- 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-grc2:8.29.1-8.29.2
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-08
The Thessalians send a herald to the Phocians, nursing a grudge over their defeats. They boast of their superior power under the Persian king and demand fifty talents of silver to ward off the coming invasion.
τούτων δή σφι ἀμφοτέρων ἔχοντες ἔγκοτον οἱ Θεσσαλοὶ πέμψαντες κήρυκα ἠγόρευον τάδε. ὦ Φωκέες, ἤδη τι μᾶλλον γνωσιμαχέετε μὴ εἶναι1 ὅμοιοι ἡμῖν.
The Thessalians, nursing a grudge against them for both of these things, sent a herald and declared as follows: “Phocians, acknowledge at last more clearly that you are not our equals.
πρόσθε τε γὰρ ἐν τοῖσι Ἕλλησι, ὅσον χρόνον ἐκεῖνα ἡμῖν ἥνδανε, πλέον αἰεί κοτε ὑμέων ἐφερόμεθα· νῦν τε παρὰ τῷ βαρβάρῳ τοσοῦτο δυνάμεθα ὥστε ἐπʼ ἡμῖν ἐστι2 τῆς γῆς ἐστερῆσθαι καὶ πρὸς ἠνδραποδίσθαι3 ὑμέας. ἡμεῖς μέντοι τὸ πᾶν ἔχοντες οὐ μνησικακέομεν, ἀλλʼ ἡμῖν γενέσθω ἀντʼ αὐτῶν πεντήκοντα τάλαντα ἀργυρίου, καὶ ὑμῖν ὑποδεκόμεθα τὰ ἐπιόντα ἐπὶ τὴν χώρην ἀποτρέψειν.
For formerly among the Greeks, as long as that course pleased us, we always carried more weight than you; and now, we have such influence with the barbarian that it is in our power to have you deprived of your land and, moreover, enslaved. However, though we hold all the power, we bear no grudge; but let fifty talents of silver be paid to us in exchange for this, and we promise to turn away the dangers that are coming upon your land.”
- 8.29.1γνωσιμαχέετε μὴ εἶναι
The verb γνωσιμαχέω means "to acknowledge one's weakness" or "to give up resisting." The negative particle μὴ appearing with the following infinitive is an instance of pleonastic negation, commonly found after verbs containing a negative concept, meaning "to acknowledge that you are not our equals."
- 8.29.2ἐπʼ ἡμῖν ἐστι
An idiomatic expression composed of the preposition ἐπί, a personal pronoun in the dative, and εἶναι, meaning "to be in one's power" or "to depend on someone." Here it functions as the predicate of the ὥστε clause (result clause), with the two following perfect passive infinitives (ἐστερῆσθαι and ἠνδραποδίσθαι) acting as its logical subject.
- 8.29.2πρὸς ἠνδραποδίσθαι
Here, πρὸς is used adverbially rather than as a preposition, meaning "moreover" or "furthermore." ἠνδραποδίσθαι is the perfect passive infinitive of ἀνδραποδίζω ("to enslave"), with the accusative ὑμέας serving as its subject.