- 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-grc2:8.136.1-8.136.3
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-09
After examining the oracles, Mardonius dispatches Alexander of Macedon—who had marriage ties to Persia and was a benefactor of Athens—to the Athenians, calculating that gaining their alliance would secure him superiority on both land and sea.
Μαρδόνιος δὲ ἐπιλεξάμενος ὅ τι δὴ λέγοντα ἦν1 τὰ χρηστήρια μετὰ ταῦτα ἔπεμψε ἄγγελον ἐς Ἀθήνας Ἀλέξανδρον τὸν Ἀμύντεω ἄνδρα Μακεδόνα, ἅμα μὲν ὅτι οἱ προσκηδέες οἱ Πέρσαι ἦσαν· Ἀλεξάνδρου γὰρ ἀδελφεὴν Γυγαίην, Ἀμύντεω δὲ θυγατέρα, Βουβάρης ἀνὴρ Πέρσης ἔσχε, ἐκ τῆς οἱ ἐγεγόνεε Ἀμύντης ὁ ἐν τῇ Ἀσίῃ, ἔχων τὸ οὔνομα τοῦ μητροπάτορος, τῷ δὴ ἐκ βασιλέος τῆς Φρυγίης ἐδόθη Ἀλάβανδα πόλις μεγάλη νέμεσθαι·2 ἅμα δὲ ὁ Μαρδόνιος πυθόμενος ὅτι πρόξεινός τε εἴη καὶ εὐεργέτης ὁ Ἀλέξανδρος ἔπεμπε·
Mardonius, having read and considered what the oracles were saying, after this sent as an envoy to Athens Alexander, the son of Amyntas, a Macedonian man; partly because the Persians were his kinsmen by marriage (for Bubares, a Persian man, had married Gygaea, Alexander’s sister and daughter of Amyntas, from whom was born to him that Amyntas who lived in Asia, bearing the name of his maternal grandfather, to whom Alabanda, a great city in Phrygia, had been given by the King to possess); and partly because Mardonius, having learned that Alexander was both a proxenos and a benefactor of the Athenians, sent him.
τοὺς γὰρ Ἀθηναίους οὕτω ἐδόκεε μάλιστα προσκτήσεσθαι, λεών τε πολλὸν ἄρα ἀκούων εἶναι καὶ ἄλκιμον, τά τε κατὰ τὴν θάλασσαν συντυχόντα σφι παθήματα κατεργασαμένους μάλιστα Ἀθηναίους ἐπίστατο.
For he thought that in this way he would most of all win over the Athenians, hearing that they were a numerous and valiant people, and knowing that the Athenians had been the ones who had especially brought about the disasters that had befallen them at sea.
τούτων δὲ προσγενομένων κατήλπιζε εὐπετέως τῆς θαλάσσης κρατήσειν, τά περ ἂν καὶ ἦν,3 πεζῇ τε ἐδόκεε πολλῷ εἶναι κρέσσων, οὕτω τε ἐλογίζετο κατύπερθέ οἱ τὰ πρήγματα ἔσεσθαι τῶν Ἑλληνικῶν. τάχα δʼ ἂν καὶ τὰ χρηστήρια ταῦτά οἱ προλέγοι,4 συμβουλεύοντα σύμμαχον τὸν Ἀθηναῖον ποιέεσθαι· τοῖσι δὴ πειθόμενος ἔπεμπε.
With these added to his side, he expected that he would easily gain mastery of the sea (which indeed would have been the case), while on land he thought he was much stronger; and so he calculated that his affairs would be superior to those of the Greeks. Perhaps these oracles also were foretelling this very thing to him, advising him to make the Athenian his ally; and obeying these, he sent him.
- 8.136.1λέγοντα ἦν
A periphrastic construction consisting of the present participle λέγοντα (neuter plural nominative) and the imperfect ἦν (third-person singular). Since the subject is the neuter plural τὰ χρηστήρια, the verb ἦν is in the singular.
- 8.136.1νέμεσθαι
The present middle (or passive) infinitive of νέμω, functioning as an epexegetical infinitive (infinitive of purpose or result), meaning "to possess" or "to hold as a territory."
- 8.136.3τά περ ἂν καὶ ἦν
The combination of the particle ἄν with the past indicative (imperfect ἦν) expresses the apodosis of a past contrary-to-fact condition, implying "which indeed would have been the case (had the Athenians joined him)."
- 8.136.3τάχα δʼ ἂν ... προλέγοι
A potential optative construction (ἄν + optative προλέγοι) used with the adverb τάχα to express probability or conjecture regarding a past or present situation ("perhaps they were foretelling...").