- Source
- Polybius. Vols. 1-4. Büttner-Wobst, Theodor, editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1893.
- 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:tlg0543.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:1.4.1-1.4.11
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-12
Polybius argues that just as fortune directed all world events toward a single goal—Roman supremacy—historians must present them to readers under a single comprehensive view. Using the analogy of a scattered living body, he explains that particular histories cannot reveal the whole, and that true utility is gained only through universal history.
ίκοντο1 τῆς τῶν ὅλων ἀρχῆς καὶ δυναστείας. τὸ γὰρ τῆς ἡμετέρας πραγματείας ἴδιον καὶ τὸ θαυμάσιον τῶν καθʼ ἡμᾶς καιρῶν τοῦτʼ ἔστιν ὅτι,2 καθάπερ ἡ τύχη σχεδὸν ἅπαντα τὰ τῆς οἰκουμένης πράγματα πρὸς ἓν ἔκλινε μέρος καὶ πάντα νεύειν ἠνάγκασε πρὸς ἕνα καὶ τὸν αὐτὸν σκοπόν, οὕτως καὶ δεῖ διὰ τῆς ἱστορίας ὑπὸ μίαν σύνοψιν ἀγαγεῖν τοῖς ἐντυγχάνουσι τὸν χειρισμὸν τῆς τύχης, ᾧ κέχρηται πρὸς τὴν τῶν ὅλων πραγμάτων συντέλειαν.
[and arrived] at the sovereignty and dominion over the whole world. For the distinctive feature of our work and the wonderful thing about our times is this, that, just as fortune has inclined almost all the affairs of the world in one direction and forced them all to point to one and the same goal, so also we must, by means of history, bring under a single view for our readers the operation of fortune, which she has employed for the completion of the affairs of the whole world.
καὶ γὰρ τὸ προκαλεσάμενον ἡμᾶς καὶ παρορμῆσαν πρὸς τὴν ἐπιβολὴν τῆς ἱστορίας μάλιστα τοῦτο γέγονεν, σὺν δὲ τούτῳ καὶ τὸ μηδένα τῶν καθʼ ἡμᾶς ἐπιβεβλῆσθαι τῇ τῶν καθόλου πραγμάτων συντάξει· πολὺ γὰρ ἂν ἧττον ἔγωγε πρὸς τοῦτο τὸ μέρος ἐφιλοτιμήθην.
For indeed, that which challenged and prompted us to the undertaking of this history was chiefly this, and along with this also the fact that no one of our contemporaries has undertaken the compilation of general history; for otherwise I should have been much less ambitious in this direction.
νῦν δʼ ὁρῶν3 τοὺς μὲν κατὰ μέρος πολέμους καί τινας τῶν ἅμα τούτοις πράξεων καὶ πλείους πραγματευομένους, τὴν δὲ καθόλου καὶ συλλήβδην οἰκονομίαν τῶν γεγονότων πότε καὶ πόθεν ὡρμήθη καὶ πῶς ἔσχε τὴν συντέλειαν, ταύτην οὐδʼ ἐπιβαλόμενον οὐδένα βασανίζειν, ὅσον γε καὶ ἡμᾶς εἰδέναι, παντελῶς ὑπέλαβον ἀναγκαῖον εἶναι τὸ μὴ παραλιπεῖν μηδʼ ἐᾶσαι παρελθεῖν ἀνεπιστάτως τὸ κάλλιστον ἅμα δʼ ὠφελιμώτατον ἐπιτήδευμα τῆς τύχης.
But as it is, seeing that while many treat of particular wars and some of the transactions connected with them, yet no one, so far at least as I know, has even attempted to examine the general and comprehensive economy of events, when and whence they started and how they reached their completion, I deemed it to be completely necessary not to pass over nor to allow to go by unobserved the most beautiful and at the same time most beneficial operation of fortune.
πολλὰ γὰρ αὕτη καινοποιοῦσα καὶ συνεχῶς ἐναγωνιζομένη τοῖς τῶν ἀνθρώπων βίοις οὐδέπω τοιόνδʼ ἁπλῶς οὔτʼ εἰργάσατʼ ἔργον οὔτʼ ἠγωνίσατʼ ἀγώνισμα, οἷον τὸ καθʼ ἡμᾶς.
For though she produces many novelties and continually strives in the lives of men, she has never yet performed such a work or striven in such a contest as that of our own times.
ὅπερ ἐκ μὲν τῶν κατὰ μέρος γραφόντων τὰς ἱστορίας οὐχ οἷόν τε συνιδεῖν, εἰ μὴ καὶ τὰς ἐπιφανεστάτας πόλεις τις κατὰ μίαν ἑκάστην ἐπελθὼν ἢ καὶ νὴ Δία γεγραμμένας χωρὶς ἀλλήλων θεασάμενος εὐθέως ὑπολαμβάνει κατανενοηκέναι καὶ τὸ τῆς ὅλης οἰκουμένης σχῆμα καὶ τὴν σύμπασαν αὐτῆς θέσιν καὶ τάξιν· ὅπερ ἐστὶν οὐδαμῶς εἰκός.
