- 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-grc2:8.90.1-8.90.4
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-08
During the Battle of Salamis, some Phoenicians who had lost their ships slander the Ionians as traitors. However, immediately after, a Samothracian ship achieves a brilliant feat, proving the Ionians' loyalty and prompting an enraged Xerxes to execute the Phoenicians.
ἐγένετο δὲ καὶ τόδε ἐν τῷ θορύβῳ τούτῳ. τῶν τινες Φοινίκων, τῶν αἱ νέες διεφθάρατο, ἐλθόντες παρὰ βασιλέα διέβαλλον τοὺς Ἴωνας, ὡς διʼ ἐκείνους ἀπολοίατο αἱ νέες, ὡς προδόντων.1 συνήνεικε ὦν οὕτω ὥστε2 Ἰώνων τε τοὺς στρατηγοὺς μὴ ἀπολέσθαι Φοινίκων τε τοὺς διαβάλλοντας λαβεῖν τοιόνδε μισθόν.
And this too happened in this confusion. Some of the Phoenicians, whose ships had been destroyed, came to the king and slandered the Ionians, saying that it was because of them that their ships had been lost, as they had turned traitors. It turned out, therefore, so that the generals of the Ionians did not perish, and the Phoenicians who slandered them received a reward of this kind.
ἔτι τούτων ταῦτα λεγόντων ἐνέβαλε νηὶ Ἀττικῇ Σαμοθρηικίη νηῦς. ἥ τε δὴ Ἀττικὴ κατεδύετο καὶ ἐπιφερομένη Αἰγιναίη νηῦς κατέδυσε τῶν Σαμοθρηίκων τὴν νέα. ἅτε δὲ ἐόντες ἀκοντισταὶ οἱ Σαμοθρήικες τοὺς ἐπιβάτας ἀπὸ τῆς καταδυσάσης νεὸς βάλλοντες ἀπήραξαν καὶ ἐπέβησάν τε καὶ ἔσχον αὐτήν.
While they were still saying these things, a Samothracian ship rammed an Attic ship. And while the Attic ship was sinking, an Aeginetan ship, bearing down, sank the Samothracian ship. But since the Samothracians were javelin-throwers, they threw their weapons and cleared the marines off the ship that had sunk theirs, and then boarded and captured it.
ταῦτα γενόμενα τοὺς Ἴωνας ἐρρύσατο· ὡς γὰρ εἶδε σφέας3 Ξέρξης ἔργον μέγα ἐργασαμένους, ἐτράπετο πρὸς τοὺς Φοίνικας οἷα ὑπερλυπεόμενός τε καὶ πάντας αἰτιώμενος, καὶ σφεων ἐκέλευσε τὰς κεφαλὰς ἀποταμεῖν, ἵνα μὴ αὐτοὶ κακοὶ γενόμενοι τοὺς ἀμείνονας διαβάλλωσι.
This event saved the Ionians; for when Xerxes saw them perform such a great deed, he turned to the Phoenicians in extreme vexation, blaming them all, and ordered their heads to be cut off, so that they, being cowards themselves, might not slander those who were better.
ὅκως γάρ τινα ἴδοι4 Ξέρξης τῶν ἑωυτοῦ ἔργον τι ἀποδεικνύμενον ἐν τῇ ναυμαχίῃ, κατήμενος ὑπὸ τῷ ὄρεϊ τῷ ἀντίον Σαλαμῖνος τὸ καλέεται Αἰγάλεως, ἀνεπυνθάνετο τὸν ποιήσαντα, καὶ οἱ γραμματισταὶ ἀνέγραφον πατρόθεν τὸν τριήραρχον καὶ τὴν πόλιν. πρὸς δέ τι καὶ προσεβάλετο φίλος ἐὼν Ἀριαράμνης ἀνὴρ Πέρσης παρεὼν τούτου τοῦ Φοινικηίου πάθεος. οἳ μὲν δὴ πρὸς τοὺς Φοίνικας ἐτράποντο.
For whenever Xerxes, seated under the mountain opposite Salamis which is called Aegaleos, saw any of his own men performing some deed in the sea-fight, he would inquire who had done it, and the scribes would write down the trierarch’s name, with his father’s name and his city. Furthermore, Ariaramnes, a Persian who was a friend of the king and was present at this Phoenician disaster, also contributed to it. Thus indeed they turned against the Phoenicians.
- 8.90.1ὡς προδόντων
A genitive absolute construction with the conjunction ὡς expressing a subjective reason. The logical subject Ἰώνων (the Ionians) is omitted, meaning "on the grounds that they had betrayed."
- 8.90.1συνήνεικε ὦν οὕτω ὥστε
The impersonal verb συνήνεικε (Ionic aorist of συμφέρω, equivalent to Attic συνέβη, "it turned out") is followed by ὥστε (conjunction of result), leading the course of events "the result was that...". The subsequent accusative-with-infinitive phrases express the specific outcomes.
- 8.90.3σφέας
The accusative third-person plural pronoun. In context, it directly refers to the Samothracians (οἱ Σαμοθρήικες), but since they were Ionians (or their feat cleared the name of the Ionians as a whole), this directly connects to the main clause τοὺς Ἴωνας ἐρρύσατο (saved the Ionians).
- 8.90.4ὅκως γάρ τινα ἴδοι
The temporal conjunction ὅκως (Ionic for ὅπως, meaning "whenever") followed by the optative ἴδοι (expressing past repetition) correlates with the imperfect main verbs (ἀνεπυνθάνετο, ἀνέγραφον), indicating a past general/iterative condition: "whenever he saw..., he would inquire... and they would write down..."