- 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-grc2:5.70.1-5.70.2
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-10
Isagoras, having been defeated, sought assistance from his guest-friend, the Spartan king Cleomenes, who then sent a herald to Athens demanding the banishment of Cleisthenes and his supporters on the pretext of an inherited curse.
ἐν τῷ μέρεϊ δὲ ἑσσούμενος ὁ Ἰσαγόρης ἀντιτεχνᾶται τάδε· ἐπικαλέεται Κλεομένεα τὸν Λακεδαιμόνιον γενόμενον ἑωυτῷ ξεῖνον ἀπὸ τῆς Πεισιστρατιδέων πολιορκίης· τὸν δὲ Κλεομένεα εἶχε αἰτίη φοιτᾶν1 παρὰ τοῦ Ἰσαγόρεω τὴν γυναῖκα.
Now Isagoras, being defeated in his turn, devised a counter-scheme: he called in Cleomenes the Lacedaemonian, who had become a guest-friend to him since the siege of the Pisistratidae. Indeed, Cleomenes was under suspicion of visiting the wife of Isagoras.
τὰ μὲν δὴ πρῶτα πέμπων ὁ Κλεομένης ἐς τὰς Ἀθήνας κήρυκα ἐξέβαλλε2 Κλεισθένεα καὶ μετʼ αὐτοῦ ἄλλους πολλοὺς Ἀθηναίων, τοὺς ἐναγέας ἐπιλέγων· ταῦτα δὲ πέμπων ἔλεγε ἐκ διδαχῆς τοῦ Ἰσαγόρεω. οἱ μὲν γὰρ Ἀλκμεωνίδαι καὶ οἱ συστασιῶται αὐτῶν εἶχον αἰτίην τοῦ φόνου τούτου, αὐτὸς δὲ οὐ μετεῖχε3 οὐδʼ οἱ φίλοι αὐτοῦ.
At first, Cleomenes, sending a herald to Athens, demanded the banishment of Cleisthenes and with him many other Athenians, calling them “the accursed.” He made this demand by message at the instigation of Isagoras; for the Alcmaeonidae and their partisans were held responsible for that murder, but Isagoras himself had no part in it, nor did his friends.
- 5.70.1τὸν δὲ Κλεομένεα εἶχε αἰτίη φοιτᾶν
The phrase εἶχε αἰτίη (literally, "accusation held him") means "he was suspected of" or "there was a charge against him." The infinitive φοιτᾶν ("to visit regularly") serves as an explanatory or appositional infinitive clarifying the content of αἰτίη.
- 5.70.2ἐξέβαλλε
The imperfect tense ἐξέβαλλε, in the context of sending a messenger (πέμπων ... κήρυκα), expresses an attempt or a demand ("attempted to banish" or "demanded the banishment of") rather than an accomplished action, representing a conative imperfect.
- 5.70.2αὐτὸς δὲ οὐ μετεῖχε
The pronoun αὐτός refers to Isagoras, the political rival of Cleisthenes. It emphasizes that Isagoras himself and his followers, unlike the Alcmaeonidae, were not involved in the ancient murder (the Cylonian affair) and thus free from the curse.