- 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-grc2:16.27.1-16.27.5
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-08
The Roman ambassadors demand that King Philip of Macedon cease war in Greece and submit to arbitration, convey this same message to the Epirotes and other Greeks, and then set sail to reconcile Antiochus and Ptolemy.
ὅτι καθʼ ὃν χρόνον οἱ τῶν Ῥωμαίων πρέσβεις ἐν ταῖς Ἀθήναις ἐποιοῦντο τὴν διατριβήν, Νικάνορος τοῦ παρὰ Φιλίππου κατατρέχοντος1 τὴν Ἀττικὴν ἕως τῆς Ἀκαδημείας, προδιαπεμψάμενοι πρὸς αὐτὸν οἱ Ῥωμαῖοι κήρυκα συνέμιξαν αὐτῷ καὶ παρεκάλεσαν ἀναγγεῖλαι τῷ Φιλίππῳ διότι2 Ῥωμαῖοι παρακαλοῦσι τὸν βασιλέα τῶν μὲν Ἑλλήνων μηδενὶ πολεμεῖν, τῶν δὲ γεγονότων εἰς Ἄτταλον ἀδικημάτων δίκας ὑπέχειν ἐν ἴσῳ κριτηρίῳ, καὶ διότι πράξαντι μὲν ταῦτα τὴν εἰρήνην ἄγειν ἔξεστι πρὸς Ῥωμαίους, μὴ βουλομένῳ δὲ πείθεσθαι τἀναντία συνεξακολουθήσειν ἔφασαν.3 ὁ μὲν οὖν Νικάνωρ ταῦτʼ ἀκούσας ἀπηλλάγη·
At the time when the Roman ambassadors were staying in Athens, while Nicanor, Philip’s officer, was ravaging Attica as far as the Academy, the Romans, having sent a herald in advance to him, met with him and requested him to report to Philip that the Romans demanded the king not to make war on any of the Greeks, and to submit to justice before an equal tribunal for the wrongs committed against Attalus; and that, if he did this, it was possible for him to remain at peace with the Romans, but if he was unwilling to comply, they declared that the opposite consequences would follow. So Nicanor, having heard this, departed.
τὸν αὐτὸν δὲ λόγον τοῦτον οἱ Ῥωμαῖοι καὶ πρὸς Ἠπειρώτας εἶπαν περὶ Φιλίππου παραπλέοντες ἐν Φοινίκῃ καὶ πρὸς Ἀμύνανδρον ἀναβάντες εἰς Ἀθαμανίαν· παραπλησίως καὶ πρὸς Αἰτωλοὺς ἐν Ναυπάκτῳ καὶ πρὸς τοὺς Ἀχαιοὺς ἐν Αἰγίῳ.
The Romans also spoke this same language concerning Philip to the Epirotes while sailing past Phoenice, and to Amynander having gone up into Athamania; and similarly to the Aetolians in Naupactus, and to the Achaeans in Aegium.
τότε δὲ διὰ τοῦ Νικάνορος τῷ Φιλίππῳ ταῦτα δηλώσαντες αὐτοὶ μὲν ἀπέπλευσαν ὡς Ἀντίοχον καὶ Πτολεμαῖον4 ἐπὶ τὰς διαλύσεις. —
So at that time, having made these things clear to Philip through Nicanor, they themselves sailed away to Antiochus and Ptolemy to effect a reconciliation. —
- 16.27.1Νικάνορος ... κατατρέχοντος
Genitive absolute. It describes the parallel situation where Nicanor was ravaging Attica while the Roman ambassadors were staying in Athens.
- 16.27.2διότι
In post-classical Greek (especially Hellenistic authors like Polybius), διότι is frequently used as a conjunction introducing indirect speech or a noun clause, equivalent to ὅτι ('that'), rather than its classical causal meaning ('because'). Here it introduces the content of the request governed by παρεκάλεσαν.
- 16.27.3μὴ βουλομένῳ δὲ πείθεσθαι τἀναντία συνεξακολουθήσειν ἔφασαν
The dative participle μὴ βουλομένῳ, contrasted with πράξαντι in the preceding clause, modifies an omitted dative pronoun αὐτῷ (referring to Philip) with conditional force. Meanwhile, ἔφασαν ('they said') takes the accusative τἀναντία ('the opposite things') and the future infinitive συνεξακολουθήσειν in an accusative-and-infinitive construction.
- 16.27.5ὡς Ἀντίοχον καὶ Πτολεμαῖον
The particle ὡς functions here as a preposition, used with accusative nouns denoting persons to mean 'to' or 'into the presence of' (equivalent to πρός or εἰς).