- 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-grc2:3.89.1-3.89.3
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-09
Darius divides his empire into twenty satrapies with established annual tributes, prompting the Persians to nickname him a merchant due to this fiscal systematization, in contrast to his predecessors.
ποιήσας δὲ ταῦτα ἐν Πέρσῃσι ἀρχὰς κατεστήσατο εἴκοσι, τὰς αὐτοὶ καλέουσι σατραπηίας· καταστήσας δὲ τὰς ἀρχὰς καὶ ἄρχοντας ἐπιστήσας ἐτάξατο φόρους οἱ1 προσιέναι κατὰ ἔθνεά τε καὶ πρὸς τοῖσι ἔθνεσι τοὺς πλησιοχώρους προστάσσων, καὶ ὑπερβαίνων τοὺς προσεχέας τὰ ἑκαστέρω ἄλλοισι ἄλλα ἔθνεα νέμων.
After doing these things, he established twenty provinces among the Persians, which they themselves call satrapies; and having established the provinces and set governors over them, he appointed tributes to come in to him by nations, assigning to each nation its neighbors, and passing over the adjacent peoples to assign more distant nations to different provinces.
ἀρχὰς δὲ καὶ φόρων πρόσοδον τὴν ἐπέτειον κατὰ τάδε διεῖλε. τοῖσι μὲν αὐτῶν ἀργύριον ἀπαγινέουσι εἴρητο2 Βαβυλώνιον σταθμὸν τάλαντον ἀπαγινέειν, τοῖσι δὲ χρυσίον ἀπαγινέουσι Εὐβοϊκόν. τὸ δὲ Βαβυλώνιον τάλαντον δύναται Εὐβοΐδας ὀκτὼ καὶ ἑβδομήκοντα μνέας.
He divided the provinces and the annual revenue of tribute as follows: those of them who paid in silver were commanded to pay by the Babylonian standard of talent, and those who paid in gold by the Euboean standard. Now the Babylonian talent is equal to seventy-eight Euboean minae.
ἐπὶ γὰρ Κύρου ἄρχοντος καὶ αὖτις Καμβύσεω ἦν κατεστηκὸς οὐδὲν φόρου πέρι, ἀλλὰ δῶρα ἀγίνεον. διὰ δὲ ταύτην τὴν ἐπίταξιν τοῦ φόρου καὶ παραπλήσια ταύτῃ ἄλλα λέγουσι Πέρσαι ὡς Δαρεῖος μὲν ἦν κάπηλος, Καμβύσης δὲ δεσπότης, Κῦρος δὲ πατήρ, ὃ μὲν ὅτι ἐκαπήλευε πάντα τὰ πρήγματα, ὁ δὲ3 ὅτι χαλεπός τε ἦν καὶ ὀλίγωρος, ὁ δὲ ὅτι ἤπιός τε καὶ ἀγαθά σφι πάντα ἐμηχανήσατο.
For in the reign of Cyrus, and again in that of Cambyses, there was no fixed regulation concerning tribute, but they brought gifts. On account of this imposition of tribute, and other similar things, the Persians say that Darius was a merchant, Cambyses a master, and Cyrus a father; the first because he made a trade of all his affairs, the second because he was harsh and negligent, and the third because he was gentle and contrived all good things for them.
- 3.89.1οἱ
The dative of the third-person singular pronoun (Ionic), functioning here as an indirect reflexive pronoun referring to the subject of the main clause, Darius himself (equivalent to Attic ἑαυτῷ).
- 3.89.2εἴρητο
The third-person singular pluperfect passive of the verb λέγω, used impersonally to mean 'it had been commanded' or 'it was prescribed.' It takes the infinitive ἀπαγινέειν, with the logical subject (the agents) expressed by the dative τοῖσι μὲν...
- 3.89.3ὃ μὲν ... ὁ δὲ ... ὁ δὲ
Correlative demonstrative pronouns (the Ionic form of ὁ μὲν ... ὁ δὲ ... ὁ δὲ). They refer respectively to the three figures mentioned just before (Darius, Cambyses, and Cyrus) in that order, explaining the reasons for their reputations with the accompanying ὅτι-clauses.