- 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-grc2:4.54.1-4.54.4
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-10-29
The Athenian army captured Scandea on Cythera and advanced to the main city, forcing the inhabitants to surrender. Afterward, they ravaged various coastal areas.
κατασχόντες οὖν οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι τῷ στρατῷ, δέκα μὲν ναυσὶ καὶ δισχιλίοις Μιλησίων ὁπλίταις τὴν ἐπὶ θαλάσσῃ πόλιν Σκάνδειαν καλουμένην αἱροῦσι, τῷ δὲ ἄλλῳ στρατεύματι ἀποβάντες τῆς νήσου ἐς τὰ πρὸς Μαλέαν τετραμμένα ἐχώρουν ἐπὶ τὴν [ἐπὶ θαλάσσῃ] πόλιν τῶν Κυθηρίων, καὶ ηὗρον εὐθὺς αὐτοὺς ἐστρατοπεδευμένους ἅπαντας.
So the Athenians, having put in with their army, captured with ten ships and two thousand Milesian hoplites the seaside town called Scandea; and with the rest of the army, having disembarked on the part of the island facing Malea, they marched against the [seaside] city of the Cytherians, and immediately found them all encamped.
καὶ μάχης γενομένης ὀλίγον μέν τινα χρόνον ὑπέστησαν οἱ Κυθήριοι, ἔπειτα τραπόμενοι κατέφυγον ἐς τὴν ἄνω πόλιν, καὶ ὕστερον ξυνέβησαν πρὸς Νικίαν καὶ τοὺς ξυνάρχοντας Ἀθηναίοις ἐπιτρέψαι περὶ σφῶν αὐτῶν πλὴν θανάτου.
And a battle having taken place, the Cytherians stood their ground for a short time, but then turned and fled into the upper city; and afterwards they came to an agreement with Nicias and his colleagues to surrender themselves to the Athenians, on condition of sparing their lives.
ἦσαν δέ τινες καὶ γενόμενοι τῷ Νικίᾳ λόγοι πρότερον πρός τινας τῶν Κυθηρίων, δι’ ὃ καὶ θᾶσσον καὶ ἐπιτηδειότερον τό τε παραυτίκα καὶ τὸ ἔπειτα τὰ τῆς ὁμολογίας ἐπράχθη αὐτοῖς· ἀνέστησαν γὰρ 〈ἂν1〉 οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι Κυθηρίους, Λακεδαιμονίους τε ὄντας καὶ ἐπὶ τῇ Λακωνικῇ τῆς νήσου οὕτως ἐπικειμένης.2
For some communication had also previously taken place between Nicias and some of the Cytherians, because of which the terms of the agreement, both for the immediate present and for the future, were settled for them both more quickly and more favorably; for otherwise the Athenians would have expelled the Cytherians, since they were Lacedaemonians and the island lay so close off Laconia.
μετὰ δὲ τὴν ξύμβασιν οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι τήν τε Σκάνδειαν τὸ ἐπὶ τῷ λιμένι πόλισμα παραλαβόντες καὶ τῶν Κυθήρων φυλακὴν ποιησάμενοι ἔπλευσαν ἔς τε Ἀσίνην καὶ Ἕλος καὶ τὰ πλεῖστα τῶν περὶ θάλασσαν, καὶ ἀποβάσεις ποιούμενοι καὶ ἐναυλιζόμενοι τῶν χωρίων οὗ καιρὸς εἴη3 ἐδῄουν τὴν γῆν ἡμέρας μάλιστα ἑπτά.
After the agreement, the Athenians took over Scandea, the town at the harbor, and established a garrison in Cythera; then they sailed to Asine, Helos, and most of the places near the sea, and making landings and encamping at such points of the country as opportunity offered, they ravaged the land for about seven days.
- 4.54.3ἀνέστησαν γὰρ 〈ἂν〉
The indicative aorist ἀνέστησαν combined with the particle ἂν (inserted by editors) expresses a past counterfactual apodosis, implying that 'otherwise (if previous communications had not taken place) the Athenians would have expelled them.'
- 4.54.3τῆς νήσου οὕτως ἐπικειμένης
While connected by τε ... καί to the accusative participle phrase Λακεδαιμονίους τε ὄντας ('their being Lacedaemonians'), this clause forms a genitive absolute construction, adding the reason: 'the island lying so close (to Laconia).'
- 4.54.4τῶν χωρίων οὗ καιρὸς εἴη
τῶν χωρίων is a partitive genitive serving as the antecedent modified by the relative adverb οὗ ('where'). The verb εἴη in the relative clause is in the optative mood, representing a past general or repeated condition ('wherever there was opportunity').