- 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-grc2:7.14.1-7.14.7
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-10-29
Orestes, the envoy from Rome, demands the separation of Lacedaemon and other cities from the Achaean League, provoking the Achaeans to attack Spartans and, under their new general Critolaus, to march toward war with Rome.
ἀφίκοντο δὲ ἐς τὴν Ἑλλάδα καὶ οἱ ἀποσταλέντες ἐκ Ῥώμης Λακεδαιμονίοις δικασταὶ καὶ Ἀχαιοῖς γενέσθαι, ἄλλοι τε καὶ Ὀρέστης· ὁ δὲ τούς τε ἐν ἑκάστῃ πόλει τῶν Ἀχαιῶν ἔχοντας τὰς ἀρχὰς καὶ Δίαιον ἐκάλει παρʼ αὑτόν. ἀφικομένοις1 δὲ ἔνθα ἔτυχεν αὐτὸς ἐσῳκισμένος, ἀπεγύμνου τὸν πάντα σφίσιν ἤδη λόγον, ὡς δίκαια ἡγοῖτο ἡ Ῥωμαίων βουλὴ μήτε Λακεδαιμονίους τελεῖν ἐς τὸ Ἀχαϊκὸν μήτε αὐτὴν Κόρινθον, ἀφεῖσθαι δὲ καὶ Ἄργος καὶ Ἡράκλειαν τὴν πρὸς Οἴτῃ καὶ Ὀρχομενίους Ἀρκάδας συνεδρίου τοῦ Ἀχαιῶν· γένους τε γὰρ αὐτοῖς οὐδὲν τοῦ Ἀχαιῶν μετεῖναι καὶ ὕστερον τὰς πόλεις προσχωρῆσαι ταύτας πρὸς τὸ Ἀχαϊκόν.
There arrived in Greece also those who had been sent from Rome to be judges for the Lacedaemonians and the Achaeans, among others especially Orestes. He summoned to himself those who held office in each city of the Achaeans, and Diaeus. When they arrived where he happened to be lodged, he laid bare to them the whole proposal, namely, that the Roman senate considered it just that neither the Lacedaemonians nor Corinth itself should belong to the Achaean League, and that Argos, Heracleia near Oeta, and the Arcadian Orchomenians should also be released from the council of the Achaeans; for [he said] that they had no share in the Achaean race, and that these cities had joined the Achaean League only later.
ταῦτα Ὀρέστου λέγοντος οἱ ἄρχοντες τῶν Ἀχαιῶν οὐδὲ τὸν πάντα ὑπομείναντες ἀκοῦσαι λόγον ἔθεον ἐς τὸ ἐκτὸς τῆς οἰκίας καὶ ἐκάλουν Ἀχαιοὺς ἐς ἐκκλησίαν· οἱ δὲ ὡς τὰ ἐγνωσμένα ἐπύθοντο ὑπὸ Ῥωμαίων, αὐτίκα ἐτρέποντο ἐπὶ τοὺς Σπαρτιάτας οἳ Κορίνθῳ τότε ἔτυχον ἐπιδημοῦντες, συνήρπαζον δὲ πάντα τινὰ καὶ ὃν Λακεδαιμόνιον σαφῶς ὄντα ἠπίσταντο καὶ ὅτῳ κουρᾶς ἢ ὑποδημάτων ἕνεκα ἢ ἐπὶ τῇ ἐσθῆτι ἢ κατʼ ὄνομα προσγένοιτο ὑπόνοια· τοὺς δὲ αὐτῶν καὶ καταφυγεῖν ἔνθα Ὀρέστης ᾤκει φθάνοντας2 ὅμως καὶ ἐντεῦθεν ἐβιάζοντο ἕλκειν.
While Orestes was saying these things, the leaders of the Achaeans, not even waiting to hear the whole proposal, ran outside the house and summoned the Achaeans to an assembly. When the people learned of the decisions made by the Romans, they immediately turned against the Spartans who happened to be staying in Corinth at that time, and they seized everyone—both those whom they clearly knew to be Lacedaemonians, and anyone against whom suspicion arose on account of their hair-cut, or shoes, or clothing, or name; and even those of them who succeeded in fleeing to where Orestes was lodging, they nevertheless attempted by force to drag from there.
