- 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-grc2:1.6.1-1.6.3
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-10-27
Describes Croesus, the king of Lydia, who was the first barbarian to subjugate the Asiatic Greeks and form an alliance with the Lacedaemonians, noting that prior Cimmerian incursions were mere raids rather than conquests.
Κροῖσος ἦν Λυδὸς μὲν γένος,1 παῖς δὲ Ἀλυάττεω, τύραννος δὲ ἐθνέων τῶν ἐντός Ἅλυος ποταμοῦ, ὃς ῥέων ἀπὸ μεσαμβρίης μεταξὺ Συρίων τε καὶ Παφλαγόνων ἐξιεῖ πρὸς βορέην ἄνεμον ἐς τὸν Εὔξεινον καλεόμενον πόντον.
Croesus was a Lydian by birth, the son of Alyattes, and ruler of the nations within the river Halys, which, flowing from the south between the Syrians and the Paphlagonians, empties northward into the sea called Euxine.
οὗτος ὁ Κροῖσος βαρβάρων πρῶτος τῶν ἡμεῖς ἴδμεν2 τοὺς μὲν κατεστρέψατο Ἑλλήνων ἐς φόρου ἀπαγωγήν, τοὺς δὲ φίλους προσεποιήσατο. κατεστρέψατο μὲν Ἴωνάς τε καὶ Αἰολέας καὶ Δωριέας τοὺς ἐν τῇ Ἀσίῃ, φίλους δὲ προσεποιήσατο Λακεδαιμονίους.
This Croesus was the first of the barbarians we know of to subdue some of the Greeks to the payment of tribute, and to make others his friends. He subdued the Ionians, Aeolians, and Dorians in Asia, and made friends of the Lacedaemonians.
πρὸ δὲ τῆς Κροίσου ἀρχῆς πάντες Ἕλληνες ἦσαν ἐλεύθεροι· τὸ γὰρ Κιμμερίων στράτευμα τὸ ἐπὶ τὴν Ἰωνίην ἀπικόμενον Κροίσου ἐὸν πρεσβύτερον3 οὐ καταστροφὴ ἐγένετο τῶν πολίων ἀλλʼ ἐξ ἐπιδρομῆς ἁρπαγή.
Before the rule of Croesus, all Greeks were free; for the Cimmerian army which came against Ionia, being prior to Croesus, was not a subjugation of the cities, but a plundering from a raid.
- 1.6.1γένος
In the phrase Λυδὸς μὲν γένος, γένος is an accusative of respect (or specification), modifying Λυδὸς to mean 'a Lydian by birth'.
- 1.6.2τῶν ἡμεῖς ἴδμεν
The relative pronoun τῶν is attracted into the genitive case by its antecedent, the partitive genitive βαρβάρων. Under normal syntax, it would be the accusative direct object (οὕς) of the verb ἴδμεν (the Ionic first-person plural of οἶδα).
- 1.6.3Κροίσου ἐὸν πρεσβύτερον
The word ἐὸν is the Ionic present participle neuter singular of εἰμί, modifying the subject τὸ ... στράτευμα. The genitive Κροίσου with the comparative adjective πρεσβύτερον is a genitive of comparison, meaning 'being prior to (older than) Croesus'.