- 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-grc2:1.186.1-1.186.4
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-02
Queen Nitocris constructed a stone bridge across the Euphrates in Babylon and reinforced the riverbanks. She temporarily diverted the river into a lake to facilitate the construction, and arranged to remove the wooden planks at night to prevent theft.
ταῦτα μὲν δὴ ἐκ βάθεος1 περιεβάλετο, τοιήνδε δὲ ἐξ αὐτῶν παρενθήκην ἐποιήσατο. τῆς πόλιος ἐούσης δύο φαρσέων,2 τοῦ δὲ ποταμοῦ μέσον ἔχοντος, ἐπὶ τῶν πρότερον βασιλέων ὅκως τις ἐθέλοι ἐκ τοῦ ἑτέρου φάρσεος ἐς τοὔτερον διαβῆναι, χρῆν πλοίῳ διαβαίνειν, καὶ ἦν, ὡς ἐγὼ δοκέω, ὀχληρὸν τοῦτο. αὕτη δὲ καὶ τοῦτο προεῖδε. ἐπείτε γὰρ ὤρυσσε τὸ ἔλυτρον τῇ λίμνῃ, μνημόσυνον τόδε ἄλλο ἀπὸ τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἔργου ἐλίπετο·
While she threw these deep defenses around herself, she made the following addition as a result of them. Since the city consisted of two parts, and the river held the middle of it, under the former kings, whenever anyone wished to cross from one part to the other, it was necessary to cross by boat; and this was, as I think, troublesome. She foresaw this also. For when she was digging the basin for the lake, she left behind this other monument from the same work:
ἐτάμνετο λίθους περιμήκεας, ὡς δέ οἱ ἦσαν οἱ λίθοι ἕτοιμοι καὶ τὸ χωρίον ὀρώρυκτο, ἐκτρέψασα τοῦ ποταμοῦ τὸ ῥέεθρον πᾶν ἐς τὸ ὤρυσσε χωρίον, ἐν ᾧ ἐπίμπλατο τοῦτο, ἐν τούτω ἀπεξηρασμένου τοῦ ἀρχαίου ῥεέθρου τοῦτο μὲν τὰ χείλεα τοῦ ποταμοῦ κατὰ τὴν πόλιν καὶ τὰς καταβάσιας τὰς ἐκ τῶν πυλίδων ἐς τὸν ποταμὸν φερούσας ἀνοικοδόμησε πλίνθοισι ὀπτῇσι κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν λόγον τῷ τείχεϊ, τοῦτο δὲ κατὰ μέσην κου μάλιστα τὴν πόλιν τοῖσι λίθοισι τοὺς ὠρύξατο3 οἰκοδόμεε γέφυραν, δέουσα τοὺς λίθους σιδήρῳ τε καὶ μολύβδῳ.
she had very long stones quarried, and when the stones were ready for her and the place had been excavated, having diverted all the stream of the river into the place which she had dug, while this was being filled, the ancient bed having been dried up in the meantime, on the one hand she built up with baked bricks the banks of the river throughout the city and the descents leading from the posterns to the river in the same manner as the wall, and on the other hand, at about the middle of the city, she built a bridge with the stones which she had quarried, binding the stones with iron and lead.
ἐπιτείνεσκε δὲ ἐπʼ αὐτήν, ὅκως μὲν ἡμέρη γίνοιτο, ξύλα τετράγωνα, ἐπʼ ὧν τὴν διάβασιν ἐποιεῦντο οἱ Βαβυλώνιοι· τὰς δὲ νύκτας τὰ ξύλα ταῦτα ἀπαιρέεσκον τοῦδε εἵνεκα, ἵνα μὴ διαφοιτέοντες τὰς νύκτας κλέπτοιεν παρʼ ἀλλήλων.
And she used to lay across it, whenever day came, square beams of wood, upon which the Babylonians made their crossing; but during the nights they used to take away these beams for this reason, lest, crossing over during the nights, they should steal from one another.
ὡς δὲ τό τε ὀρυχθὲν λίμνη πλήρης ἐγεγόνεε ὑπὸ τοῦ ποταμοῦ καὶ τὰ περὶ τὴν γέφυραν ἐκεκόσμητο, τὸν Εὐφρήτην ποταμὸν ἐς τὰ ἀρχαῖα ῥέεθρα ἐκ τῆς λίμνης ἐξήγαγε, καὶ οὕτω τὸ ὀρυχθὲν ἕλος γενόμενον ἐς δέον ἐδόκεε γεγονέναι καὶ τοῖσι πολιήτῃσι γέφυρα ἦν κατεσκευασμένη.
And when the excavated place had become a full lake by the river and the works around the bridge had been completed, she led the river Euphrates back into its ancient bed from the lake; and thus the excavation, having become a marsh, seemed to have turned out to good purpose, and a bridge had been constructed for the citizens.
- 1.186.1ἐκ βάθεος
Literally 'from the depth' or 'from the foundation', here used metaphorically to mean 'with deep precaution' or 'from deep design', describing the nature of the defensive works mentioned in the previous chapter.
- 1.186.1τῆς πόλιος ἐούσης δύο φαρσέων
Genitive absolute construction. The phrase δύο φαρσέων is a partitive genitive used predicatively with the participle ἐούσης, meaning 'since the city consisted of two parts'.
- 1.186.2τοὺς ὠρύξατο
A relative clause modifying τοῖσι λίθοισι, consisting of the relative pronoun τοὺς and the middle aorist ὠρύξατο (from ὀρύσσω). The middle voice has an indirect reflexive or causative force, meaning 'the stones which she had quarried (caused to be dug out) for herself'.