- 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-grc2:4.40.1-4.40.2
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-10-29
The passage describes the great shock the Lacedaemonian surrender caused throughout Greece, and recounts an anecdote of a Spartan prisoner replying with irony about the deaths of the brave men.
παρὰ γνώμην τε δὴ μάλιστα τῶν κατὰ τὸν πόλεμον τοῦτο τοῖς Ἕλλησιν ἐγένετο· τοὺς γὰρ Λακεδαιμονίους οὔτε λιμῷ οὔτ’ ἀνάγκῃ οὐδεμιᾷ ἠξίουν1 τὰ ὅπλα παραδοῦναι, ἀλλὰ ἔχοντας καὶ μαχομένους ὡς ἐδύναντο ἀποθνῄσκειν.
This indeed was the most unexpected event of the war to the Greeks; for they had expected that the Lacedaemonians would never surrender their arms either through hunger or any other compulsion, but would die fighting as best they could, keeping them in their hands.
ἀπιστοῦντές τε μὴ εἶναι2 τοὺς παραδόντας τοῖς τεθνεῶσιν ὁμοίους, καί τινος ἐρομένου ποτὲ ὕστερον τῶν Ἀθηναίων ξυμμάχων δι’ ἀχθηδόνα ἕνα τῶν ἐκ τῆς νήσου αἰχμαλώτων εἰ οἱ τεθνεῶτες αὐτῶν καλοὶ κἀγαθοί, ἀπεκρίνατο αὐτῷ πολλοῦ ἂν ἄξιον εἶναι τὸν ἄτρακτον, λέγων τὸν οἰστόν, εἰ τοὺς ἀγαθοὺς διεγίγνωσκε,3 δήλωσιν ποιούμενος ὅτι ὁ ἐντυγχάνων τοῖς τε λίθοις καὶ τοξεύμασι διεφθείρετο.
They did not believe that those who had surrendered were of the same stamp as those who had fallen; and when on a later occasion one of the Athenian allies, out of malice, asked one of the prisoners from the island if those of them who had fallen were honourable and brave men, he replied to him that the spindle—meaning the arrow—would be worth a great deal if it could distinguish the brave, thereby indicating that anyone who came in the way of the stones and arrows was killed.
- 4.40.1ἠξίουν
The subject is 'the Greeks' (τοῖς Ἕλλησιν) from the preceding clause. Here, the verb means 'to expect' or 'to think it natural', taking the accusative and infinitive construction with τοὺς Λακεδαιμονίους as the subject accusative and παραδοῦναι, ἀποθνῄσκειν as the infinitives.
- 4.40.2ἀπιστοῦντές τε μὴ εἶναι
The negative particle μή is used redundantly (or for reinforcement) in the infinitive clause dependent on the verb ἀπιστέω ('disbelieve', 'doubt'), which already contains a negative idea. It does not create a double negation resulting in an affirmative meaning, but simply reinforces the disbelief: 'disbelieving that they were...'
- 4.40.2πολλοῦ ἂν ἄξιον εἶναι ... εἰ ... διεγίγνωσκε
This is an indirect discourse representation of a present counterfactual conditional (originally, εἰ + imperfect indicative in the protasis, and ἄν + imperfect indicative in the apodosis). Under the governing verb of speaking ἀπεκρίνατο ('he answered'), the verb of the apodosis (ἦν ἄν) becomes an infinitive with ἄν (εἶναι ἄν), while the imperfect indicative of the protasis (διεγίγνωσκε) is retained.