- 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-grc2:4.197.1-4.197.2
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-10
The author concludes the list of Libyan peoples and states that only four nations inhabit this land: two indigenous (Libyans and Ethiopians) and two immigrant (Phoenicians and Greeks).
οὗτοι μὲν εἶσὶ τοὺς ἡμεῖς ἔχομεν Λιβύων ὀνομάσαι,1 καὶ τούτων οἱ πολλοὶ βασιλέος τοῦ Μήδων οὔτε τι νῦν οὔτε τότε ἐφρόντιζον2 οὐδέν.
These are the Libyans whom we are able to name, and most of them paid no regard at all to the king of the Medes, neither now nor then.
τοσόνδε δὲ ἔτι ἔχω εἰπεῖν περὶ τῆς χώρης ταύτης, ὅτι τέσσερα ἔθνεα νέμεται αὐτὴν καὶ οὐ πλέω τούτων, ὅσον ἡμεῖς ἴδμεν, καὶ τὰ μὲν δύο αὐτόχθονα τῶν ἐθνέων τὰ δὲ δύο οὔ, Λίβυες μὲν καὶ Αἰθίοπες αὐτόχθονες, οἳ μὲν τὰ πρὸς βορέω οἳ δὲ3 τὰ πρὸς νότου τῆς Λιβύης οἰκέοντες, Φοίνικες δὲ καὶ Ἕλληνες ἐπήλυδες.
This much more I have to say about this land, that four nations inhabit it and no more than these, as far as we know; and two of the nations are indigenous and two are not, the Libyans and the Ethiopians being indigenous, the former dwelling in the northern and the latter in the southern parts of Libya, while the Phoenicians and the Greeks are immigrants.
- 4.197.1τοὺς ἡμεῖς ἔχομεν Λιβύων ὀνομάσαι
The relative pronoun τοὺς refers back to οὗτοι (a common Herodotean usage of the article form as a relative). ἔχομεν with the infinitive ὀνομάσαι means 'to be able to'. Λιβύων is a partitive genitive meaning 'of the Libyans'.
- 4.197.1βασιλέος ... ἐφρόντιζον
The verb φροντίζω ('to care for') governs the genitive case, which is why βασιλέος τοῦ Μήδων is in the genitive. The combination of οὔτε τι ... οὐδέν forms an emphatic double negative ('not at all').
- 4.197.2οἳ μὲν ... οἳ δὲ
A contrastive demonstrative use of the article, referring back to the two indigenous groups Λίβυες μὲν καὶ Αἰθίοπες respectively ('the former... the latter...').