- 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-grc2:29.21.1-29.21.9
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-11
The author Polybius quotes a passage from Demetrius of Phalerum's work On Fortune regarding the rapid reversal of fortunes between Persia and Macedon within fifty years, pointing out how this prophecy has now come true with Perseus.
ὥστε πολλάκις καὶ λίαν μνημονεύειν1 τῆς Δημητρίου τοῦ Φαληρέως φωνῆς.
Consequently, one often and very strongly recalls the words of Demetrius of Phalerum.
ἐκεῖνος γὰρ ἐν τῷ περὶ τῆς τύχης ὑπομνήματι βουλόμενος ἐναργῶς ὑποδεικνύναι τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τὸ ταύτης εὐμετάβολον, ἐπιστὰς ἐπὶ τοὺς κατʼ Ἀλέξανδρον καιρούς, ὅτε κατέλυσε τὴν Περσῶν ἀρχήν, λέγει ταῦτα· " εἰ γὰρ λάβοιτʼ ἐν νῷ μὴ χρόνον ἄπειρον μηδὲ γενεὰς πολλάς, ἀλλὰ πεντήκοντα μόνον ἔτη ταυτὶ τὰ πρὸ ἡμῶν, γνοίητʼ ἂν ὡς τὸ τῆς τύχης χαλεπὸν ἐνταῦθα.
For he, wishing in his treatise On Fortune to point out clearly to men its mutability, focusing on the times of Alexander, when he destroyed the empire of the Persians, says these words: “ For if you were to take into your mind not infinite time nor many generations, but only these fifty years before us, you would know the harshness of fortune therein.
πεντηκοστῷ γὰρ ἔτει πρότερον οἴεσθʼ ἂν2 ἢ Πέρσας ἢ βασιλέα τῶν Περσῶν ἢ Μακεδόνας ἢ βασιλέα τῶν Μακεδόνων, εἴ τις θεῶν αὐτοῖς προύλεγε τὸ μέλλον, πιστεῦσαί ποτʼ ἂν ὡς εἰς τοῦτον τὸν καιρὸν Περσῶν μὲν οὐδʼ ὄνομα λειφθήσεται τὸ παράπαν, οἳ πάσης σχεδὸν τῆς οἰκουμένης ἐδέσποζον, Μακεδόνες δὲ καὶ πάσης κρατήσουσιν, ὧν οὐδʼ ὄνομα πρότερον ἦν γνώριμον . ἀλλʼ ὅμως ἡ πρὸς τὸν βίον ἡμῶν ἀσύνθετος τύχη καὶ πάντα παρὰ τὸν λογισμὸν τὸν ἡμέτερον καινοποιοῦσα καὶ τὴν αὑτῆς δύναμιν ἐν τοῖς παραδόξοις ἐνδεικυμένη καὶ νῦν, ὡς ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ, δείκνυσι πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις, Μακεδόνας εἰς τὴν Περσῶν εὐδαιμονίαν εἰσοικίσασα, διότι3 καὶ τούτοις ταῦτα τἀγαθὰ κέχρηκεν, ἕως ἂν ἄλλο τι βουλεύσηται περὶ αὐτῶν.
For fifty years earlier, do you think that either the Persians, or the king of the Persians, or the Macedonians, or the king of the Macedonians, if some god had foretold the future to them, would ever have believed that by this time not even the name of the Persians, who were masters of almost the whole inhabited world, would be left at all, while the Macedonians, whose name was not even known before, would rule over all? Nevertheless, Fortune, who makes no treaty with our life, and who innovates everything contrary to our calculation, and who demonstrates her own power in unexpected events, even now, as it seems to me, shows to all men— having settled the Macedonians into the prosperity of the Persians—that she has only lent these good things to them also, until she decides something else concerning them.”
" ὃ νῦν γέγονε κατὰ Περσέα. ταῦτα μὲν οὖν Δημήτριος ὡσανεὶ θείῳ τινὶ στόματι περὶ τοῦ μέλλοντος ἀποπεφοίβακεν.
This has now happened in the case of Perseus. Thus Demetrius, as if with some divine mouth, prophesied concerning the future.
ἐγὼ δὲ κατὰ τὴν γραφὴν ἐπιστὰς τοῖς καιροῖς καθʼ οὓς συνέβη καταλυθῆναι τὴν Μακεδόνων βασιλείαν, οὐκ ἔκρινον ἀνεπιστάτως παραδραμεῖν, ἅτε γεγονὼς αὐτόπτης τῆς πράξεως, ἀλλʼ αὐτός τε τὸν πρέποντα λόγον ἐπιφθέγξασθαι καὶ Δημητρίου μνησθῆναι·
And I, focusing in my writing on the times in which it happened that the kingdom of the Macedonians was destroyed, did not think it right to pass by without attention, since I had been an eyewitness of the event, but rather to utter the appropriate words myself and to make mention of Demetrius;
δοκεῖ γάρ μοι θειοτέραν ἢ κατʼ ἄνθρωπον τὴν ἀπόφασιν ποιήσασθαι σχεδὸν γὰρ ἑκατὸν καὶ πεντήκοντα πρότερον ἔτεσι τἀληθὲς ἀπεφήνατο περὶ τῶν ἔπειτα συμβησομένων.
for it seems to me that he made an utterance more divine than human, since almost one hundred and fifty years earlier he declared the truth about what was going to happen afterwards.
- 29.21.1ὥστε... μνημονεύειν
Infinitival clause introduced by ὥστε expressing result. Following the preceding statement about the difference in how foolish and wise men learn lessons, it marks a natural consequence: "with the result that one often recalls...".
- 29.21.4οἴεσθʼ ἂν ... πιστεῦσαί ποτʼ ἂν
Double use of ἄν (οἴεσθε ἄν ... πιστεῦσαι ἄν). The infinitive πιστεῦσαι depends on οἴεσθε, and with ἄν it represents an apodosis of a past contrary-to-fact condition (with the protasis introduced by εἰ... προύλεγε). The first ἄν with the main verb anticipates the second ἄν with the infinitive.
- 29.21.6διότι
In Hellenistic Greek (such as Polybius), διότι often functions not only as a causal conjunction ("because") but also as a declarative conjunction ("that"), equivalent to ὅτι. Here it introduces the object clause of the main verb δείκνυσι ("shows that...").