- 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-grc2:7.9A.1-7.9A.2
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-08
Mardonius points out the weakness of the Greeks' military and financial power, noting that some are already under Persian rule, and argues from his own past campaign that they will not dare to fight.
τί δείσαντες; κοίην πλήθεος συστροφήν; κοίην δὲ χρημάτων δύναμιν; τῶν ἐπιστάμεθα μὲν τὴν μάχην,1 ἐπιστάμεθα δὲ τὴν δύναμιν ἐοῦσαν ἀσθενέα·2 ἔχομεν δὲ αὐτῶν παῖδας καταστρεψάμενοι, τούτους οἳ ἐν τῇ ἡμετέρῃ κατοικημένοι Ἴωνές τε καὶ Αἰολέες καὶ Δωριέες καλέονται.
Fearing what? What gathering of a multitude? Or what power of wealth? We understand their way of fighting, and we know that their power is weak; and we already hold their children, having subdued them, those who dwell in our territory and are called Ionians, Aeolians, and Dorians.
ἐπειρήθην δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς ἤδη ἐπελαύνων ἐπὶ τοὺς ἄνδρας τούτους ὑπὸ πατρὸς τοῦ σοῦ κελευσθείς, καί μοι μέχρι Μακεδονίης ἐλάσαντι καὶ ὀλίγον ἀπολιπόντι ἐς αὐτὰς Ἀθήνας ἀπικέσθαι3 οὐδεὶς ἠντιώθη4 ἐς μάχην.
I myself also have already made trial of marching against these men, when I was ordered by your father; and though I marched as far as Macedonia and fell only a little short of arriving at Athens itself, no one opposed me in battle.
- 7.9A.1τῶν ἐπιστάμεθα μὲν τὴν μάχην
The relative pronoun τῶν (genitive plural) refers to the Greeks in general (the implicit subject of the preceding questions), rather than to the immediately preceding nouns "gathering" (συστροφήν) or "power" (δύναμιν).
- 7.9A.1ἐπιστάμεθα δὲ τὴν δύναμιν ἐοῦσαν ἀσθενέα
The participle ἐοῦσαν (Ionic for οὖσαν, feminine accusative singular) acts as a predicative participle with the verb of knowing ἐπιστάμεθα, meaning "we know [their] power to be weak."
- 7.9A.2ὀλίγον ἀπολιπόντι ἐς αὐτὰς Ἀθήνας ἀπικέσθαι
The adverbial or accusative ὀλίγον combined with the participle ἀπολιπόντι ("falling short") and the infinitive ἀπικέσθαι ("to arrive") forms an idiomatic expression meaning "falling only a little short of arriving at Athens itself" (i.e., being on the verge of reaching it).
- 7.9A.2καί μοι ... οὐδεὶς ἠντιώθη
The personal pronoun in the dative, μοι ("to me"), is governed by the verb ἠντιώθη ("opposed," which takes the dative). The intervening participles ἐλάσαντι and ἀπολιπόντι are in the dative singular masculine, agreeing with μοι.