- 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-grc2:2.98.1-2.98.4
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-10-24
Sitalces prepares his army and marches toward Macedonia, crossing a desert mountain via a road he had previously cleared. Along the way, his forces are joined by many independent Thracians attracted by plunder, swelling the army to 150,000 men.
Σιτάλκης μὲν οὖν χώρας τοσαύτης βασιλεύων παρεσκευάζετο τὸν στρατόν. καὶ ἐπειδὴ αὐτῷ ἑτοῖμα ἦν,1 ἄρας ἐπορεύετο ἐπὶ τὴν Μακεδονίαν πρῶτον μὲν διὰ τῆς αὑτοῦ ἀρχῆς, ἔπειτα διὰ Κερκίνης ἐρήμου ὄρους, ὅ ἐστι μεθόριον Σιντῶν καὶ Παιόνων· ἐπορεύετο δὲ δι’ αὐτοῦ τῇ ὁδῷ ἣν πρότερον αὐτὸς ἐποιήσατο τεμὼν τὴν ὕλην, ὅτε ἐπὶ Παίονας ἐστράτευσεν.
Sitalces then, ruling over so great a territory, was preparing his army. And when everything was ready for him, he set out and marched toward Macedonia, first through his own territory, and then through the desert mountain Cercine, which is the boundary between the Sinti and the Paeonians. He marched through it by the road which he himself had previously made by cutting down the forest when he campaigned against the Paeonians.
τὸ δὲ ὄρος ἐξ Ὀδρυσῶν διιόντες ἐν δεξιᾷ μὲν εἶχον Παίονας, ἐν ἀριστερᾷ δὲ Σιντοὺς καὶ Μαιδούς. διελθόντες δὲ αὐτὸ ἀφίκοντο ἐς Δόβηρον τὴν Παιονικήν.
Crossing the mountain from the country of the Odrysians, they had the Paeonians on their right, and the Sinti and Maedi on their left. And having passed through it, they arrived at Doberus in Paeonia.
πορευομένῳ δὲ αὐτῷ2 ἀπεγίγνετο μὲν οὐδὲν τοῦ στρατοῦ εἰ μή τι νόσῳ, προσεγίγνετο δέ· πολλοὶ γὰρ τῶν αὐτονόμων Θρᾳκῶν ἀπαράκλητοι ἐφ’ ἁρπαγὴν ἠκολούθουν, ὥστε τὸ πᾶν πλῆθος λέγεται οὐκ ἔλασσον πέντε καὶ δέκα μυριάδων γενέσθαι·
As he marched, no part of his army was lost except by disease, but rather it was increased; for many of the independent Thracians followed him unsummoned for the sake of plunder, so that the whole multitude is said to have become not less than a hundred and fifty thousand.
καὶ τούτου τὸ μὲν πλέον πεζὸν ἦν, τριτημόριον δὲ μάλιστα ἱππικόν. τοῦ δ’ ἱππικοῦ τὸ πλεῖστον αὐτοὶ Ὀδρύσαι παρείχοντο καὶ μετ’ αὐτοὺς Γέται. τοῦ δὲ πεζοῦ3 οἱ μαχαιροφόροι μαχιμώτατοι μὲν ἦσαν οἱ ἐκ τῆς Ῥοδόπης αὐτόνομοι καταβάντες, ὁ δὲ ἄλλος ὅμιλος ξύμμεικτος πλήθει φοβερώτατος ἠκολούθει.
And of this, the greater part was infantry, and about one-third was cavalry. Of the cavalry, the Odrysians themselves furnished the greatest part, and after them the Getae. Of the infantry, the sword-bearing independent Thracians who came down from Rhodope were the most warlike, while the rest of the mixed multitude followed, most formidable in their numbers.
- 2.98.1ἑτοῖμα ἦν
The neuter plural adjective ἑτοῖμα serves as the subject with the singular verb ἦν in an impersonal sense, meaning 'things were ready'. This reflects the standard Greek grammatical rule that neuter plural subjects take singular verbs.
- 2.98.3πορευομένῳ δὲ αὐτῷ
Dative of interest or relation ('as he marched'). It functions with the verb ἀπεγίγνετο ('was lost') and the partitive genitive τοῦ στρατοῦ ('of the army') to mean 'nothing of the army was lost to him as he marched'.
- 2.98.4τοῦ δὲ πεζοῦ
Partitive genitive referring to the infantry (τὸ πεζόν, here in the genitive singular τοῦ πεζοῦ), meaning 'of the infantry, the sword-bearers...'.