- 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-grc2:3.146.1-3.146.4
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-09
Maeandrius, grudging Syloson an intact Samos, escaped through a secret passage while letting the mercenaries under Charilaus launch a surprise attack on the unsuspecting Persians, who eventually drove them back into the acropolis.
ταῦτα δὲ ἔλεξε ὁ Χαρίλεως· Μαιάνδριος δὲ ὑπέλαβε τὸν λόγον, ὡς μὲν ἐγὼ δοκέω, οὐκ ἐς τοῦτο ἀφροσύνης ἀπικόμενος ὡς δόξαι τὴν ἑωυτοῦ δύναμιν περιέσεσθαι τῆς βασιλέος,1 ἀλλὰ φθονήσας μᾶλλον Συλοσῶντι εἰ ἀπονητὶ ἔμελλε2 ἀπολάμψεσθαι ἀκέραιον τὴν πόλιν.
Thus Charilaus spoke; but Maeandrius accepted the proposal, as I think, not because he had reached such a pitch of folly as to imagine that his own power would overcome that of the king, but rather because he grudged Syloson if he was going to receive the city back intact without any trouble.
ἐρεθίσας ὦν τοὺς Πέρσας ἤθελε ὡς ἀσθενέστατα ποιῆσαι τὰ Σάμια πρήγματα καὶ οὕτω παραδιδόναι, εὖ ἐξεπιστάμενος ὡς παθόντες οἱ Πέρσαι κακῶς προσεμπικρανέεσθαι ἔμελλον τοῖσι Σαμίοισι, εἰδώς τε ἑωυτῷ ἀσφαλέα ἔκδυσιν ἐοῦσαν ἐκ τῆς νήσου τότε ἐπεὰν αὐτὸς βούληται· ἐπεποίητο γάρ οἱ κρυπτὴ διῶρυξ ἐκ τῆς ἀκροπόλιος φέρουσα ἐπὶ θάλασσαν.
Therefore, by provoking the Persians, he wished to make the affairs of Samos as weak as possible and only then hand them over, knowing full well that if the Persians suffered damage, they would be still more embittered against the Samians, and knowing that he himself had a safe escape from the island whenever he wished. For a secret passage had been made for him, leading from the acropolis to the sea.
αὐτὸς μὲν δὴ ὁ Μαιάνδριος ἐκπλέει ἐκ τῆς Σάμου· τοὺς δʼ ἐπικούρους πάντας ὁπλίσας ὁ Χαρίλεως, καὶ ἀναπετάσας τὰς πύλας, ἐξῆκε ἐπὶ τοὺς Πέρσας οὔτε προσδεκομένους τοιοῦτο οὐδὲν δοκέοντάς τε δὴ πάντα συμβεβάναι.3 ἐμπεσόντες δὲ οἱ ἐπίκουροι τῶν Περσέων τοὺς διφροφορευμένους τε καὶ λόγου πλείστου ἐόντας ἔκτεινον.
So Maeandrius himself sailed away from Samos; but Charilaus, having armed all the mercenaries and flung open the gates, let them loose upon the Persians, who expected no such thing and believed indeed that everything had been agreed upon. Falling upon them, the mercenaries began to kill those of the Persians who were carried in litters and were of the highest rank.
καὶ οὗτοι μὲν ταῦτα ἐποίευν, ἡ δὲ ἄλλη στρατιὴ ἡ Περσικὴ ἐπεβοήθεε· πιεζεύμενοι δὲ οἱ ἐπίκουροι ὀπίσω κατειλήθησαν ἐς τὴν ἀκρόπολιν.
And while these were doing this, the rest of the Persian army came to the rescue; and the mercenaries, hard pressed, were driven back into the acropolis.
- 3.146.1τῆς βασιλέος
Meaning "the king's (power)", a genitive of comparison. It compares the king's power with the preceding τὴν ἑωυτοῦ δύναμιν (his own power), but the corresponding noun (δυνάμιος) is omitted, resulting in a "comparatio compendiaria" where only the possessor τῆς βασιλέος is expressed.
- 3.146.1εἰ ἀπονητὶ ἔμελλε
The εἰ clause introduced after the participle of feeling φθονήσας (grudging) does not express a condition ("if"), but rather presents the fact or expectation which is the object of the grudge ("that he was going to...").
- 3.146.3πάντα συμβεβάναι
An accusative with infinitive construction acting as the object of δοκέοντάς (thinking). συμβεβάναι is the perfect active infinitive of the intransitive verb συμβαίνω, expressing a completed state where "all things had come to an agreement" or "everything was settled".