- 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-grc2:7.135.1-7.135.3
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-05
On their way to Susa, the Spartan envoys Sperthias and Bulis meet the Persian general Hydarnes, who advises them to submit to the King and rule Greece, but they firmly refuse, asserting the incomparable value of freedom.
αὕτη τε ἡ τόλμα τούτων τῶν ἀνδρῶν θώματος ἀξίη1 καὶ τάδε πρὸς τούτοισι τὰ ἔπεα. πορευόμενοι γὰρ ἐς Σοῦσα ἀπικνέονται παρὰ Ὑδάρνεα· ὁ δὲ Ὑδάρνης ἦν μὲν γένος Πέρσης, στρατηγὸς δὲ τῶν παραθαλασσίων ἀνθρώπων τῶν ἐν τῇ Ἀσίῃ· ὅς2 σφεας ξείνια προθέμενος ἱστία, ξεινίζων δὲ εἴρετο τάδε.
This bold deed of these men is worthy of wonder, and so too are these words of theirs in addition to it. For as they were traveling to Susa, they arrived at the house of Hydarnes. This Hydarnes was a Persian by birth and general of the coastal people in Asia; he offered them hospitality and entertained them, and while entertaining them, he asked them the following:
ἄνδρες Λακεδαιμόνιοι, τί δὴ φεύγετε βασιλέι φίλοι γενέσθαι; ὁρᾶτε γὰρ ὡς ἐπίσταται βασιλεὺς ἄνδρας ἀγαθοὺς τιμᾶν, ἐς ἐμέ τε καὶ τὰ ἐμὰ πρήγματα ἀποβλέποντες. οὕτω δὲ καὶ ὑμεῖς εἰ δοίητε ὑμέας αὐτοὺς βασιλέι, δεδόξωσθε3 γὰρ πρὸς αὐτοῦ ἄνδρες εἶναι ἀγαθοί, ἕκαστος ἂν ὑμέων ἄρχοι γῆς Ἑλλάδος δόντος βασιλέος.
”Lacedaemonian men, why do you refuse to become friends to the King? For you can see how well the King knows how to honor good men, by looking at me and my affairs. Thus, if you too would give yourselves to the King, since you are already esteemed by him as good men, each of you would rule over a part of Greece, the King giving it to you.”
πρὸς ταῦτα ὑπεκρίναντο τάδε. Ὕδαρνες, οὐκ ἐξ ἴσου γίνεται ἡ συμβουλίη ἡ ἐς ἡμέας τείνουσα. τοῦ μὲν γὰρ πεπειρημένος συμβουλεύεις, τοῦ δὲ4 ἄπειρος ἐών· τὸ μὲν γὰρ δοῦλος εἶναι ἐξεπίστεαι, ἐλευθερίης δὲ οὔκω ἐπειρήθης, οὔτʼ εἰ ἔστι γλυκὺ οὔτʼ εἰ μή. εἰ γὰρ αὐτῆς πειρήσαιο, οὐκ ἂν δόρασι συμβουλεύοις ἡμῖν περὶ αὐτῆς μάχεσθαι, ἀλλὰ καὶ πελέκεσι.
To this they answered as follows: “Hydarnes, the advice you offer us does not come from equal ground. For you advise us having experienced the one, but being inexperienced in the other; you know well what it is to be a slave, but you have not yet experienced freedom, whether it is sweet or not. For if you should ever experience it, you would advise us to fight for it not only with spears, but even with axes.”
- 7.135.1θώματος ἀξίη
The adjective ἀξίη (Attic ἀξία) agrees with ἡ τόλμα (feminine singular), but also functions as the predicate for the subsequent subject τάδε ... τὰ ἔπεα (neuter plural), implicitly adapted in gender and number (as ἄξια).
- 7.135.1ὅς
The relative pronoun ὅς is used connectively at the beginning of the clause (equivalent to ὁ δé, "and he"). The subsequent verb ἱστία is the third-person singular imperfect (contracted) of ἱστιάω, the Ionic form of ἑστιάω ("to entertain").
- 7.135.2δεδόξωσθε
The second-person plural perfect (or future perfect) passive of δοκέω. Here it is placed in a parenthetical clause δεδόξωσθε γάρ ("for you have been [or will have been] esteemed"), inserted between the condition εἰ δοίητε and the apodosis ἕκαστος ἂν ... ἄρχοι, showing the premise that the King already holds them in high regard.
- 7.135.3τοῦ μὲν ... τοῦ δὲ
Genitive neuter singular of the demonstrative pronoun. They are in the genitive case because the verb πειράομαι ("to experience") and the adjective ἄπειρος ("inexperienced") both govern the genitive. In this context, τοῦ μὲν refers to "the life of a slave" and τοῦ δὲ to "freedom."