- 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-grc2:7.32.1
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-08
Upon arriving in Sardis, Xerxes sent heralds to demand earth and water from all parts of Greece except Athens and Sparta, aiming to test the submission of those who had previously refused.
ἀπικόμενος δὲ ἐς Σάρδις πρῶτα μὲν ἀπέπεμπε κήρυκας ἐς τὴν Ἑλλάδα αἰτήσοντας1 γῆν τε καὶ ὕδωρ καὶ προερέοντας δεῖπνα βασιλέι παρασκευάζειν· πλὴν οὔτε ἐς Ἀθήνας οὔτε ἐς Λακεδαίμονα ἀπέπεμπε ἐπὶ γῆς αἴτησιν, τῇ δὲ ἄλλῃ πάντῃ. τῶνδε δὲ εἵνεκα2 τὸ δεύτερον ἀπέπεμπε ἐπὶ γῆν τε καὶ ὕδωρ· ὅσοι πρότερον οὐκ ἔδοσαν Δαρείῳ πέμψαντι, τούτους πάγχυ ἐδόκεε3 τότε δείσαντας4 δώσειν· βουλόμενος ὦν αὐτὸ τοῦτο ἐκμαθεῖν ἀκριβέως ἔπεμπε.
Arriving in Sardis, he first sent heralds to Greece to demand earth and water, and to order beforehand that dinners be prepared for the king. However, he did not send to either Athens or Lacedaemon for the demand of earth, but to every other place. He sent for earth and water for this second time for the following reason: he thought that those who had not previously given them when Darius sent his envoys would now certainly do so out of fear. Wishing, therefore, to find out this very thing for certain, he sent them.
- 7.32.1αἰτήσοντας
The future participles αἰτήσοντας and the subsequent προερέοντας both express purpose in relation to the main verb ἀπέπεμπε.
- 7.32.1τῶνδε δὲ εἵνεκα
The demonstrative pronoun τῶνδε is prospective, referring forward to the following clause introduced by ὅσοι to mean "for the following reason."
- 7.32.1ἐδόκεε
Although it can be interpreted as an impersonal construction ("it seemed [to him]"), it is more natural in this context to take Xerxes as the subject, meaning "he thought that [they] would give."
- 7.32.1δείσαντας
The aorist participle of the verb δέδοικα ("to fear") functions here as an ingressive aorist, denoting the onset of the state ("having become afraid" or "stricken with fear").