- 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-grc2:2.109.1-2.109.3
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-07
The text explains how King Sesostris distributed equal plots of land to all Egyptians for taxation, and how the need to remeasure land shrunk by the river's flooding gave rise to geometry, which then spread to Greece.
τούτων μὲν δὴ εἵνεκα κατετμήθη ἡ Αἴγυπτος. κατανεῖμαι δὲ τὴν χώρην Αἰγυπτίοισι ἅπασι τοῦτον ἔλεγον τὸν βασιλέα,1 κλῆρον ἴσον ἑκάστῳ τετράγωνον διδόντα, καὶ ἀπὸ τούτου τὰς προσόδους ποιήσασθαι, ἐπιτάξαντα ἀποφορὴν ἐπιτελέειν κατʼ ἐνιαυτόν.
It was for these reasons, indeed, that Egypt was cut up. And they said that this king distributed the land among all the Egyptians, giving an equal square plot to each, and from this he made his revenues, having ordained that they should pay a tax every year.
εἰ δὲ τινὸς τοῦ κλήρου ὁ ποταμός τι παρέλοιτο, ἐλθὼν ἂν πρὸς αὐτὸν ἐσήμαινε2 τὸ γεγενημένον· ὁ δὲ ἔπεμπε τοὺς ἐπισκεψομένους καὶ ἀναμετρήσοντας3 ὅσῳ ἐλάσσων ὁ χῶρος γέγονε, ὅκως τοῦ λοιποῦ κατὰ λόγον τῆς τεταγμένης ἀποφορῆς τελέοι.
If the river took away any part of anyone’s plot, he would go to the king and report what had happened; and the king would send men to inspect and remeasure by how much the land had become smaller, so that for the future the tenant might pay a tax in proportion to the remaining size.
δοκέει δέ μοι4 ἐνθεῦτεν γεωμετρίη εὑρεθεῖσα ἐς τὴν Ἑλλάδα ἐπανελθεῖν· πόλον μὲν γὰρ καὶ γνώμονα καὶ τὰ δυώδεκα μέρεα τῆς ἡμέρης παρὰ Βαβυλωνίων ἔμαθον οἱ Ἕλληνες.
It seems to me that geometry was discovered from this and from there passed over into Greece; for as for the sun-dial and the gnomon and the twelve parts of the day, the Greeks learned these from the Babylonians.
- 2.109.1τοῦτον ἔλεγον τὸν βασιλέα
This is an accusative and infinitive construction governed by ἔλεγον (they said), where τοῦτον τὸν βασιλέα (this king) is the subject accusative of the infinitives κατανεῖμαι (distributed) and ποιήσασθαι (made). The participles διδόντα and ἐπιτάξαντα are also in the accusative to agree with this subject.
- 2.109.2ἐλθὼν ἂν ... ἐσήμαινε
The indicative imperfect ἐσήμαινε accompanied by the particle ἂν expresses a repeated or habitual action in the past ("he would report" / "used to report").
- 2.109.2τοὺς ἐπισκεψομένους καὶ ἀναμετρήσοντας
The future participles ἐπισκεψομένους and ἀναμετρήσοντας with the article denote purpose after the verb of sending ἔπεμπε ("men who would inspect and remeasure").
- 2.109.3δοκέει δέ μοι
δοκέει is used personally here with γεωμετρίη (geometry) as its subject ("geometry seems to me to have..."), with the infinitive ἐπανελθεῖν representing the action of the subject and εὑρεθεῖσα being a nominative passive participle agreeing with it.