- 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-grc2:9.15.1-9.15.3
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-09
Receiving news that the Greeks had assembled at the Isthmus, Mardonius retreats through Decelea and Tanagra into Theban territory. There, to prepare for emergencies, he establishes a large camp and builds a fortification along the Asopus River.
μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα Μαρδονίῳ ἦλθε ἀγγελίη ὡς ἁλέες εἴησαν1 οἱ Ἕλληνες ἐν τῷ Ἰσθμῷ. οὕτω δὴ ὀπίσω ἐπορεύετο διὰ Δεκελέης· οἱ γὰρ βοιωτάρχαι μετεπέμψαντο τοὺς προσχώρους τῶν Ἀσωπίων, οὗτοι δὲ αὐτῷ τὴν ὁδὸν ἡγέοντο ἐς Σφενδαλέας, ἐνθεῦτεν δὲ ἐς Τάναγραν·
After this, news came to Mardonius that the Greeks were assembled at the Isthmus. So indeed he marched back through Decelea; for the Boeotarchs had sent for the neighbors of the Asopians, and these guided the way for him to Sphendale, and from there to Tanagra.
ἐν Τανάγρῃ δὲ νύκτα ἐναυλισάμενος, καὶ τραπόμενος τῇ ὑστεραίῃ ἐς Σκῶλον ἐν γῇ τῇ Θηβαίων ἦν. ἐνθαῦτα δὲ τῶν Θηβαίων καίπερ μηδιζόντων ἔκειρε τοὺς χώρους, οὔτι κατὰ ἔχθος αὐτῶν ἀλλʼ ὑπʼ ἀναγκαίης μεγάλης ἐχόμενος ἔρυμά τε τῷ στρατῷ ποιήσασθαι,2 καὶ ἢν συμβαλόντι οἱ μὴ ἐκβαίνῃ3 ὁκοῖόν τι ἐθέλοι, κρησφύγετον τοῦτο ἐποιέετο.
Having spent the night in Tanagra, and having turned on the following day toward Scolus, he was in the territory of the Thebans. There, although the Thebans were medizing, he laid waste their lands, not out of any hatred for them, but because he was constrained by a great necessity to construct a fortification for his army, and, if the battle should not turn out for him as he wished, he made this a place of refuge.
παρῆκε δὲ αὐτοῦ τὸ στρατόπεδον ἀρξάμενον4 ἀπὸ Ἐρυθρέων παρὰ Ὑσιάς, κατέτεινε δὲ ἐς τὴν Πλαταιίδα γῆν, παρὰ τὸν Ἀσωπὸν ποταμὸν τεταγμένον. οὐ μέντοι τό γε τεῖχος τοσοῦτο ἐποιέετο, ἁλλʼ ὡς ἐπὶ δέκα σταδίους μάλιστά κῃ μέτωπον ἕκαστον.
And his camp extended, beginning from Erythrae, past Hysiae, and stretched into the Plataean land, being drawn up along the river Asopus. However, he did not make the wall itself so large, but approximately ten stades on each face.
- 9.15.1ὡς ἁλέες εἴησαν
The optative (εἴησαν) is used in an indirect speech clause following the past main verb (ἦλθε) (oblique optative). ἁλέες is the Ionic nominative plural form of the adjective ἁλής (assembled).
- 9.15.2ὑπʼ ἀναγκαίης μεγάλης ἐχόμενος ἔρυμά τε τῷ στρατῷ ποιήσασθαι
The passive participle ἐχόμενος (present passive of ἔχω, meaning "held" or "constrained") is accompanied by the prepositional phrase ὑπʼ ἀναγκαίης μεγάλης, and the infinitive ποιήσασθαι serves to specify the content or consequence of this necessity ("to build...").
- 9.15.2ἢν συμβαλόντι οἱ μὴ ἐκβαίνῃ
Within the conditional clause ἢν ... μὴ ἐκβαίνῃ (present subjunctive, "if it should not turn out"), the dative pronoun οἱ (for him) is modified by the agreeing dative aorist active participle συμβαλόντι (having engaged). The verb συμβάλλω is used here intransitively to mean "to join battle".
- 9.15.3ἀρξάμενον
An aorist middle participle in the neuter nominative singular, agreeing with the subject τὸ στρατόπεδον and functioning adverbially to express "beginning from...". Similarly, the subsequent τεταγμένον is a perfect passive participle agreeing with the same subject.