Ὀρέστης δὲ καὶ οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ τῆς τε τόλμης ἐπέχειν τοὺς Ἀχαιοὺς ἐπειρῶντο καὶ ἐκέλευον μεμνῆσθαι σφᾶς ὡς ἀδικημάτων καὶ ὕβρεως ἄρχουσιν3 ἐς Ῥωμαίους. ἡμέραις δὲ ὕστερον οὐ πολλαῖς οἱ Ἀχαιοὶ Λακεδαιμονίων μὲν αὐτῶν ὅσους εἶχον συνειληφότες, κατατίθενται σφᾶς ἐς δεσμωτήριον, τοὺς ξένους δὲ ἀπʼ αὐτῶν διακρίνοντες ἠφίεσαν. ἀποστέλλουσι δὲ καὶ ἐς Ῥώμην ἄλλους τε Ἀχαιῶν τῶν ἐν τέλει καὶ Θεαρίδαν· ὡς δὲ ἀπῆλθον, ἐντυχόντες κατὰ τὴν ἄνοδον Ῥωμαίων πρέσβεσιν ἐπὶ τὰ Λακεδαιμονίων καὶ Ἀχαιῶν ὕστερον ἢ Ὀρέστης ἀπεσταλμένοις, ὀπίσω καὶ αὐτοὶ τρέπονται.
Orestes and those with him tried to restrain the Achaeans from their violence and urged them to remember that they were beginning acts of injustice and insolence against the Romans. A few days later, the Achaeans put into prison all those of the Lacedaemonians themselves whom they had arrested, but they released the foreigners after separating them from them. They also sent to Rome other Achaeans in authority and Thearidas; but when they had departed, meeting on their journey up Roman envoys who had been sent for the affairs of the Lacedaemonians and Achaeans later than Orestes, they themselves also turned back.
Διαίῳ δὲ ἐξήκοντος τοῦ χρόνου τῆς ἀρχῆς στρατηγεῖν ὑπὸ Ἀχαιῶν ᾑρέθη Κριτόλαος. τοῦτον δριμὺς καὶ σὺν οὐδενὶ λογισμῷ τὸν Κριτόλαον πολεμεῖν πρὸς Ῥωμαίους ἔρως ἔσχε· καὶ—ἔτυχον γὰρ τότε ἤδη οἱ παρὰ Ῥωμαίων ἥκοντες τὰ Λακεδαιμονίων καὶ Ἀχαιῶν δικάσαι—ἀφίκετο μὲν ἐν Τεγέᾳ τῇ Ἀρκάδων τοῖς ἀνδράσιν ἐς λόγους ὁ Κριτόλαος, ἀθροῖσαι δὲ Ἀχαιούς σφισιν ἐς κοινὸν σύλλογον οὐδαμῶς ἤθελεν, ἀλλὰ ἐς μὲν ἐπήκοον τῶν Ῥωμαίων ἔπεμπεν ἀγγέλους κελεύων τοὺς συνέδρους καλεῖν ἐς τὸ Ἀχαϊκόν, ἰδίᾳ δὲ τοῖς συνέδροις ἐπέστελλεν ἐς τὰς πόλεις ἀπολείπεσθαι σφᾶς τοῦ συλλόγου.
When the term of office of Diaeus expired, Critolaus was chosen by the Achaeans to be general. A sharp and irrational passion to make war against the Romans seized this Critolaus; and—for those who had come from Rome to judge the affairs of the Lacedaemonians and Achaeans happened at that time already [to have arrived]—Critolaus came indeed to Tegea in Arcadia to enter into discussions with the men, but he was by no means willing to assemble the Achaeans for them into a common council, but while in the hearing of the Romans he sent messengers ordering them to call the councillors to the Achaean League, privately he sent instructions to the councillors in their cities to absent themselves from the meeting.
ὡς δὲ οὐκ ἀφίκοντο οἱ συνεδρεύσοντες, ἐνταῦθα ὁ Κριτόλαος μάλιστα ἐπεδείκνυτο ἀπάτῃ πρὸς Ῥωμαίους χρώμενος, ὃς ἄλλην ἐκέλευεν ἀναμένειν αὐτοὺς Ἀχαιῶν σύνοδον, ἐς μῆνα ἐσομένην ἕκτον· αὐτὸς δὲ οὐδὲν ἰδίᾳ διαλέξεσθαί σφισιν ἄνευ τοῦ κοινοῦ τοῦ Ἀχαιῶν ἔφασκε. καὶ οἱ μὲν ἐπεὶ ἀπατώμενοι συνῆκαν, ἀπηλλάσσοντο ἐς Ῥώμην· Κριτόλαος δὲ ἐς Κόρινθον Ἀχαιοὺς ἀθροίσας ἀνέπεισε μὲν ἐπιφέρειν ὅπλα ἐπὶ τὴν Σπάρτην, ἀνέπεισε δὲ καὶ Ῥωμαίοις ἐκ τοῦ εὐθέος πόλεμον ἄρασθαι.
