- Source
- Pausanias. Pausaniae Graeciae descriptio, Volumes 1-3. Spiro, Friedrich, editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1903.
- 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:tlg0525.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:4.17.1-4.17.6
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-10-25
Aristomenes is captured by women during a festival of Demeter but escapes through the love of a priestess. Later, Sparta bribes Aristocrates, the king of Arcadia, marking the first act of bribery in Greek warfare, though Sparta itself eventually suffers retribution through the same means.
ἔστι δὲ Αἴγιλα τῆς Λακωνικῆς, ἔνθα ἱερὸν ἵδρυται ἅγιον Δήμητρος. ἐνταῦθα ἐπιστάμενος ὁ Ἀριστομένης καὶ οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ τὰς γυναῖκας ἀγούσας ἑορτὴν ἀμύνεσθαι τῶν γυναικῶν1 οὐκ ἄνευ τῆς θεοῦ προαχθεισῶν λαμβάνουσιν οἱ πολλοὶ τῶν Μεσσηνίων τραύματα μαχαίραις τε, αἷς τὰ ἱερεῖα αἱ γυναῖκες ἔθυον, καὶ ὀβελοῖς, οἷς τὰ κρέα ἔπειρον ὀπτῶσαι· τὸν δὲ Ἀριστομένην τύπτουσαι ταῖς δᾳσὶ ζῶντα αἱροῦσιν. ἀπεσώθη δὲ ὅμως τῆς αὐτῆς ἐκείνης νυκτὸς ἐς τὴν Μεσσηνίαν. ἀφεῖναι δὲ αὐτὸν ἱέρεια τῆς Δήμητρος αἰτίαν ἔσχεν Ἀρχιδάμεια· ἀφῆκε δὲ οὐκ ἐπὶ χρήμασιν, ἀλλὰ ἐρῶσα ἔτυχεν αὐτοῦ πρότερον ἔτι, προὐφασίζετο δὲ ὡς Ἀριστομένης διακούσας2 τὰ δεσμὰ ἀποδρὰς οἴχοιτο.
There is a place Aegila in Laconia, where a holy sanctuary of Demeter is established. There Aristomenes and his men, knowing that the women were celebrating a festival, [tried to capture them], but because the women were impelled by the goddess to defend themselves, most of the Messenians received wounds from both the knives with which the women sacrificed the victims and the spits on which they impaled the meat for roasting; and beating Aristomenes with their torches, they captured him alive. Nevertheless, he escaped safe to Messenia on that very same night. The priestess of Demeter, Archidameia, was accused of having released him; but she released him not for money, but because she happened to have been in love with him even before, and she pretended that Aristomenes had burnt through his bonds and escaped.
τρίτῳ δὲ ἔτει τοῦ πολέμου μελλούσης γίνεσθαι συμβολῆς ἐπὶ τῇ καλουμένῃ Μεγάλῃ τάφρῳ καὶ Μεσσηνίοις Ἀρκάδων βεβοηθηκότων ἀπὸ πασῶν τῶν πόλεων, Ἀριστοκράτην τὸν Ἱκέτα Τραπεζούντιον, βασιλέα τῶν Ἀρκάδων καὶ στρατηγὸν ὄντα ἐν τῷ τότε, διαφθείρουσιν οἱ Λακεδαιμόνιοι χρήμασι. πρῶτοι γὰρ ὧν ἴσμεν Λακεδαιμόνιοι πολεμίῳ ἀνδρὶ δῶρα ἔδοσαν, καὶ ὤνιον πρῶτοι κατεστήσαντο εἶναι τὸ κράτος τὸ ἐν τοῖς ὅπλοις·
In the third year of the war, when a conflict was about to take place at the so-called Great Trench, and the Arcadians had come from all their cities to help the Messenians, the Lacedaemonians bribed with money Aristocrates, the son of Hiketas, of Trapezus, who was at that time the king and general of the Arcadians. For the Lacedaemonians were the first we know of to give gifts to an enemy, and the first to make victory in arms a thing for sale.
πρὶν δὲ ἢ παρανομῆσαι Λακεδαιμονίους ἐς τὸν Μεσσηνίων πόλεμον καὶ Ἀριστοκράτους τοῦ Ἀρκάδος τὴν προδοσίαν, ἀρετῇ τε οἱ μαχόμενοι καὶ τύχαις ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ διεκρίνοντο. φαίνονται δὲ οἱ Λακεδαιμόνιοι καὶ ὕστερον, ἡνίκα ἐπὶ Αἰγὸς ποταμοῖς ταῖς Ἀθηναίων ναυσὶν ἀνθώρμουν, ἄλλους τε τῶν στρατηγούντων Ἀθηναίοις καὶ Ἀδείμαντον ἐξωνησάμενοι.3
Before the Lacedaemonians transgressed the laws in the Messenian war and the treachery of Aristocrates the Arcadian occurred, those who fought were judged by their valor and by the fortunes sent from the deity. But the Lacedaemonians are seen to have done so later also, when they lay at anchor opposite the Athenian ships at Aegospotami, buying over Adeimantus and others of the Athenian generals.
