- 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-grc2:5.26.1-5.26.6
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-02
Thucydides demonstrates that the entire Peloponnesian War lasted twenty-seven years, arguing that the intervening truce was part of the war. He also shares that he lived through the war and, due to his exile, was able to record the history objectively from the perspectives of both sides.
γέγραφε δὲ καὶ ταῦτα ὁ αὐτὸς Θουκυδίδης Ἀθηναῖος ἑξῆς, ὡς ἕκαστα ἐγένετο, κατὰ θέρη καὶ χειμῶνας, μέχρι οὗ τήν τε ἀρχὴν κατέπαυσαν τῶν Ἀθηναίων Λακεδαιμόνιοι καὶ οἱ ξύμμαχοι, καὶ τὰ μακρὰ τείχη καὶ τὸν Πειραιᾶ κατέλαβον. ἔτη δὲ ἐς τοῦτο τὰ ξύμπαντα ἐγένετο τῷ πολέμῳ ἑπτὰ καὶ εἴκοσι.
And this too has the same Thucydides, an Athenian, written in order, as each thing happened, by summers and winters, until the Lacedaemonians and their allies put an end to the empire of the Athenians and captured the Long Walls and Peiraeus. And the years in total for this war amounted to twenty-seven.
καὶ τὴν διὰ μέσου ξύμβασιν εἴ τις μὴ ἀξιώσει πόλεμον νομίζειν, οὐκ ὀρθῶς δικαιώσει. τοῖς [τε] γὰρ ἔργοις ὡς διῄρηται ἀθρείτω, καὶ εὑρήσει οὐκ εἰκὸς ὂν1 εἰρήνην αὐτὴν κριθῆναι, ἐν ᾗ οὔτε ἀπέδοσαν πάντα οὔτ’ ἀπεδέξαντο ἃ ξυνέθεντο, ἔξω τε τούτων πρὸς τὸν Μαντινικὸν καὶ Ἐπιδαύριον πόλεμον καὶ ἐς ἄλλα ἀμφοτέροις ἁμαρτήματα ἐγένοντο καὶ οἱ ἐπὶ Θρᾴκης ξύμμαχοι οὐδὲν ἧσσον πολέμιοι ἦσαν Βοιωτοί τε ἐκεχειρίαν δεχήμερον ἦγον.
And if anyone does not think it right to consider the intervening agreement as war, he will not judge correctly. For let him look at the facts as they are distinguished, and he will find that it is not reasonable for it to be judged as peace, in which they neither restored all nor received back what they had agreed upon; and besides these things, there occurred violations on both sides in connection with the Mantinean and Epidaurian war and in other matters, and the allies in Thrace were no less hostile, and the Boeotians kept only a ten-day truce.
ὥστε ξὺν τῷ πρώτῳ πολέμῳ τῷ δεκέτει καὶ τῇ μετ’ αὐτὸν ὑπόπτῳ ἀνοκωχῇ καὶ τῷ ὕστερον ἐξ αὐτῆς πολέμῳ εὑρήσει τις τοσαῦτα ἔτη, λογιζόμενος κατὰ τοὺς χρόνους, καὶ ἡμέρας οὐ πολλὰς παρενεγκούσας,2 καὶ τοῖς ἀπὸ χρησμῶν τι ἰσχυρισαμένοις μόνον δὴ τοῦτο ἐχυρῶς ξυμβάν.3
So that, counting by the seasons, if one adds the first ten years’ war, the suspicious truce after it, and the subsequent war arising from it, one will find just so many years, with only a few days differing; and for those who assert anything from oracles, this was indeed the only thing that turned out securely.
αἰεὶ γὰρ ἔγωγε μέμνημαι, καὶ ἀρχομένου τοῦ πολέμου καὶ μέχρι οὗ ἐτελεύτησε, προφερόμενον ὑπὸ πολλῶν ὅτι τρὶς ἐννέα ἔτη δέοι γενέσθαι αὐτόν.
For I myself always remember, both at the beginning of the war and until it ended, its being put forward by many that it must last thrice nine years.
ἐπεβίων δὲ διὰ παντὸς αὐτοῦ αἰσθανόμενός τε τῇ ἡλικίᾳ καὶ προσέχων τὴν γνώμην, ὅπως ἀκριβές τι εἴσομαι· καὶ ξυνέβη μοι φεύγειν τὴν ἐμαυτοῦ ἔτη εἴκοσι μετὰ τὴν ἐς Ἀμφίπολιν στρατηγίαν, καὶ γενομένῳ4 παρ’ ἀμφοτέροις τοῖς πράγμασι, καὶ οὐχ ἧσσον τοῖς Πελοποννησίων διὰ τὴν φυγήν, καθ’ ἡσυχίαν τι αὐτῶν μᾶλλον αἰσθέσθαι.
And I lived through the whole of it, being of an age to understand and applying my mind in order that I might know something accurate; and it befell me to be exiled from my own country for twenty years after my command at Amphipolis, and, having had access to the affairs of both sides, and not least to those of the Peloponnesians because of my exile, to understand them somewhat more at leisure.
τὴν οὖν μετὰ τὰ δέκα ἔτη διαφοράν τε καὶ ξύγχυσιν τῶν σπονδῶν καὶ τὰ ἔπειτα ὡς ἐπολεμήθη ἐξηγήσομαι.
I will therefore relate the dispute and the violation of the treaty after the ten years, and how the war was subsequently waged.
- 5.26.2οὐκ εἰκὸς ὂν
This is a neuter accusative participle representing the impersonal phrase οὐκ εἰκός ἐστι (it is not reasonable/likely), serving as a predicate participle in indirect discourse after the verb εὑρήσει (he will find). The infinitive phrase εἰρήνην αὐτὴν κριθῆναι (that it should be judged as peace) acts as its subject.
- 5.26.3παρενεγκούσας
A second aorist active participle (feminine accusative plural) from παραφέρω (to deviate, differ), modifying ἡμέρας οὐ πολλὰς. The phrase functions either as an accusative of specification or absolute accusative, meaning 'with only a few days differing/deviating' from the exact calculation of twenty-seven years.
- 5.26.3ξυμβάν
An aorist active participle (neuter accusative singular) agreeing with τοῦτο (this, i.e., the prophecy of twenty-seven years), functioning in indirect discourse dependent on εὑρήσει τις (one will find that...). It means 'that this alone turned out/coincided securely.' The dative phrase τοῖς... ἰσχυρισαμένοις is a dative of interest/reference ('for those who assert...').
- 5.26.5γενομένῳ
Aorist participle (dative masculine singular) of γίγνομαι, agreeing with the dative pronoun μοι after the impersonal construction ξυνέβη μοι (it happened to me). This participle phrase, together with διὰ τὴν φυγήν (because of my exile), sets the circumstance for the following infinitive αἰσθέσθαι (to understand), which also depends on ξυνέβη ('it befell me, having had access..., to understand...').