Since those who were to attend the council did not arrive, Critolaus then especially showed himself practicing deceit toward the Romans, urging them to wait for another assembly of the Achaeans, which would take place in six months; and he said that he himself would discuss nothing with them privately without the common assembly of the Achaeans. And when they understood that they were being deceived, they departed for Rome; but Critolaus, having assembled the Achaeans in Corinth, persuaded them to bear arms against Sparta, and also persuaded them to wage war directly against the Romans.
τὸ μὲν δὴ ἄνδρα βασιλέα καὶ πόλιν ἀνελέσθαι πόλεμον καὶ μὴ εὐτυχῆσαι4 συνέβη φθόνῳ μᾶλλον ἔκ του δαιμόνων ἢ τοῖς πολεμήσασι ποιεῖ τὸ ἔγκλημα· θρασύτης δὲ ἡ μετὰ ἀσθενείας μανία ἂν μᾶλλον ἢ ἀτυχία καλοῖτο. ὃ δὴ καὶ Κριτόλαον καὶ Ἀχαιοὺς ἔβλαψε. παρώξυνε δὲ καὶ Ἀχαιοὺς Πυθέας βοιωταρχῶν τηνικαῦτα ἐν Θήβαις, καὶ οἱ Θηβαῖοι συνεπιλήψεσθαι προθύμως ἐπηγγέλλοντο τοῦ πολέμου·
Now, for a king or a city to undertake a war and fail, happens through the ill-will of some deity rather than bringing blame upon those who made war; but boldness combined with weakness should be called madness rather than misfortune. This indeed ruined both Critolaus and the Achaeans. Pytheas, who was then Boeotarch in Thebes, also incited the Achaeans, and the Thebans eagerly promised to take part in the war;
ἑαλώκεσαν δὲ οἱ Θηβαῖοι πρώτην δίκην Μετέλλου δικάζοντος Φωκεῦσιν ἐκτῖσαι ζημίαν, ὅτι ἐσέβαλον σὺν ὅπλοις ἐς γῆν τὴν Φωκίδα, δευτέραν Εὐβοεῦσιν, ἐδῄωσαν γὰρ καὶ Εὐβοέων τὴν χώραν, τρίτην δὲ Ἀμφισσεῦσι, τεμόντες καὶ τὴν Ἀμφισσέων περὶ ἀκμὴν σίτου.
for the Thebans had already been convicted under the judgment of Metellus, first to pay a fine to the Phocians because they had invaded the Phocian land with arms; secondly, to the Euboeans, for they had also ravaged the land of the Euboeans; and thirdly, to the Amphissians, because they had laid waste their land as well at the time of the ripening of the corn.
- 7.14.1ἀφικομένοις
Dative plural participle. It agrees with the logical indirect object σφίσιν of the main verb ἀπεγύμνου, or functions as a dative of interest/time ("upon their arrival").
- 7.14.2φθάνοντας
Participle of φθάνω, indicating an action done beforehand or quickly. Here it modifies the object τοὺς δὲ who succeeded in fleeing to Orestes' lodging ahead of their pursuers.
- 7.14.3ἄρχουσιν
Active indicative present third-person plural of ἄρχω. The subject of the clause introduced by ὡς is the Achaeans, while σφᾶς is the accusative subject of the infinitive μεμνῆσθαι, referring back to the Achaeans themselves.
- 7.14.6τὸ μὲν δὴ ... ἀνελέσθαι ... καὶ μὴ εὐτυχῆσαι
The article τὸ nominalizes the whole infinitive clause ἀνελέσθαι ... καὶ μὴ εὐτυχῆσαι, which functions as the subject of the main verb συνέβη. The subject of the infinitives is the accusative ἄνδρα βασιλέα καὶ πόλιν.