περιῆλθε μέντοι καὶ αὐτοὺς Λακεδαιμονίους ἀνὰ χρόνον ἡ Νεοπτολέμειος καλουμένη τίσις. Νεοπτολέμῳ γὰρ τῷ Ἀχιλλέως, ἀποκτείναντι Πρίαμον ἐπὶ τῇ ἐσχάρᾳ τοῦ Ἑρκείου, συνέπεσε καὶ αὐτὸν ἐν Δελφοῖς πρὸς τῷ βωμῷ τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος ἀποσφαγῆναι· καὶ ἀπὸ τούτου τὸ παθεῖν ὁποῖόν τις καὶ ἔδρασε Νεοπτολέμειον τίσιν ὀνομάζουσι.
Nevertheless, in course of time, the so-called Neoptolemic retribution overtook the Lacedaemonians themselves. For Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, who slew Priam at the altar of Zeus Herkeios, was himself slaughtered at Delphi at the altar of Apollo; and from this, they call suffering the same treatment as one has inflicted ‘Neoptolemic retribution’.
τοῖς οὖν Λακεδαιμονίοις, ὅτε δὴ μάλιστα ἤνθησαν καὶ Ἀθηναίων τε τὸ ναυτικὸν καθῃρήκεσαν καὶ Ἀγησίλαος κεχείρωτο τὰ πολλὰ ἤδη τῆς Ἀσίας, τότε σφίσι τὴν ἀρχὴν πᾶσαν οὐκ ἐξεγένετο ἀφελέσθαι τὸν Μῆδον, ἀλλὰ σφᾶς ὁ βάρβαρος περιῆλθε τῷ ἐκείνων εὑρήματι,4 ἐς Κόρινθον καὶ Ἄργος καὶ ἐς Ἀθήνας τε καὶ Θήβας χρήματα ἀποστείλας· ὅ τε ὀνομαζόμενος Κορινθιακὸς πόλεμος ἀπὸ τούτων ἐξήφθη τῶν χρημάτων, ὡς ἀπολείπειν Ἀγησίλαον ἀναγκασθῆναι τὰ ἐν τῇ Ἀσίᾳ.
So for the Lacedaemonians, at the very time when they were at their highest peak of prosperity, having destroyed the Athenian navy and when Agesilaus had already subdued most of Asia, it was not granted to them to take away the whole empire from the Persian; rather, the barbarian circumvented them by means of their own invention, sending money to Corinth, Argos, Athens, and Thebes. And the so-called Corinthian war was kindled by this money, so that Agesilaus was forced to abandon his campaigns in Asia.
Λακεδαιμονίοις μὲν τὸ ἐς Μεσσηνίους σόφισμα ὁ δαίμων ἔμελλεν αὐτοῖς ἀποφανεῖν συμφοράν· Ἀριστοκράτης δὲ ὡς τὰ χρήματα ἐδέξατο ἐκ Λακεδαίμονος, τὸ μὲν παραυτίκα ἔκρυπτεν ἐς τοὺς Ἀρκάδας οἷα ἐπεβούλευε, μελλόντων5 δὲ ἐς χεῖρας ἤδη συνέρχεσθαι, τηνικαῦτα ἐξεφόβησεν αὐτοὺς ὡς ἐν δυσχωρίᾳ τέ εἰσιν ἀπειλημμένοι καὶ ἀναχώρησις οὐκ ἔσται αὐτοῖς, ἢν κρατηθῶσιν, τά τε ἱερά σφισιν οὐκ ἔφη γεγονέναι κατὰ γνώμην. ἐκέλευεν οὖν πάντα τινά, ἐπειδὰν αὐτὸς σημήνῃ, φυγῇ χρῆσθαι.
The deity was destined to show the Lacedaemonians that their trick against the Messenians would be a disaster for themselves; but Aristocrates, when he received the money from Lacedaemon, at the moment concealed from the Arcadians what he was plotting, but when they were already about to come to blows, he then terrified them, saying that they were caught in difficult ground and that there would be no retreat for them if they were defeated, and he said that the sacrifices had not turned out to their mind. He therefore ordered every single man to take to flight as soon as he himself should give the signal.
- 4.17.1ἀμύνεσθαι τῶν γυναικῶν
The infinitive ἀμύνεσθαι is not the direct object of the preceding participle ἐπιστάμενος, but rather functions as a complementary infinitive with the following genitive absolute τῶν γυναικῶν ... προαχθεισῶν ("the women having been impelled to defend themselves"). In context, the intention of Aristomenes and his men to capture the women must be supplied in thought.
- 4.17.1διακούσας
The manuscript reading διακούσας ("having heard thoroughly") does not suit the context. Most editors emend it to διακαύσας ("having burnt through"), referring to burning the bonds with torch fire, which perfectly aligns with the pretext (προὐφασίζετο) offered by the priestess.
- 4.17.3φαίνονται δὲ ... ἐξωνησάμενος
The main verb φαίνονται is plural, but the supplementary participle ἐξωνησάμενος is singular in the manuscripts. This is generally regarded as a scribal error and is emended to the plural ἐξωνησάμενοι in standard editions.
- 4.17.5τῷ ἐκείνων εὑρήματι
Meaning "by their invention" (dative of means). The demonstrative pronoun ἐκείνων refers to the Lacedaemonians. It points to the irony that the Persian king used the very method of bribery (the "invention", εὕρημα) originally introduced by the Spartans in the Messenian war to circumvent them (περιῆλθε).
- 4.17.6μελλόντων
A participle in the genitive absolute construction with its subject omitted. In context, it refers back to the preceding τοὺς Ἀρκάδας (the Arcadians) or both armies, describing the tense moment when they were about to join in battle (ἐς χεῖρας ... συνέρχεσθαι).