And this it is impossible to perceive from those who write particular histories, unless someone, by visiting the most illustrious cities one by one, or, by Zeus, by beholding them depicted apart from one another, straightway supposes that he has understood both the shape of the whole world and its entire position and order—which is by no means likely.
καθόλου μὲν γὰρ ἔμοιγε δοκοῦσιν οἱ πεπεισμένοι διὰ τῆς κατὰ μέρος ἱστορίας μετρίως συνόψεσθαι τὰ ὅλα παραπλήσιόν τι πάσχειν, ὡς ἂν εἴ4 τινες ἐμψύχου καὶ καλοῦ σώματος γεγονότος διερριμμένα τὰ μέρη θεώμενοι νομίζοιεν ἱκανῶς αὐτόπται γίνεσθαι τῆς ἐνεργείας αὐτοῦ τοῦ ζῴου καὶ καλλονῆς.
For on the whole, those who believe that they will moderately survey the whole from particular history seem to me to experience something similar to what those would if, beholding the scattered limbs of a once living and beautiful body, they should think they had been sufficient eyewitnesses of the activity and beauty of the animal itself.
εἰ γάρ τις αὐτίκα μάλα συνθεὶς καὶ τέλειον αὖθις ἀπεργασάμενος τὸ ζῷον τῷ τʼ εἴδει καὶ τῇ τῆς ψυχῆς εὐπρεπείᾳ κἄπειτα πάλιν ἐπιδεικνύοι τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἐκείνοις, ταχέως ἂν οἶμαι πάντας αὐτοὺς ὁμολογήσειν διότι καὶ λίαν πολύ τι τῆς ἀληθείας ἀπελείποντο πρόσθεν καὶ παραπλήσιοι τοῖς ὀνειρώττουσιν ἦσαν.
For if someone should straightway put the animal together and make it complete again in form and beauty of soul, and then show it again to those very same people, they would quickly, I think, all confess that they were previously very far from the truth and were like men dreaming.
ἔννοιαν μὲν γὰρ λαβεῖν ἀπὸ μέρους τῶν ὅλων δυνατόν, ἐπιστήμην δὲ καὶ γνώμην ἀτρεκῆ σχεῖν ἀδύνατον.
For indeed, it is possible to get an idea of the whole from a part, but impossible to obtain accurate knowledge and a certain judgment.
διὸ παντελῶς βραχύ τι νομιστέον συμβάλλεσθαι τὴν κατὰ μέρος ἱστορίαν πρὸς τὴν τῶν ὅλων ἐμπειρίαν καὶ πίστιν.
Therefore, we must believe that particular history contributes completely little to the knowledge and assurance of the whole.
ἐκ μέντοι γε τῆς ἁπάντων πρὸς ἄλληλα συμπλοκῆς καὶ παραθέσεως, ἔτι δʼ ὁμοιότητος καὶ διαφορᾶς, μόνως ἄν τις ἐφίκοιτο καὶ δυνηθείη κατοπτεύσας ἅμα καὶ τὸ χρήσιμον καὶ τὸ τερπνὸν ἐκ τῆς ἱστορίας ἀναλαβεῖν.
But it is only from the mutual interconnection and comparison of all events, and further from their similarity and difference, that one can attain his object and be able, by surveying them, to reap both the useful and the agreeable from history.
- 1.4.1ίκοντο
Combined with the preposition ἐξ at the end of the previous chunk (§1.3.10), it forms ἐξίκοντο, the third-person plural aorist indicative middle of the compound verb ἐξικνέομαι. It completes the ὅτι clause ("that they...") from the preceding sentence.
- 1.4.1τοῦτʼ ἔστιν ὅτι
The demonstrative pronoun τοῦτο refers to the subject at the beginning of the sentence (τὸ ... ἴδιον καὶ τὸ θαυμάσιον), with the subsequent ὅτι clause functioning as an appositive noun clause. Within the ὅτι clause, there is a correlative structure of καθάπερ ("just as") and οὕτως ("so also"), forming the core syntax: "just as fortune inclined events to one direction, so also it is necessary for us to bring its operation under a single view (δεῖ ... ἀγαγεῖν)."
- 1.4.3νῦν δʼ ὁρῶν
The long clause beginning with the participle ὁρῶν ("seeing") modifies the main verb ὑπέλαβον ("I deemed") in §1.4.4. The object of ὁρῶν has an asymmetrical structure: on the one hand (μὲν), it takes an accusative-and-participle construction (τοὺς ... πολέμους ... πραγματευομένους), and on the other hand (δὲ), it takes an accusative-and-infinitive construction (τὴν ... οἰκονομίαν ... οὐδένα βασανίζειν).
- 1.4.7ὡς ἂν εἴ
An idiomatic expression meaning "as if" or "as would be the case if." The particle ἂν goes with the following optative verb νομίζοιεν, giving a potential or counterfactual nuance to the clause containing the conditional condition εἴ τινες ... θεώμενοι ("if some, beholding...").