- 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-grc2:3.32.1-3.32.10
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-11
The author explains that his universal history of forty books is much easier and more profitable to read than separate, partial histories, illustrating this with the organic connection of historical events.
ἧι1 καὶ τοὺς ὑπολαμβάνοντας δύσκτητον εἶναι καὶ δυσανάγνωστον τὴν ἡμετέραν πραγματείαν διὰ τὸ πλῆθος καὶ τὸ μέγεθος τῶν βύβλων ἀγνοεῖν νομιστέον.
Wherefore, those who suppose that our work is difficult to acquire and difficult to read because of the number and size of the books must be considered to be in error.
πόσῳ γὰρ ῥᾷόν ἐστι καὶ κτήσασθαι καὶ διαναγνῶναι βύβλους τετταράκοντα καθαπερανεὶ κατὰ μίτον ἐξυφασμένας καὶ παρακολουθῆσαι σαφῶς ταῖς μὲν κατὰ τὴν Ἰταλίαν καὶ Σικελίαν καὶ Λιβύην πράξεσιν ἀπὸ τῶν κατὰ Πύρρον [καὶ Τίμαιον συγγραφέων καὶ καιρῶν ἐξηγήσεως] εἰς τὴν Καρχηδόνος ἅλωσιν, ταῖς δὲ κατὰ τὴν ἄλλην οἰκουμένην ἀπὸ τῆς Κλεομένους τοῦ Σπαρτιάτου φυγῆς κατὰ τὸ συνεχὲς μέχρι τῆς Ἀχαιῶν καὶ Ῥωμαίων περὶ τὸν Ἰσθμὸν παρατάξεως, ἢ τὰς τῶν κατὰ μέρος γραφόντων συντάξεις ἀναγινώσκειν ἢ κτᾶσθαι;2
For how much easier is it both to acquire and read through forty books, woven together, as it were, along a single thread, and to follow clearly the events in Italy, Sicily, and Libya, from the times of Pyrrhus [and the writers after Timaeus and the exposition of their times] to the fall of Carthage, and the events in the rest of the inhabited world from the flight of Cleomenes the Spartan in continuous order until the battle of the Achaeans and Romans at the Isthmus, than to read or acquire the treatises of those who write of particular histories?
χωρὶς γὰρ τοῦ πολλαπλασίους αὐτὰς ὑπάρχειν τῶν ἡμετέρων ὑπομνημάτων, οὐδὲ καταλαβεῖν ἐξ αὐτῶν βεβαίως οὐδὲν οἷόν τε τοὺς ἀναγινώσκοντας, πρῶτον μὲν διὰ τὸ τοὺς πλείστους μὴ ταὐτὰ περὶ τῶν αὐτῶν γράφειν, εἶτα διὰ τὸ τὰς καταλλήλους τῶν πράξεων παραλείπειν, ὧν ἐκ παραθέσεως3 συνθεωρουμένων καὶ συγκρινομένων ἀλλοιοτέρας ἕκαστα τυγχάνει δοκιμασίας τῆς κατὰ μέρος διαλήψεως, τῶν δὲ κυριωτάτων μηδὲ ψαύειν αὐτοὺς δύνασθαι τὸ παράπαν.
For apart from the fact that those works are many times more numerous than our memoirs, it is not even possible for readers to grasp anything with certainty from them; first, because most of them do not write the same things about the same events, and secondly, because they omit the corresponding contemporary events, from the side-by-side contemplation and comparison of which each event receives a judgment very different from that of a partial view, while they are entirely unable even to touch upon the most important matters.
ἀκμὴν4 γάρ φαμεν ἀναγκαιότατα μέρη τῆς ἱστορίας εἶναι τά τʼ ἐπιγινόμενα τοῖς ἔργοις καὶ τὰ παρεπόμενα καὶ μάλιστα τὰ περὶ τὰς αἰτίας.
For we still maintain that the most necessary parts of history are the consequences of deeds, their accompaniments, and above all, those concerning their causes.
θεωροῦμεν δὲ τὸν μὲν Ἀντιοχικὸν πόλεμον ἐκ τοῦ Φιλιππικοῦ τὰς ἀφορμὰς εἰληφότα, τὸν δὲ Φιλιππικὸν ἐκ τοῦ κατʼ Ἀννίβαν, τὸν δʼ Ἀννιβιακὸν ἐκ τοῦ περὶ Σικελίαν, τὰ δὲ μεταξὺ τούτων πολλὰς καὶ ποικίλας ἐσχηκότα διαθέσεις, πάσας δὲ συννευούσας πρὸς τὴν αὐτὴν ὑπόθεσιν.
Indeed, we see that the war against Antiochus derived its starting points from the Macedonian war against Philip, the war against Philip from that against Hannibal, and the Hannibalic war from the war concerning Sicily, and the events between them had many and diverse characters, but all converged towards the same design.
ταῦτα δὴ πάντα διὰ μὲν τῶν γραφόντων καθόλου δυνατὸν ἐπιγνῶναι καὶ μαθεῖν, διὰ δὲ τῶν τοὺς πολέμους αὐτούς, οἷον τὸν Περσικὸν ἢ τὸν Φιλιππικόν, ἀδύνατον, εἰ μὴ καὶ5 τὰς παρατάξεις τις ἀναγινώσκων αὐτὰς ἐξ ὧν ἐκεῖνοι γράφουσιν ὑπολαμβάνει σαφῶς ἐπεγνωκέναι καὶ τὴν τοῦ πολέμου τοῦ σύμπαντος οἰκονομίαν καὶ διάθεσιν.
It is possible to recognize and learn all these things through those who write universal history, but through those who write of the wars themselves, such as the Persian or the Macedonian war, it is impossible— unless indeed someone, by reading merely the battles themselves from what those authors write, supposes that he has clearly understood both the organization and the disposition of the war as a whole.
ἀλλʼ οὐκ ἔστι τούτων οὐδέν, ἀλλʼ ὅσῳ διαφέρει τὸ μαθεῖν τοῦ μόνον ἀκοῦσαι, τοσούτῳ καὶ τὴν ἡμετέραν ἱστορίαν ὑπολαμβάνω διαφέρειν τῶν ἐπὶ μέρους συντάξεων.
But none of these things is so; rather, by as much as learning differs from mere hearing, by so much do I suppose our history differs from partial treatises.
- 3.32.1ἧι
Dative used adverbially. It shows the logical consequence from the preceding chapter, meaning "wherefore" or "thereby".
- 3.32.2πόσῳ γὰρ ῥᾷόν ἐστι … ἢ κτᾶσθαι;
A long comparative construction where ἢ ('than'), indicating the standard of comparison for the comparative ῥᾷόν, appears at the end of 3.32.3. It contrasts the former element (reading through forty books) with the latter (acquiring and reading the works of partial historians).
- 3.32.5ὧν ἐκ παραθέσεως
The relative pronoun ὧν has as its antecedent the preceding 'corresponding events' (τὰς καταλλήλους τῶν πράξεων). It functions practically as the subject of the following genitive absolute participle phrase (συνθεωρουμένων καὶ συγκρινομένων).
- 3.32.6ἀκμὴν
Accusative used adverbially. Here it is used in the sense of 'still' or 'even now', emphasizing the author's insistence on the importance of inquiring into causes in history.
- 3.32.9εἰ μὴ καί
Introducing a conditional clause 'unless indeed', but here, following the 'impossible (ἀδύνατον)' of the previous sentence, it presents an impossible assumption with a touch of irony or sarcasm.