω κακουργῇ διαφυγών, ὅτι καὶ πρὸ τούτων τὰ τῆς Ποτειδαίας καὶ τῶν ἐπὶ Θρᾴκης πάντα ἐφαίνετο πράξας, ἀκρίτους καὶ βουλομένους ἔστιν ἃ εἰπεῖν4 αὐθημερὸν ἀπέκτειναν πάντας καὶ ἐς φάραγγα ἐσέβαλον, δικαιοῦντες τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἀμύνεσθαι οἷσπερ καὶ οἱ Λακεδαιμόνιοι ὑπῆρξαν, τοὺς ἐμπόρους οὓς ἔλαβον Ἀθηναίων καὶ τῶν ξυμμάχων ἐν ὁλκάσι περὶ Πελοπόννησον πλέοντας ἀποκτείναντες καὶ ἐς φάραγγας ἐσβαλόντες. πάντας γὰρ δὴ κατ᾽ ἀρχὰς τοῦ πολέμου Λακεδαιμόνιοι ὅσους λάβοιεν ἐν τῇ θαλάσσῃ ὡς πολεμίους διέφθειρον, καὶ τοὺς μετὰ Ἀθηναίων ξυμπολεμοῦντας καὶ τοὺς μηδὲ μεθ’ ἑτέρων.
On their arrival, the Athenians, fearing that Aristeus, if he escaped, might again do them even more harm, since even before this he was seen to have directed all the affairs of Potidaea and the regions of Thrace, put them all to death on the very same day without a trial, even though they wished to say something in their defense, and threw them into a pit. They justified themselves by retaliating in the same way as the Lacedaemonians had begun, who had put to death and thrown into pits the merchants whom they captured in merchant vessels sailing around the Peloponnese, both Athenians and their allies. For indeed, at the beginning of the war, the Lacedaemonians used to slaughter as enemies all whom they captured at sea, both those who fought on the side of the Athenians and those who were with neither side.
- 2.67.1ὡς βασιλέα
The particle ὡς functioning as a preposition with an accusative noun (usually referring to a person) to express direction ("to the presence of"). Here it indicates going to the Persian King (βασιλέα).
- 2.67.1εἴ πως πείσειαν
The conditional conjunction εἰ followed by the optative (πείσειαν), expressing a hope or attempt in a past context (dependent on the historical present ἀφικνοῦνται), meaning "in the hope that they might somehow persuade."
- 2.67.2τὴν ἐκείνου πόλιν
Referring back to τὸν γεγενημένον Ἀθηναῖον (who had been made an Athenian citizen), the demonstrative pronoun ἐκείνου refers to Sadocus. Thus, "his city" means Athens, the city of which he had become a citizen.
- 2.67.4ἀκρίτους καὶ βουλομένους ἔστιν ἃ εἰπεῖν
The adjective ἀκρίτους (without trial) and the participle βουλομένους (wishing) both modify πάντας (all), the direct object of ἀπέκτειναν. The idiom ἔστιν ἃ (there are some things which) functions as the object of the infinitive εἰπεῖν (to say).