- 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-grc2:4.95.1-4.95.3
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-10-31
Hippocrates, the Athenian general, delivers a brief exhortation to his troops before the Battle of Delium, emphasizing that fighting on foreign soil is necessary to protect their own land and to live up to the glory of their ancestors.
‘ὦ Ἀθηναῖοι, δι’ ὀλίγου μὲν ἡ παραίνεσις γίγνεται, τὸ ἴσον δὲ πρός γε τοὺς ἀγαθοὺς ἄνδρας δύναται1 καὶ ὑπόμνησιν μᾶλλον ἔχει ἢ ἐπικέλευσιν.
’Athenians, my exhortation is brief, but it has the same power for brave men, and is a reminder rather than an incentive.
παραστῇ δὲ μηδενὶ ὑμῶν ὡς2 ἐν τῇ ἀλλοτρίᾳ οὐ προσῆκον3 τοσόνδε κίνδυνον ἀναρριπτοῦμεν. ἐν γὰρ τῇ τούτων ὑπὲρ τῆς ἡμετέρας ὁ ἀγὼν ἔσται· καὶ ἢν νικήσωμεν, οὐ μή ποτε ὑμῖν Πελοποννήσιοι ἐς τὴν χώραν ἄνευ τῆς τῶνδε ἵππου ἐσβάλωσιν,4 ἐν δὲ μιᾷ μάχῃ τήνδε τε προσκτᾶσθε καὶ ἐκείνην μᾶλλον ἐλευθεροῦτε.
Let no one among you think that we are running so great a risk improperly on foreign soil. For the struggle in their land will be on behalf of our own; and if we conquer, the Peloponnesians will never again invade your country without the cavalry of these men, and in a single battle you will both acquire this territory and make that other more free.
χωρήσατε οὖν ἀξίως ἐς αὐτοὺς τῆς τε πόλεως, ἣν ἕκαστος πατρίδα ἔχων πρώτην5 ἐν τοῖς Ἕλλησιν ἀγάλλεται, καὶ τῶν πατέρων, οἳ τούσδε μάχῃ κρατοῦντες μετὰ Μυρωνίδου ἐν Οἰνοφύτοις τὴν Βοιωτίαν ποτὲ ἔσχον.’
Go forward, therefore, to meet them in a manner worthy both of the city which each of you is proud to have as his fatherland, the first among the Hellenes, and of your fathers, who once defeated these men in battle under Myronides at Oenophyta and held Boeotia.’
- 4.95.1τὸ ἴσον ... δύναται
The verb δύναμαι here carries the meaning of 'to have the power or value of,' and with the accusative τὸ ἴσον, it means 'to have the equivalent effect' or 'to have the same power.'
- 4.95.2παραστῇ δὲ μηδενὶ ὑμῶν ὡς
παραστῇ is the third-person singular active aorist subjunctive (used here as an imperative equivalent or aorist imperative of the intransitive/passive sense of παρίστημι), meaning 'to come into one's mind,' taking the dative μηδενὶ ὑμῶν. The subsequent ὡς clause introduces the content of the subjective thought to be avoided.
- 4.95.2οὐ προσῆκον
An accusative absolute construction using the neuter participle of the impersonal verb προσήκει ('it is fitting'). It functions adverbially with a concessive nuance, meaning 'although it is not fitting' or 'improperly.'
- 4.95.2οὐ μή ποτε ... ἐσβάλωσιν
The combination of οὐ μή with the subjunctive (aorist ἐσβάλωσιν) is a standard grammatical idiom expressing a strong negative assertion or prediction about the future ('will certainly never invade').
- 4.95.3ἣν ἕκαστος πατρίδα ἔχων πρώτην
The relative pronoun ἣν refers back to the antecedent τῆς πόλεως and serves as the direct object of the participle ἔχων (or the verb ἀγάλλεται). 'πρώτην' is a predicative adjective modifying the noun 'πατρίδα' (or the relative pronoun), meaning 'as the first/foremost' among the Hellenes.