- 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-grc2:2.84.1-2.84.5
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-10-23
The Athenian commander Phormio hemmed in the Peloponnesian circle and attacked at the decisive moment when the wind rose and threw them into confusion, winning a major victory. The defeated Peloponnesians retreated to Cyllene.
οἱ δ’ Ἀθηναῖοι κατὰ μίαν ναῦν τεταγμένοι περιέπλεον αὐτοὺς κύκλῳ καὶ ξυνῆγον ἐς ὀλίγον, ἐν χρῷ αἰεὶ παραπλέοντες καὶ δόκησιν παρέχοντες αὐτίκα ἐμβαλεῖν· προείρητο δ᾽ αὐτοῖς ὑπὸ Φορμίωνος μὴ ἐπιχειρεῖν πρὶν ἂν αὐτὸς σημήνῃ.
The Athenians, formed in a single line, sailed round them in a circle and kept narrowing their limits, constantly coasting close past them and giving the impression that they would attack immediately; but they had been ordered beforehand by Phormio not to begin the attack until he himself should give the signal.
ἤλπιζε γὰρ αὐτῶν οὐ μενεῖν τὴν τάξιν,1 ὥσπερ ἐν γῇ πεζήν, ἀλλὰ ξυμπεσεῖσθαι πρὸς ἀλλήλας τὰς ναῦς καὶ τὰ πλοῖα ταραχὴν παρέξειν, εἴ τ’ ἐκπνεύσειεν2 ἐκ τοῦ κόλπου τὸ πνεῦμα, ὅπερ ἀναμένων τε περιέπλει καὶ εἰώθει γίγνεσθαι ἐπὶ τὴν ἕω, οὐδένα χρόνον ἡσυχάσειν αὐτούς· καὶ τὴν ἐπιχείρησιν ἐφ’ ἑαυτῷ τε ἐνόμιζεν εἶναι, ὁπόταν βούληται, τῶν νεῶν ἄμεινον πλεουσῶν, καὶ τότε καλλίστην γίγνεσθαι.
For he hoped that their order would not keep, as a land force would, but that the ships would run foul of one another and the light vessels would cause confusion; and if, moreover, the wind should blow down from the gulf, which he was waiting for as he sailed round and which was accustomed to rise toward morning, they would not remain quiet for any length of time. He also thought that the attack was in his own hands, to make whenever he wished, since his ships were better sailers, and that this would then be the finest opportunity.
ὡς δὲ τό τε πνεῦμα κατῄει3 καὶ αἱ νῆες ἐν ὀλίγῳ ἤδη οὖσαι ὑπ’ ἀμφοτέρων, τοῦ τε ἀνέμου τῶν τε πλοίων, ἅμα προσκειμένων ἐταράσσοντο, καὶ ναῦς τε νηὶ προσέπιπτε καὶ τοῖς κοντοῖς διεωθοῦντο, βοῇ τε χρώμενοι καὶ πρὸς ἀλλήλους ἀντιφυλακῇ τε καὶ λοιδορίᾳ οὐδὲν κατήκουον οὔτε τῶν παραγγελλομένων οὔτε τῶν κελευστῶν, καὶ τὰς κώπας ἀδύνατοι ὄντες ἐν κλύδωνι ἀναφέρειν ἄνθρωποι ἄπειροι τοῖς κυβερνήταις ἀπειθεστέρας τὰς ναῦς παρεῖχον,4 τότε δὴ κατὰ τὸν καιρὸν τοῦτον σημαίνει, καὶ οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι προσπεσόντες πρῶτον μὲν καταδύουσι τῶν στρατηγίδων νεῶν μίαν, ἔπειτα δὲ καὶ τὰς ἄλλας ᾗ χωρήσειαν διέφθειρον, καὶ κατέστησαν ἐς ἀλκὴν μὲν μηδένα τρέπεσθαι αὐτῶν ὑπὸ τῆς ταραχῆς, φεύγειν δὲ ἐς Πάτρας καὶ Δύμην τῆς Ἀχαΐας.
