- Source
- Herodotus. Godley, Alfred Denis, editor. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann, Ltd., 1920-1925 (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:tlg0016.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:1.106.1-1.106.2
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-10-30
Describes the harsh 28-year Scythian rule over Asia, Cyaxares and the Medes' slaughter of the Scythians at a banquet, the recovery of the Median empire, and their conquest of Ninus and Assyria except Babylon.
ἐπὶ μέν νυν ὀκτὼ καὶ εἴκοσι ἔτεα ἦρχον τῆς Ἀσίης οἱ Σκύθαι, καὶ τὰ πάντα σφι1 ὑπό τε ὕβριος καὶ ὀλιγωρίης ἀνάστατα ἦν· χωρὶς μὲν γὰρ φόρον ἔπρησσον παρʼ ἑκάστων τὸν2 ἑκάστοισι ἐπέβαλλον, χωρὶς δὲ τοῦ φόρου ἥρπαζον περιελαύνοντες τοῦτο ὅ τι ἔχοιεν3 ἕκαστοι.
For twenty-eight years, then, the Scythians ruled Asia, and everything was turned upside down by them through their insolence and neglect; for on the one hand, apart from levying from each people the tribute which they imposed on each, on the other hand, besides the tribute, they rode about and plundered whatever each possessed.
καὶ τούτων μὲν τοὺς πλεῦνας Κυαξάρης τε καὶ Μῆδοι ξεινίσαντες καὶ καταμεθύσαντες κατεφόνευσαν, καὶ οὕτω ἀνεσώσαντο τὴν ἀρχὴν Μῆδοι καὶ ἐπεκράτεον τῶν περ καὶ πρότερον,4 καὶ τήν τε Νίνον εἷλον (ὡς δὲ εἷλον ἐν ἑτέροισι λόγοισι δηλώσω) καὶ τοὺς Ἀσσυρίους ὑποχειρίους ἐποιήσαντο πλὴν τῆς Βαβυλωνίης μοίρης.
And of these, Cyaxares and the Medes, having entertained the greater part of them and made them drunk, slaughtered them; and thus the Medes recovered their empire and ruled over those whom they had ruled before, and they took Ninus (how they took it I will show in another part of my history) and subdued the Assyrians, except for the territory of Babylon.
- 1.106.1σφι
Third-person plural pronoun in the dative case, functioning here as a dative of interest or reference (for them / under their rule), showing that the entire social order collapsed under the Scythians.
- 1.106.1τόν
The Ionic relative pronoun (equivalent to Attic ὅν), agreeing in gender and number with its antecedent φόρον, and serving as the direct object of the verb ἐπέβαλλον.
- 1.106.1ἔχοιεν
Third-person plural present optative of the verb ἔχω. It is an optative of past repetition in a relative clause, representing repeated occurrences in past time ('whatever they might possess from time to time').
- 1.106.2τῶν περ καὶ πρότερον
The relative pronoun in the genitive case governed by the verb ἐπεκράτεον (to rule over), with the antecedent omitted. It represents a contraction (like ἐκείνων ὧνπερ) meaning 'over those very people whom they also ruled before'.