- Source
- Diodorus Siculus. Diodori Bibliotheca Historica. Vols. 4-5 (partial). Bekker, Immanuel; Dindorf, Ludwig; Fischer, Curt Theodor; editors. Leipzig: Teubner, 1903-1906.
- Translation
- AI-generated (gemini-3.5-flash) — machine translation; may contain errors
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- CTS URN
- urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0060.tlg001.humanitext-grc6:20.102.1-20.102.4
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-06
Demetrius pursued the liberation of Greece, capturing Sicyon through a night attack and assisting in its relocation to the secure acropolis, for which the citizens awarded him godlike honors and renamed the city Demetrias.
τοῦ δʼ ἐνιαυσίου χρόνου διεληλυθότος Ἀθήνησι μὲν ἦρχε Λεώστρατος, ἐν Ῥώμῃ δʼ ὑπῆρχον ὕπατοι Σερούιος Κορνήλιος καὶ Λεύκιος Γενούκιος. ἐπὶ δὲ τούτων Δημήτριος εἶχε πρόθεσιν πρὸς μὲν τοὺς περὶ Κάσανδρον διαπολεμεῖν, τοὺς δʼ Ἕλληνας ἐλευθεροῦν καὶ πρῶτον τὰ κατὰ τὴν Ἑλλάδα διοικεῖν, ἅμα μὲν νομίζων δόξαν οἴσειν αὐτῷ μεγάλην τὴν τῶν Ἑλλήνων αὐτονομίαν, ἅμα δὲ καὶ τοὺς περὶ Πρεπέλαον ἡγεμόνας τοῦ Κασάνδρου πρότερον συντρῖψαι καὶ τότε προσάγειν ἐπʼ αὐτὴν τὴν ἡγεμονίαν, ἢ ἐπʼ αὐτὸν πορεύοιτο1 τὸν Κάσανδρον.
When the year had passed, Leostratus was archon in Athens, and in Rome Servius Cornelius and Lucius Genucius held the consulship. Under them, Demetrius had the intention to wage war to the end against those around Cassander, to liberate the Greeks, and first to manage the affairs of Greece, believing on one hand that the autonomy of the Greeks would bring him great glory, and on the other hand intending to crush beforehand the commanders of Cassander around Prepelaus and then to advance against the hegemony itself, before he should march against Cassander himself.
τῆς δὲ τῶν Σικυωνίων πόλεως φρουρουμένης ὑπὸ τῶν Πτολεμαίου τοῦ βασιλέως στρατιωτῶν, ὧν ἦν ἐπιφανέστατος στρατηγὸς Φίλιππος, νυκτὸς ἐπιθέμενος ἀπροσδοκήτως παρεισέπεσεν ἐντὸς τοῦ τείχους. εἶτα οἱ μὲν φρουροὶ συνέφυγον εἰς τὴν ἀκρόπολιν, ὁ δὲ Δημήτριος τῆς πόλεως κυριεύσας τὸν μεταξὺ τόπον τῶν οἰκιῶν καὶ τῆς ἄκρας κατεῖχε. μέλλοντος δʼ αὐτοῦ μηχανὰς προσάγειν καταπλαγέντες τὴν μὲν ἀκρόπολιν διʼ ὁμολογίας παρέδοσαν, αὐτοὶ δʼ ἀπέπλευσαν εἰς Αἴγυπτον. ὁ δὲ Δημήτριος τοὺς Σικυωνίους εἰς τὴν ἀκρόπολιν μετοικίσας τὸ μὲν τῷ λιμένι συνάπτον μέρος τῆς πόλεως κατέσκαψεν, ἀνοχύρου παντελῶς ὄντος τοῦ τόπου, τῷ δὲ πολιτικῷ πλήθει συνεπιλαβόμενος τῆς οἰκοδομίας2 καὶ τὴν ἐλευθερίαν ἀποκαταστήσας τιμῶν ἰσοθέων ἔτυχε παρὰ τοῖς εὖ παθοῦσι·
Since the city of the Sicyonians was guarded by the soldiers of King Ptolemy, of whom Philippus was the most distinguished general, Demetrius attacked unexpectedly by night and broke inside the wall. Then the guards fled together to the acropolis, and Demetrius, having made himself master of the city, occupied the space between the houses and the citadel. When he was about to bring up his siege engines, they were terrified and surrendered the acropolis by agreement, while they themselves sailed away to Egypt. Demetrius relocated the Sicyonians to the acropolis and demolished the part of the city adjoining the harbor, as the place was entirely unfortified, and having assisted the citizen body in the rebuilding and restored their freedom, he received godlike honors from those who had benefited.
