- 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-grc2:32.16.1-32.16.5
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-12
Attalus dispatches his brother Athenaeus to Rome to report his defeat, but the Roman Senate initially suspects Attalus of preparing pretexts and believes Prusias's envoys, only later sending commissioners to investigate the situation.
ὅτι Ἄτταλος ἡττηθεὶς παρὰ Προυσίου, προχειρισάμενος Ἀθήναιον τὸν ἀδελφὸν ἐξαπέστειλε μετὰ τῶν περὶ τὸν Πόπλιον, διασαφήσοντα τῇ συγκλήτῳ τὸ γεγονός.
That Attalus, after being defeated by Prusias, appointed his brother Athenaeus and dispatched him together with Publius and his company, in order to clarify the event to the senate.
οἱ γὰρ ἐν τῇ Ῥώμῃ, τοῦ μὲν Ἀνδρονίκου παραγενομένου καὶ διασαφοῦντος τὰ περὶ τὴν πρώτην ἔφοδον τῶν πολεμίων, οὐ προσεῖχον, ἀλλʼ ὑπενόουν τὸν Ἄτταλον βουλόμενον αὐτὸν1 ἐπιβαλεῖν τῷ Προυσίᾳ τὰς χεῖρας προφάσεις προκατασκευάζεσθαι καὶ προκαταλαμβάνειν διαβολαῖς·
For those in Rome, when Andronicus arrived and clarified the details regarding the first incursion of the enemy, paid no attention to him, but suspected that Attalus, wishing himself to lay hands on Prusias, was preparing pretexts in advance and getting the start by means of calumnies;
ἅμα δὲ τοῦ τε Νικομήδους καὶ τῶν περὶ τὸν Ἀντίφιλον, τῶν παρὰ τοῦ Προυσίου πρεσβευτῶν, διαμαρτυρομένων μηδὲν εἶναι τούτων, ἔτι μᾶλλον ἠπιστεῖτο2 τὰ λεγόμενα περὶ τοῦ Προυσίου.
and at the same time, as Nicomedes and Antiphilus with his company—the ambassadors from Prusias—protested that there was no truth in these things, what was said about Prusias was disbelieved all the more.
μετὰ δέ τινα χρόνον ἐπιδιασαφουμένης τῆς πραγματείας, ἀμφιδοξήσασα περὶ τῶν προσπιπτόντων ἡ σύγκλητος ἐξαπέστειλε πρεσβευτὰς Λεύκιον Ἀπολήιον καὶ Γάιον Πετρώνιον τοὺς ἐπισκεψομένους πῶς ἔχει τὰ κατὰ τοὺς προειρημένους βασιλεῖς.
But after some time, as the affair became further clarified, the senate, being in doubt about the reports that kept coming in, dispatched Lucius Apuleius and Gaius Petronius as commissioners to inspect how matters stood with the aforementioned kings.
- 32.16.3βουλόμενον αὐτὸν
βουλόμενον is a participle agreeing with τὸν Ἄτταλον, which serves as the subject of the infinitive clause. αὐτὸν is an intensive pronoun ('himself') referring to Attalus. It emphasizes that Attalus himself, rather than anyone else, wished to act, contrasting with the main subject of the sentence.
- 32.16.4ἠπιστεῖτο
The third-person singular imperfect passive of ἀπιστέω (to disbelieve). Its subject is the neuter plural τὰ λεγόμενα (the things said), following the standard Greek grammatical rule (schema Atticum) where a neuter plural subject takes a singular verb. It has a passive meaning: 'what was being said was disbelieved even more.'