Athenian Dispatch of the First Fleet to Sicily — Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War Book 3 (3.86.1–3.86.5), Greek & English

§3.86.1

τοῦ δ’ αὐτοῦ θέρους τελευτῶντος Ἀθηναῖοι εἴκοσι ναῦς ἔστειλαν ἐς Σικελίαν καὶ Λάχητα τὸν Μελανώπου στρατηγὸν αὐτῶν καὶ Χαροιάδην τὸν Εὐφιλήτου.

At the end of the same summer, the Athenians sent twenty ships to Sicily, and with them Laches the son of Melanopus, and Charoiades the son of Euphiletus, as generals.

§3.86.2

οἱ γὰρ Συρακόσιοι καὶ Λεοντῖνοι ἐς πόλεμον ἀλλήλοις καθέστασαν. ξύμμαχοι δὲ τοῖς μὲν Συρακοσίοις ἦσαν πλὴν Καμαριναίων αἱ ἄλλαι Δωρίδες πόλεις, αἵπερ καὶ πρὸς τὴν τῶν Λακεδαιμονίων τὸ πρῶτον ἀρχομένου τοῦ πολέμου ξυμμαχίαν ἐτάχθησαν,¹ οὐ μέντοι ξυνεπολέμησάν γε, τοῖς δὲ Λεοντίνοις αἱ Χαλκιδικαὶ πόλεις καὶ Καμάρινα· τῆς δὲ Ἰταλίας Λοκροὶ μὲν Συρακοσίων ἦσαν, Ῥηγῖνοι δὲ κατὰ τὸ ξυγγενὲς Λεοντίνων.

For the Syracusans and Leontines had fallen into war with each other. The allies of the Syracusans were all the other Dorian cities except the Camarinaeans, which had also been aligned with the Lacedaemonian alliance at the very beginning of the war, though they had not actually fought alongside them; whereas the allies of the Leontines were the Chalcidian cities and Camarina. In Italy, the Locrians sided with the Syracusans, and the Rhegians, owing to their kinship, with the Leontines.

§3.86.3

ἐς οὖν τὰς Ἀθήνας πέμψαντες οἱ τῶν Λεοντίνων ξύμμαχοι κατά τε παλαιὰν ξυμμαχίαν καὶ ὅτι Ἴωνες ἦσαν πείθουσι τοὺς Ἀθηναίους πέμψαι σφίσι ναῦς· ὑπὸ γὰρ τῶν Συρακοσίων τῆς τε γῆς εἴργοντο καὶ τῆς θαλάσσης.

The allies of the Leontines, therefore, sent envoys to Athens, and on the ground of an ancient alliance, and because they were Ionians, persuaded the Athenians to send them ships; for they were being excluded by the Syracusans from both land and sea.

§3.86.4

καὶ ἔπεμψαν οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι τῆς μὲν οἰκειότητος προφάσει, βουλόμενοι δὲ² μήτε σῖτον ἐς τὴν Πελοπόννησον ἄγεσθαι αὐτόθεν πρόπειράν τε ποιούμενοι εἰ σφίσι δυνατὰ εἴη τὰ ἐν τῇ Σικελίᾳ πράγματα ὑποχείρια γενέσθαι.³

And the Athenians sent them, on the pretext of their kinship, but in reality because they wished that no grain should be imported thence to the Peloponnese, and because they were making a preliminary trial to see if it might be possible for them to bring the affairs of Sicily under their own control.

§3.86.5

καταστάντες οὖν ἐς Ῥήγιον τῆς Ἰταλίας τὸν πόλεμον ἐποιοῦντο μετὰ τῶν ξυμμάχων. καὶ τὸ θέρος ἐτελεύτα.

Having established themselves, then, at Rhegium in Italy, they carried on the war in cooperation with their allies. And the summer ended.

Syntax notes3 items

3.86.2πρὸς τὴν τῶν Λακεδαιμονίων ... ξυμμαχίαν ἐτάχθησαν
'aligned with the Lacedaemonian alliance'. Here, ξυμμαχία denotes not just the abstract relationship of alliance, but concretely the 'alliance block' or 'league roster'. Combined with the verb τάσσω ('to draw up', 'to assign'), it indicates that these cities were formally cataloged or stationed under the Spartan confederacy at the outbreak of the war.
3.86.4τῆς μὲν οἰκειότητος προφάσει, βουλόμενοι δὲ ...
'on the pretext of their kinship, but [actually] because they wished...'. The contrastive structure of μὲν... δὲ... clearly distinguishes between the nominal reason (the dative noun προφάσει, 'on the pretext') and the real motives, which are expressed by the subsequent participles βουλόμενοι and πρόπειράν τε ποιούμενοι.
3.86.4εἰ σφίσι δυνατὰ εἴη τὰ ἐν τῇ Σικελίᾳ πράγματα ὑποχείρια γενέσθαι
'to see if it might be possible for them to bring the affairs of Sicily under their own control'. The adjective δυνατά is in the neuter plural, used impersonally with the infinitive γενέσθαι ('to become'). Because the main verb ἔπεμψαν is in the past tense (aorist), the optative of oblique clause (εἴη) is used in the indirect question introduced by εἰ, instead of the indicative.

Translated by Gemini 3.5 Flash (published 2026-05-25)urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0003.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:3.86.1-3.86.5