- 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-grc2:4.159.1-4.159.6
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-11
After the peaceful reigns of the first two kings, a massive Greek migration to Cyrene is triggered by an oracle under Battus II, forcing the displaced Libyans to seek Egyptian aid; however, the Cyrenaeans crush the Egyptian army at Irasa, sparking a domestic revolt against King Apries.
ἐπὶ μέν νυν Βάττου τε τοῦ οἰκιστέω τῆς ζόης,1 ἄρξαντος ἐπὶ τεσσεράκοντα ἔτεα, καὶ τοῦ παιδὸς αὐτοῦ Ἀρκεσίλεω ἄρξαντος ἑκκαίδεκα ἔτεα, οἴκεον οἱ Κυρηναῖοι ἐόντες τοσοῦτοι ὅσοι ἀρχὴν ἐς τὴν ἀποικίην ἐστάλησαν.
Now during the lifetime of Battus the founder, who ruled for forty years, and of his son Arcesilaus, who ruled for sixteen years, the Cyrenaeans lived being only as many in number as had been sent out to the colony at the beginning.
ἐπὶ δὲ τοῦ τρίτου, Βάττου τοῦ εὐδαίμονος καλεομένου, Ἕλληνας πάντας ὥρμησε χρήσασα ἡ Πυθίη πλέειν συνοικήσοντας Κυρηναίοισι Λιβύην· ἐπεκαλέοντο γὰρ οἱ Κυρηναῖοι ἐπὶ γῆς ἀναδασμῷ·
But in the time of the third king, the one called Battus the Blessed, the Pythian priestess by her oracle urged all Greeks to sail to dwell together with the Cyrenaeans in Libya; for the Cyrenaeans were inviting them for a redistribution of land.
ἔχρησε δὲ ὧδε ἔχοντα. "ὃς δέ κεν ἐς Λιβύην πολυήρατον ὕστερον ἔλθῃ γᾶς ἀναδαιομένας, μετὰ οἷ ποκα φαμὶ μελήσειν.2"
And the oracle was as follows: “Whosoever shall come later to much-desired Libya when the land is being divided, I say that he shall hereafter regret it in his heart.”
συλλεχθέντος δὲ ὁμίλου πολλοῦ ἐς τὴν Κυρήνην, περιταμνόμενοι γῆν πολλὴν3 οἱ περίοικοι Λίβυες καὶ ὁ βασιλεὺς αὑτῶν τῷ οὔνομα ἦν Ἀδικράν, οἷα τῆς τε χώρης στερισκόμενοι καὶ περιυβριζόμενοι ὑπὸ τῶν Κυρηναίων, πέμψαντες ἐς Αἴγυπτον ἔδοσαν σφέας αὐτοὺς Ἀπρίῃ τῷ Αἰγύπτου βασιλέι.
When a great crowd had gathered at Cyrene, the neighboring Libyans and their king, whose name was Adicran, since they were being deprived of much of their land and treated with great insolence by the Cyrenaeans, sent messengers to Egypt and surrendered themselves to Apries, the king of Egypt.
ὁ δὲ συλλέξας στρατὸν Αἰγυπτίων πολλὸν ἔπεμψε ἐπὶ τὴν Κυρήνην. οἱ δὲ Κυρηναῖοι ἐκστρατευσάμενοι ἐς Ἴρασα χῶρον καὶ ἐπὶ κρήνην Θέστην συνέβαλόν τε τοῖσι Αἰγυπτίοισι καὶ ἐνίκησαν τῇ συμβολῇ.
He, having gathered a great army of Egyptians, sent it against Cyrene. The Cyrenaeans marched out to the region of Irasa and to the spring of Theste, and they engaged the Egyptians and conquered them in the battle.
ἅτε γὰρ οὐ πεπειρημένοι πρότερον οἱ Αἰγύπτιοι Ἑλλήνων4 καὶ παραχρεώμενοι διεφθάρησαν οὕτω ὥστε ὀλίγοι τινὲς αὐτῶν ἀπενόστησαν ἐς Αἴγυπτον. ἀντὶ τούτων Αἰγύπτιοι καὶ ταῦτα ἐπιμεμφόμενοι Ἀπρίῃ ἀπέστησαν ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ.
For the Egyptians, having had no previous experience of the Greeks and holding them in contempt, were so utterly destroyed that only a few of them returned to Egypt. Because of this, and blaming Apries for these things, the Egyptians revolted from him.
- 4.159.1ἐπὶ ... τῆς ζόης
The preposition ἐπί with the genitive means 'during the lifetime of'. The following participles ἄρξαντος (having ruled) agree with the genitive nouns Βάττου and Ἀρκεσίλεω respectively, specifying the length of their reigns.
- 4.159.3μετὰ οἷ ποκα φαμὶ μελήσειν
The elements μετὰ and μελήσειν represent a tmesis of the future infinitive of the impersonal verb μεταμελήσει (to regret). The pronoun οἷ is the dative of interest (to himself), and φαμί is the Doric form of φημί (I say), characteristic of oracular language.
- 4.159.4περιταμνόμενοι γῆν πολλὴν
This is the middle-passive participle of περιτέμνω (to cut off, deprive), here used in a passive sense: 'having much land cut off/taken away from them'. The verb, which transitively takes an accusative of the thing taken, retains the accusative γῆν πολλὴν in the passive construction with the Libyans as the subject.
- 4.159.6οὐ πεπειρημένοι πρότερον οἱ Αἰγύπτιοι Ἑλλήνων
The participle πεπειρημένοι is the perfect middle-passive of πειράομαι (to make trial of, experience), which here governs the genitive Ἑλλήνων to mean 'having had no experience of the Greeks (in battle)'.