- 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-grc2:7.28.1-7.28.3
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-08
Xerxes asks Pythius about the exact amount of his wealth, and Pythius reveals his vast holdings in silver and gold, offering them all to the king.
θωμάσας δὲ τῶν ἐπέων τὸ τελευταῖον Ξέρξης αὐτὸς δεύτερα εἴρετο Πύθιον ὁκόσα οἱ εἴη χρήματα. ὁ δὲ εἶπε ὦ βασιλεῦ, οὔτε σε ἀποκρύψω οὔτε σκήψομαι τὸ μὴ εἰδέναι1 τὴν ἐμεωυτοῦ οὐσίην, ἀλλʼ ἐπιστάμενός τοι ἀτρεκέως καταλέξω.
Xerxes, marveling at the last part of his words, himself asked Pythius for the second time how much money he had. And he said: “O king, I will neither conceal it from you nor make a pretext of not knowing my own property, but knowing it accurately I will declare it to you.
ἐπείτε γὰρ τάχιστά σε ἐπυθόμην ἐπὶ θάλασσαν καταβαίνοντα τὴν Ἑλληνίδα, βουλόμενός τοι δοῦναι ἐς τὸν πόλεμον χρήματα ἐξεμάνθανον, καὶ εὗρον λογιζόμενος ἀργυρίου μὲν δύο χιλιάδας ἐούσας μοι ταλάντων, χρυσίου δὲ τετρακοσίας μυριάδας στατήρων Δαρεικῶν ἐπιδεούσας2 ἑπτὰ χιλιάδων.3
For as soon as I learned that you were coming down to the Grecian sea, wishing to give you money for the war, I began to find out, and by calculating I found that I had two thousand talents of silver, and four million Daric gold staters, lacking seven thousand.
καὶ τούτοισί σε ἐγὼ δωρέομαι,4 αὐτῷ δέ μοι ἀπὸ ἀνδραπόδων τε καὶ γεωπέδων ἀρκέων ἐστὶ βίος.
And with these I present you, while for myself, my livelihood from my slaves and estates is sufficient.”
- 7.28.1τὸ μὴ εἰδέναι
An articular infinitive functioning as the object of the verb σκήψομαι ('to make a pretext, excuse oneself'). Following a verb of negative import, the negative particle μή is used, meaning 'to make an excuse that I do not know'.
- 7.28.2εὗρον λογιζόμενος ... ἐούσας ... ἐπιδεούσας
The participles ἐούσας (Ionic for οὔσας, from εἰμί) and ἐπιδεούσας function as supplementary participles in indirect discourse after the verb of finding, εὗρον (aorist of εὑρίσκω), agreeing in the accusative with χιλιάδας and μυριάδας respectively.
- 7.28.2ἐπιδεούσας ἑπτὰ χιλιάδων
The genitive ἑπτὰ χιλιάδων depending on the participle ἐπιδεούσας ('lacking, falling short') is a genitive of separation or comparison indicating the amount by which it falls short. It means 'lacking seven thousand (staters)', i.e., 3,993,000.
- 7.28.3τούτοισί σε ἐγὼ δωρέομαι
The verb δωρέομαι ('to present, gift') here takes an accusative of the person (σε) and a dative of the thing given (τούτοισι), a construction resembling Latin donare aliquem aliqua re. In standard Attic prose, the verb more commonly takes a dative of the recipient and an accusative of the gift.