- 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-grc2:7.9B.1-7.9B.2
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-08
Mardonius criticizes the Greeks' foolish method of waging war on flat plains with mutual destruction, pointing out that during his march to Macedonia they did not even dare to think of fighting.
καίτοι γε ἐώθασι Ἕλληνες, ὡς πυνθάνομαι, ἀβουλότατα πολέμους ἵστασθαι ὑπό τε ἀγνωμοσύνης καὶ σκαιότητος. ἐπεὰν γὰρ ἀλλήλοισι πόλεμον προείπωσι, ἐξευρόντες τὸ κάλλιστον χωρίον καὶ λειότατον, ἐς τοῦτο κατιόντες μάχονται, ὥστε σὺν κακῷ μεγάλῳ οἱ νικῶντες ἀπαλλάσσονται· περὶ δὲ τῶν ἑσσουμένων οὐδὲ λέγω ἀρχήν·1 ἐξώλεες γὰρ δὴ γίνονται·
And yet indeed, the Greeks are accustomed, as I learn, to wage wars most foolishly out of both ignorance and folly. For when they declare war on each other, having found the fairest and flattest place, they go down into this and fight, so that the victors depart with great loss; and about the defeated, I do not speak at all in the first place, for they are utterly destroyed.
τοὺς χρῆν2 ἐόντας ὁμογλώσσους κήρυξί τε διαχρεωμένους καὶ ἀγγέλοισι καταλαμβάνειν τὰς διαφορὰς καὶ παντὶ μᾶλλον ἢ μάχῃσι· εἰ δὲ πάντως ἔδεε πολεμέειν πρὸς ἀλλήλους, ἐξευρίσκειν χρῆν τῇ ἑκάτεροι εἰσὶ δυσχειρωτότατοι3 καὶ ταύτῃ πειρᾶν. τρόπῳ τοίνυν οὐ χρηστῷ Ἕλληνες διαχρεώμενοι, ἐμέο ἐλάσαντος μέχρι Μακεδονίης γῆς, οὐκ ἦλθον ἐς τούτου λόγον ὥστε μάχεσθαι.4
These men, being of the same language, ought to have settled their differences by employing heralds and messengers, and by any means rather than battles. But if it was absolutely necessary to war against one another, they ought to have found out where each was most difficult to defeat, and there make trial. Therefore, since the Greeks employ a practice that is not good, when I marched as far as the land of Macedonia, they did not even come to the point of fighting.
- 7.9B.1ἀρχήν
The accusative ἀρχήν used with the negative οὐδέ functions adverbially to mean "at all" or "in the first place." Here it means "I do not speak of the defeated at all in the first place."
- 7.9B.2τοὺς χρῆν
The relative pronoun τούς (referring to the Greeks) functions as the subject accusative of the infinitive καταλαμβάνειν governed by the impersonal past verb χρῆν ("it behoved", "ought to have"). The participle ἐόντας agrees in case and number with τούς.
- 7.9B.2τῇ ἑκάτεροι εἰσὶ δυσχειρωτότατοι
The relative adverb τῇ means "where" or "in what way," introducing an indirect question clause. ἑκάτεροι means "each of the two parties," referring to both opposing Greek sides.
- 7.9B.2ἐς τούτου λόγον ὥστε μάχεσθαι
The noun λόγος here means "reckoning," "consideration," or "account." Together with the genitive demonstrative τούτου, it means "to the consideration of this." The ὥστε clause limits it, meaning they did not even come "to such a state/thought of mind as to fight."