- 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-grc2:9.63.1-9.63.2
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-09
Mardonius and his elite troop press the Spartans hard, but his death and the destruction of his guard lead to a general Persian retreat, with the lack of heavy armor proving fatal.
τῇ1 δὲ ἐτύγχανε αὐτὸς ἐὼν Μαρδόνιος, ἀπʼ ἵππου τε μαχόμενος λευκοῦ ἔχων τε περὶ ἑωυτὸν λογάδας Περσέων τοὺς ἀρίστους χιλίους, ταύτῃ δὲ καὶ μάλιστα τοὺς ἐναντίους ἐπίεσαν. ὅσον μέν νυν χρόνον Μαρδόνιος περιῆν, οἳ δὲ2 ἀντεῖχον καὶ ἀμυνόμενοι κατέβαλλον πολλοὺς τῶν Λακεδαιμονίων·
And in that place where Mardonius himself was, fighting from a white horse and having about him the thousand best chosen of the Persians, there they pressed their opponents hardest. Indeed, as long as Mardonius survived, they held their ground and, defending themselves, struck down many of the Lacedaemonians.
ὡς δὲ Μαρδόνιος ἀπέθανε καὶ τὸ περὶ ἐκεῖνον τεταγμένον ἐὸν ἰσχυρότατον ἔπεσε, οὕτω δὴ καὶ οἱ ἄλλοι ἐτράποντο καὶ εἶξαν τοῖσι Λακεδαιμονίοισι. πλεῖστον γὰρ σφέας ἐδηλέετο ἡ ἐσθὴς ἔρημος ἐοῦσα ὅπλων·3 πρὸς γὰρ ὁπλίτας ἐόντες γυμνῆτες ἀγῶνα ἐποιεῦντο.
But when Mardonius died and the troop drawn up around him, which was the strongest, fell, then indeed the others also turned to flight and yielded to the Lacedaemonians. For their clothing, being devoid of armor, harmed them most of all; for being light-armed, they were waging a contest against hoplites.
- 9.63.1τῇ
The feminine dative singular of the relative pronoun, used adverbially here to denote place; it correlates with the demonstrative adverb ταύτῃ in the main clause, forming a relative clause meaning 'in the place where'.
- 9.63.1οἳ δὲ
The demonstrative pronoun (plural) combined with the particle δὲ, signaling a clear shift of the subject from Mardonius in the preceding clause to the Persian soldiers.
- 9.63.2ἔρημος ἐοῦσα ὅπλων
The adjective ἔρημος (devoid of) governs the genitive of deprivation ὅπλων (armor). The participle ἐοῦσα is the Ionic feminine nominative singular form corresponding to Attic οὖσα.