- 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-grc2:4.9.1-4.9.4
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-10-28
Demosthenes prepares his defense against the Lacedaemonian land and sea assault, deploying his limited forces. He personally leads a small elite group to the rocky shoreline where the wall is weakest and an enemy landing is highly anticipated.
Δημοσθένης δὲ ὁρῶν τοὺς Λακεδαιμονίους μέλλοντας προσβάλλειν ναυσί τε ἅμα καὶ πεζῷ παρεσκευάζετο καὶ αὐτός, καὶ τὰς τριήρεις αἳ περιῆσαν αὐτῷ ἀπὸ τῶν καταλειφθεισῶν1 ἀνασπάσας ὑπὸ τὸ τείχισμα προσεσταύρωσε, καὶ τοὺς ναύτας ἐξ αὐτῶν ὥπλισεν ἀσπίσι [τε] φαύλαις καὶ οἰσυΐναις ταῖς πολλαῖς· οὐ γὰρ ἦν ὅπλα ἐν χωρίῳ ἐρήμῳ πορίσασθαι, ἀλλὰ καὶ ταῦτα ἐκ λῃστρικῆς Μεσσηνίων τριακοντόρου καὶ κέλητος ἔλαβον, οἳ ἔτυχον παραγενόμενοι. ὁπλῖταί τε τῶν Μεσσηνίων τούτων ὡς τεσσαράκοντα ἐγένοντο, οἷς ἐχρῆτο μετὰ τῶν ἄλλων.
Demosthenes, seeing that the Lacedaemonians were about to attack with both fleet and army at the same time, prepared himself as well. Having hauled up under the fortification the triremes that remained to him from those left behind, he secured them with a stockade, and armed the sailors from them with poor shields, mostly made of wickerwork. For it was not possible to procure arms in a deserted place, and even these they had obtained from a thirty-oared privateer and a light boat belonging to some Messenians who happened to have arrived. There were also about forty hoplites among these Messenians, whom he employed along with the others.
τοὺς μὲν οὖν πολλοὺς τῶν τε ἀόπλων καὶ ὡπλισμένων ἐπὶ τὰ τετειχισμένα μάλιστα καὶ ἐχυρὰ τοῦ χωρίου πρὸς τὴν ἤπειρον ἔταξε, προειπὼν ἀμύνασθαι τὸν πεζόν, ἢν προσβάλῃ· αὐτὸς δὲ ἀπολεξάμενος ἐκ πάντων ἑξήκοντα ὁπλίτας καὶ τοξότας ὀλίγους ἐχώρει ἔξω τοῦ τείχους ἐπὶ τὴν θάλασσαν, ᾗ μάλιστα ἐκείνους προσεδέχετο πειράσειν ἀποβαίνειν, ἐς χωρία μὲν χαλεπὰ καὶ πετρώδη πρὸς τὸ πέλαγος τετραμμένα, σφίσι δὲ τοῦ τείχους ταύτῃ ἀσθενεστάτου ὄντος ἐσβιάσασθαι αὐτοὺς ἡγεῖτο προθυμήσεσθαι·2
Accordingly, he posted the majority of his men, both armed and unarmed, at the most fortified and strong parts of the place facing the mainland, with orders to repel the land army if it should attack. But he himself, having selected sixty hoplites and a few archers from the whole number, went outside the wall to the sea, at the very point where he especially expected the enemy would attempt to land. This was a difficult and rocky spot facing the open sea, but he thought that, as their wall was weakest at this point, the enemy would be eager to force an entrance there;
οὔτε γὰρ αὐτοὶ ἐλπίζοντές ποτε ναυσὶ κρατήσεσθαι οὐκ ἰσχυρὸν ἐτείχιζον, ἐκείνοις τε3 βιαζομένοις τὴν ἀπόβασιν ἁλώσιμον τὸ χωρίον γίγνεσθαι.
for they themselves, never expecting to be beaten by sea, had not built a strong wall, and to the enemy, if they could force a landing, the place would become captureable.
κατὰ τοῦτο οὖν πρὸς αὐτὴν τὴν θάλασσαν χωρήσας ἔταξε τοὺς ὁπλίτας ὡς εἴρξων, ἢν δύνηται, καὶ παρεκελεύσατο τοιάδε.
Therefore, having gone down to the water’s edge at this very point, he posted his hoplites to keep the enemy off, if he could, and exhorted them with these words:
- 4.9.1αἳ περιῆσαν αὐτῷ ἀπὸ τῶν καταλειφθεισῶν
The relative pronoun αἳ refers back to τριήρεις. The phrase ἀπὸ τῶν καταλειφθεισῶν ('from those left behind') refers to the five ships originally left for the defense of Pylos, from which Demosthenes had already dispatched two for reinforcements (§4.8.3). Thus, only three remained to him (περιῆσαν αὐτῷ). Syntactically, the entire relative clause serves as the object of the participle ἀνασπάσας.
- 4.9.2ἐσβιάσασθαι αὐτοὺς ἡγεῖτο προθυμήσεσθαι
The main verb ἡγεῖτο ('he thought') governs an accusative and infinitive (A.C.I.) construction. The logical subject of the infinitive is αὐτοὺς ('they', i.e., the Lacedaemonians), and the governing infinitive is the future προθυμήσεσθαι ('would be eager'). This in turn takes the complementary aorist infinitive ἐσβιάσασθαι ('to force an entrance'). This nested infinitive structure requires careful parsing to trace the dependency.
- 4.9.3οὔτε γὰρ αὐτοὶ... ἐκείνοις τε...
This sentence presents two contrasting reasons linked by the correlative οὔτε... τε... ('on the one hand not... and on the other hand...'). In the first part, αὐτοὶ ('they themselves') refers to the Athenians, who did not build a strong wall because they never expected to be defeated by sea. In the second part, the dative participle construction ἐκείνοις... βιαζομένοις ('to them forcing...') shifts the focus to the Lacedaemonians, for whom the place would become vulnerable if they could force a landing. Note the transition of subject and grammatical case.