Δημητριάδα μὲν γὰρ τὴν πόλιν ὠνόμασαν, θυσίας δὲ καὶ πανηγύρεις, ἔτι δʼ ἀγῶνας ἐψηφίσαντο συντελεῖν αὐτῷ κατʼ ἐνιαυτὸν καὶ τὰς ἄλλας ἀπονέμειν τιμὰς ὡς κτίστῃ. ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν ὁ χρόνος διαληφθεὶς πραγμάτων μεταβολαῖς3 ἠκύρωσεν, οἱ δὲ Σικυώνιοι πολλῷ κρείττονα μεταλαβόντες τόπον διετέλεσαν ἐν αὐτῷ μέχρι τῶν καθʼ ἡμᾶς χρόνων ἐνοικοῦντες.
For they named the city Demetrias, and voted to perform sacrifices and festivals, and furthermore games, for him every year, and to render other honors as to a founder. But while these things were invalidated by the passage of time and the changes of fortunes, the Sicyonians, having obtained a much better site, continued to inhabit it down to our own times.
ὁ γὰρ τῆς ἀκροπόλεως περίβολος ἐπίπεδος ὢν καὶ μέγας κρημνοῖς δυσπροσίτοις περιέχεται πανταχόθεν, ὥστε μηδαμῇ δύνασθαι μηχανὰς προσάγειν· ἔχει δὲ καὶ πλῆθος ὑδάτων, ἐξ οὗ κηπείας δαψιλεῖς κατεσκεύασαν, ὥστε τὴν ἐπίνοιαν τοῦ βασιλέως καὶ πρὸς ἀπόλαυσιν εἰρηνικὴν καὶ πρὸς ἀσφάλειαν πολέμου δόξαι καλῶς προεωρᾶσθαι.
For the circuit of the acropolis is flat and large, and is surrounded on all sides by inaccessible cliffs, so that it is impossible to bring up siege engines anywhere; and it also has an abundance of water, from which they laid out plentiful gardens, so that the king’s design seemed to have been well-foreseen both for peaceful enjoyment and for security in war.
- 20.102.1πρότερον συντρῖψαι ... ἢ ἐπʼ αὐτὸν πορεύοιτο
The conjunction ἤ correlates with the preceding adverb πρότερον to mean "before." πορεύοιτο is an optative of indirect discourse (or subordinate clause in secondary sequence) dependent on the past-tense main verb εἶχε, representing what would originally have been an indicative or subjunctive in direct speech.
- 20.102.2τῷ δὲ πολιτικῷ πλήθει συνεπιλαβόμενος τῆς οἰκοδομίας
The verb συνεπιλαμβάνομαι takes a double government of a dative and a genitive, meaning "to help someone (dative) in something (genitive)." Here, it means helping the citizen body (τῷ ... πλήθει, dative) in the rebuilding (τῆς οἰκοδομίας, genitive).
- 20.102.3ὁ χρόνος διαληφθεὶς πραγμάτων μεταβολαῖς
The passive aorist participle διαληφθείς (from διαλαμβάνω) means "intercepted" or "punctuated." Here, it conveys the idea of the passage of time being interrupted or filled with subsequent changes of fortunes (πραγμάτων μεταβολαῖς).