- 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
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- CTS URN
- urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0543.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:12.15.1-12.15.12
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-07
Polybius quotes and criticizes Timaeus's excessive personal and sexual abuse of Agathocles, arguing that Agathocles's rise to power clearly proves his natural talents. He emphasizes that historians must record both achievements and defects, as omitting the truth by silence is no less a falsehood than active fabrications.
καὶ γὰρ οὐδὲ ταῖς κατʼ Ἀγαθοκλέους ἔγωγε λοιδορίαις, εἰ καὶ πάντων γέγονεν ἀσεβέστατος, εὐδοκῶ. λέγω δʼ ἐν τούτοις, ἐν οἷς ἐπὶ καταστροφῇ τῆς ὅλης ἱστορίας φησὶ γεγονέναι τὸν Ἀγαθοκλέα κατὰ τὴν πρώτην ἡλικίαν κοινὸν πόρνον, ἕτοιμον τοῖς ἀκρατεστάτοις, κολοιόν, τριόρχην, πάντων τῶν βουλομένων τοῖς ὄπισθεν ἔμπροσθεν γεγονότα.1
For indeed, I do not approve of the abuses against Agathocles either, even if he was the most impious of all. And I say this in those passages in which, at the conclusion of his entire history, he says that Agathocles in his early youth had been a common prostitute, ready for the most intemperate, a jackdaw, a buzzard, having become for all who wished the front in place of the rear.
πρὸς δὲ τούτοις, ὅτʼ ἀπέθανε, τὴν γυναῖκά φησι κατακλαιομένην αὐτὸν οὕτως θρηνεῖν· "τί δʼ οὐκ ἐγὼ σέ; τί δʼ οὐκ ἐμὲ σύ;
In addition to these things, he says that when he died, his wife, weeping over him, lamented thus: “Why did I not you? Why did you not me?”
" ἐν γὰρ τούτοις πάλιν οὐ μόνον ἄν τις ἐπιφθέγξαιτο τὰ καὶ περὶ Δημοχάρους, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν ὑπερβολὴν θαυμάσειε τῆς πικρίας.
For in these passages again, one might not only utter the same things as about Demochares, but also wonder at the excess of his bitterness.
ὅτι γὰρ ἐκ φύσεως ἀνάγκη μεγάλα προτερήματα γεγονέναι περὶ τὸν Ἀγαθοκλέα, τοῦτο δῆλόν ἐστιν ἐξ αὐτῶν ὧν ὁ Τίμαιος ἀποφαίνεται.
For that there must have been by nature great talents in Agathocles is clear from the very things that Timaeus declares.
εἰ γὰρ εἰς τὰς Συρακούσας παρεγενήθη φεύγων τὸν τροχόν, τὸν καπνόν, τὸν πηλόν, περὶ ἔτη τὴν ἡλικίαν ὀκτωκαίδεκα γεγονώς, καὶ μετά τινα χρόνον ὁρμηθεὶς ἀπὸ τοιαύτης ὑποθέσεως κύριος μὲν ἐγενήθη πάσης Σικελίας, μεγίστους δὲ κινδύνους περιέστησε Καρχηδονίοις, τέλος ἐγγηράσας τῇ δυναστείᾳ κατέστρεψε τὸν βίον βασιλεὺς προσαγορευόμενος, ἆρʼ οὐκ ἀνάγκη2 μέγα τι γεγονέναι χρῆμα καὶ θαυμάσιον τὸν Ἀγαθοκλέα καὶ πολλὰς ἐσχηκέναι ῥοπὰς καὶ δυνάμεις πρὸς τὸν πραγματικὸν τρόπον;
For if he arrived in Syracuse fleeing the wheel, the smoke, and the clay, when he was about eighteen years of age, and after some time, starting from such an origin, became master of all Sicily, and brought the greatest dangers upon the Carthaginians, and finally, having grown old in his sovereignty, ended his life being addressed as king, is it not necessary that Agathocles was something great and wonderful, and possessed many resources and powers for practical affairs?
ὑπὲρ ὧν δεῖ τὸν συγγραφέα μὴ μόνον τὰ πρὸς διαβολὴν κυροῦντα καὶ κατηγορίαν ἐξηγεῖσθαι τοῖς ἐπιγινομένοις, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ πρὸς ἔπαινον ἥκοντα περὶ τὸν ἄνδρα· τοῦτο γὰρ ἴδιόν ἐστι τῆς ἱστορίας.
Concerning which things, the historian must not only explain to posterity the things that confirm slander and accusation, but also those that tend to the praise of the man; for this is proper to history.
ὁ δʼ ἐπεσκοτημένος ὑπὸ τῆς ἰδίας πικρίας τὰ μὲν ἐλαττώματα δυσμενικῶς καὶ μετʼ αὐξήσεως ἡμῖν ἐξήγγελκε, τὰ δὲ κατορθώματα συλλήβδην παραλέλοιπεν, ἀγνοῶν ὅτι τὸ ψεῦδος οὐχ ἧττόν ἐστι3 περὶ τοὺς τὰ γεγονότα γράφοντας ἐν ταῖς ἱστορίαις.
But he, having been darkened by his own bitterness, has reported to us his defects hostilely and with exaggeration, but has completely omitted his achievements, not knowing that falsehood is no less present in those who write of events in histories [by omission].
ἡμεῖς δὲ τὸ μὲν ἐπιμετρεῖν τῆς ἀπεχθείας αὐτοῦ χάριν ἀφήκαμεν, τὰ δʼ οἰκεῖα τῆς προθέσεως αὑτῶν οὐ παρελείψαμεν. —
But we have refrained from adding measure to our hostility for his sake, yet we have not omitted the things proper to our own purpose.
- 12.15.2τοῖς ὄπισθεν ἔμπροσθεν γεγονότα
Part of the complement within the accusative and infinitive construction. It refers to providing the rear parts of the body as if they were the front (implying passive homosexual relations), which served as an extremely derogatory description of a male prostitute in the Greek world.
- 12.15.6εἰ γὰρ εἰς τὰς Συρακούσας παρεγενήθη... ἆρʼ οὐκ ἀνάγκη...
This forms a long and tight periodic structure, starting with the conditional clause εἰ in §12.15.6, passing through various participle clauses and finite verbs (ἐγενήθη, κατέστρεψε) in §12.15.7, and finding its apodosis in the question ἆρʼ οὐκ ἀνάγκη... in §12.15.8. Relying on the historical facts of Agathocles's rise from humble origins, it logically concludes that he must have possessed great natural talents.
- 12.15.11τὸ ψεῦδος οὐχ ἧττόν ἐστι
The 'falsehood' here refers not only to fabricating what is untrue, but also to the intentional omission of important achievements and facts by remaining silent (corresponding to παραλέλοιπεν in §12.15.10). It reflects Polybius's critical view of historiography, where deliberate silence is considered no less a falsehood than active fabrication.