And when the wind indeed blew down, and the ships, being already in a narrow space, were thrown into confusion by both the wind and the light vessels pressing upon them at once, and ship ran foul of ship, and they tried to push each other off with poles, and with shouting and mutual warnings and mutual abuse they heard nothing of either the orders or the boatswains’ signals, while inexperienced men, unable to recover their oars in the rough water, rendered the ships more unmanageable for the steersmen—then, at that very moment, he gave the signal; and the Athenians, falling upon them, first sank one of the flagship vessels, and then destroyed the others wherever they went, and reduced them to such a state that under the influence of the confusion not a man turned to resist, but they fled to Patrae and Dyme in Achaea.
οἱ δὲ Ἀθηναῖοι καταδιώξαντες καὶ ναῦς δώδεκα λαβόντες τούς τε ἄνδρας ἐξ αὐτῶν τοὺς πλείστους ἀνελόμενοι ἐς Μολύκρειον ἀπέπλεον, καὶ τροπαῖον στήσαντες ἐπὶ τῷ Ῥίῳ καὶ ναῦν ἀναθέντες τῷ Ποσειδῶνι ἀνεχώρησαν ἐς Ναύπακτον.
The Athenians, having pursued them and captured twelve ships, and having taken up most of the men from them, sailed away to Molycreium; and after erecting a trophy at Rhium and dedicating a ship to Poseidon, they withdrew to Naupactus.
παρέπλευσαν δὲ καὶ οἱ Πελοποννήσιοι εὐθὺς ταῖς περιλοίποις τῶν νεῶν ἐκ τῆς Δύμης καὶ Πατρῶν ἐς Κυλλήνην τὸ Ἠλείων ἐπίνειον· καὶ ἀπὸ Λευκάδος Κνῆμος καὶ αἱ ἐκείνων νῆες, ἃς ἔδει ταύταις ξυμμεῖξαι, ἀφικνοῦνται μετὰ τὴν ἐν Στράτῳ μάχην ἐς τὴν Κυλλήνην.
The Peloponnesians also sailed immediately with the remaining ships from Dyme and Patrae to Cyllene, the port of the Eleans; and Cnemus and the ships from Leucas, which were supposed to have joined these, arrived at Cyllene after the battle at Stratos.
- 2.84.2αὐτῶν οὐ μενεῖν τὴν τάξιν
The genitive αὐτῶν ('of them') modifies τὴν τάξιν ('the order'). The phrase forms an accusative-and-infinitive construction dependent on ἤλπιζε ('he hoped'), with τὴν τάξιν as the subject accusative of the infinitive μενεῖν.
- 2.84.2εἴ τ’ ἐκπνεύσειεν
The conditional clause εἴ τ’ ἐκπνεύσειεν ('if [the wind] should blow down') uses the optative mood, representing a future-less-vivid condition in indirect discourse dependent on the past-tense main verb ἤλπιζε ('he hoped'). Its apodosis is the accusative-and-infinitive clause οὐδένα χρόνον ἡσυχάσειν αὐτούς.
- 2.84.3ὡς δὲ τό τε πνεῦμα κατῄει
The subordinate clause introduced by ὡς ('when') is exceptionally long, containing several coordinated clauses connected by τε and καί and extending all the way to παρεῖχον. The main clause finally begins with τότε δὴ ... σημαίνει ('then indeed... he gave the signal'), serving to build tension by accumulating details of the confusion before the decisive action.
- 2.84.3ἀπειθεστέρας τὰς ναῦς παρεῖχον
The comparative adjective ἀπειθεστέρας ('more unmanageable') is placed in the predicative position relative to τὰς ναῦς ('the ships'), and combined with παρεῖχον ('rendered'), it expresses a result: 'rendered the ships more unmanageable'.