- 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-grc2:15.34.1-15.34.6
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-08
Criticizing the dramatic and sensational methods favored by other historians, the author points out that Agathocles possessed no remarkable abilities or achievements, but rather perished quickly due to his sheer incompetence.
τὸ τέλος.1 ἐγὼ δʼ οὐκ ἀγνοῶ μὲν τὰς τερατείας καὶ διασκευάς, αἷς κέχρηνται πρὸς ἔκπληξιν τῶν ἀκουόντων ἔνιοι τῶν γεγραφότων τὰς πράξεις ταύτας, πλείω τὸν ἐπιμετροῦντα λόγον διατιθέμενοι τοῦ συνέχοντος τὰ πράγματα καὶ κυρίου,2 τινὲς μὲν ἐπὶ τὴν τύχην ἀναφέροντες τὰ γεγονότα καὶ τιθέντες ὑπὸ τὴν ὄψιν τὸ ταύτης ἀβέβαιον καὶ δυσφύλακτον, οἱ δὲ τὸ παράδοξον τῶν συμβεβηκότων ὑπὸ λόγον ἄγοντες, πειρώμενοι τοῖς γεγονόσιν αἰτίας καὶ πιθανότητας ὑποτάττειν.
end. On the other hand, I am not indeed ignorant of the sensationalism and dramatic treatment which some of those who have written about these actions employ to strike astonishment into their hearers, as they deploy more of an additional and supplementary discourse than of that which holds the facts together and is essential, some of them referring the events to fortune and placing before our eyes its instability and the difficulty of guarding against it, while others try to bring the paradoxical nature of what happened under a rational explanation, attempting to assign causes and probability to the events.
οὐ μὴν ἔγωγε προεθέμην τούτῳ χρήσασθαι τῷ χειρισμῷ περὶ τῶν προειρημένων διὰ τὸ μήτε πολεμικὴν τόλμαν καὶ δύναμιν ἐπίσημον γεγονέναι3 περὶ τὸν Ἀγαθοκλέα μήτε χει ρισμὸν πραγμάτων ἐπιτυχῆ καὶ ζηλωτὸν μήτε τὸ τελευταῖον τὴν αὐλικὴν ἀγχίνοιαν καὶ κακοπραγμοσύνην διαφέρουσαν, ἐν ᾗ Σωσίβιος καὶ πλείους ἕτεροι κατεβίωσαν, βασιλεῖς ἐκ βασιλέων μεταχειριζόμενοι, τὰ δʼ ἐναντία τούτοις συμβεβηκέναι περὶ τὸν προειρημένον ἄνδρα.
Yet I certainly did not propose to use this method of treatment in the case of the aforementioned persons, because there was neither any military courage nor outstanding capacity in Agathocles, nor any successful and enviable management of affairs, nor finally any distinguished courtly shrewdness and intrigue, in which Sosibius and several others spent their lives, managing kings after kings, but rather the opposite of these things had happened in the case of the aforementioned man.
προαγωγῆς μὲν γὰρ ἔτυχε παραδόξου διὰ τὴν τοῦ Φιλοπάτορος ἀδυναμίαν τοῦ βασιλεύειν·
For he met with an unexpected advancement owing to the incapacity of Philopator to reign;
τυχὼν δὲ ταύτης καὶ παραλαβὼν εὐφυέστατον καιρὸν μετὰ τὸν ἐκείνου θάνατον πρὸς τὸ συντηρῆσαι τὴν ἐξουσίαν, ἅμα τὰ πράγματα καὶ τὸ ζῆν ἀπέβαλε διὰ τὴν ἰδίαν ἀνανδρίαν καὶ ῥᾳθυμίαν, ἐν πάνυ βραχεῖ χρόνῳ καταγνωσθείς.
but having met with this, and having received a most favorable opportunity after the king’s death to preserve his power, he lost both his position and his life at the same time through his own cowardice and indolence, being utterly condemned within a very short time.
- 15.34.1τὸ τέλος.
This is the direct object of the verb ἔσχε at the end of the preceding sentence (§15.33.13). Although the chapter division occurs here in the manuscript tradition, leaving it as a fragment, the translation must respect its syntactical connection with the preceding context.
- 15.34.1τοῦ συνέχοντος τὰ πράγματα καὶ κυρίου
Genitive of comparison governed by the comparative adjective πλείω (more). It functions as a participial phrase qualifying an implied noun λόγου, meaning 'the discourse which holds the facts together and is essential.'
- 15.34.3διὰ τὸ μήτε πολεμικὴν τόλμαν καὶ δύναμιν ἐπίσημον γεγονέναι
The beginning of an accusative with infinitive construction introduced by the preposition διὰ and the neuter singular accusative article τό. This construction extends all the way to συμβεβηκέναι in §15.34.4, grouping all the reasons for Agathocles' lack of capability and the contrary circumstances under a single causal clause. Note also the division of the noun χειρισμόν across §15.34.3 and §15.34.4.