General Summary and Scope of the Complete Work — Polybius, The Histories Book 39 (39.8.1–39.8.8), Greek & English

§39.8.1

ὅτι ὁ Πολύβιός φησι κατὰ τὸ τέλος τῆς συγγραφῆς· ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ἡμεῖς καταπράξαντες ἐκ τῆς Ῥώμης ἐπανήλθομεν, ὡσανεὶ κεφάλαιά τινα τῶν προπεπολιτευμένων κατειργασμένοι,¹ χάριν ἀξίαν² τῆς πρὸς Ῥωμαίους εὐνοίας.

That Polybius says at the end of his work: “We, therefore, having accomplished these things, returned from Rome, having achieved as it were some main results of our previous political career, a worthy return for our goodwill toward the Romans.

§39.8.2

διὸ καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς θεοῖς εὐχὰς ποιούμεθα τὸ λοιπὸν μέρος τῆς ζωῆς ἐν τούτοις καὶ ἐπὶ τούτων διαμεῖναι, θεωροῦντες τὴν τύχην ὡς ἔστιν ἀγαθὴ φθονῆσαι³ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις καὶ μάλιστα κατὰ τοῦτο τὸ μέρος ἰσχύει καθʼ ὅ τις ἂν δοκῇ μάλιστα μακαρίζεσθαι καὶ κατορθοῦν ἐν τῷ βίῳ. καὶ ταῦτα μὲν οὕτω γενέσθαι συνέπεσεν·

For which reason we pray to all the gods that we may remain for the rest of our life in and under these conditions, seeing how fortune is apt to envy mankind, and how she shows her power especially in that part of life in which one seems to be most blessed and successful.” And it happened that these things indeed came to pass in this way.

§39.8.3

ἡμεῖς δὲ παραγεγονότες ἐπὶ τὸ τέρμα τῆς ὅλης πραγματείας βουλόμεθα, προσαναμνήσαντες τῆς ἀρχῆς καὶ τῆς προεκθέσεως ἧς ἐποιησάμεθα καταβαλόμενοι τὴν ἱστορίαν, συγκεφαλαιώσασθαι τὴν ὅλην ὑπόθεσιν, οἰκειώσαντες τὴν ἀρχὴν τῷ τέλει καὶ καθόλου καὶ κατὰ μέρος.

But having arrived at the end of our entire work, we wish, by recalling to mind the beginning and the preliminary statement which we made when laying the foundations of our history, to sum up the whole subject, connecting the beginning with the end both as a whole and in detail.

§39.8.4

ἐξεθέμεθα τοιγαροῦν ἐν ἀρχαῖς ὅτι τῆς μὲν προκατασκευῆς ποιησόμεθα τὴν ἀρχὴν ἀφʼ ὧν Τίμαιος ἀπέλιπεν·

We set forth, then, at the beginning, that we would make the start of our preparatory narrative from where Timaeus left off;

§39.8.5

ἐπιδραμόντες δὲ κεφαλαιωδῶς τὰς κατὰ τὴν Ἰταλίαν καὶ Σικελίαν καὶ Λιβύην πράξεις, ἐπειδὴ περὶ μόνων τῶν τόπων τούτων κἀκεῖνος πεποίηται τὴν ἱστορίαν, ὅτʼ ἀνήλθομεν ἐπὶ τοὺς χρόνους, ἐν οἷς Ἀννίβας μὲν παρέλαβε τὰς Καρχηδόνος δυνάμεις, ὁ δὲ Δημητρίου Φίλιππος τὴν ἐν Μακεδονίᾳ βασιλείαν, Κλεομένης δʼ ὁ Σπαρτιάτης ἔφυγεν ἐκ τῆς Ἑλλάδος, ἅμα δὲ τούτοις Ἀντίοχος μὲν τὴν ἐν τῇ Συρίᾳ βασιλείαν διεδέδεκτο, Πτολεμαῖος δὲ τὴν κατʼ Αἴγυπτον ὁ κληθεὶς Φιλοπάτωρ, ἐπηγγειλάμεθα⁴ διότι πάλιν ἀπὸ τούτων τῶν καιρῶν ἀρξάμενοι καθʼ οὓς ἦν ὀλυμπιὰς ἐνάτη καὶ τριακοστὴ πρὸς ταῖς ἑκατόν, διέξιμεν τὰς κοινὰς τῆς οἰκουμένης πράξεις, περιγράφοντες κατʼ ὀλυμπιάδας καὶ διαιροῦντες κατʼ ἔτος καὶ συγκρίνοντες ἐκ παραβολῆς τὰς καταλλήλους ἕως τῆς Καρχηδόνος ἁλώσεως καὶ τῆς Ἀχαιῶν καὶ Ῥωμαίων περὶ τὸν Ἰσθμὸν μάχης, ἔτι δὲ τῆς ἐπιγενομένης ἐκ τούτων ἀποκαταστάσεως περὶ τοὺς Ἕλληνας.

and having run over in a summary fashion the events in Italy, Sicily, and Libya, since he too had written his history only about these places, when we arrived at the times in which Hannibal took over the forces of Carthage, Philip the son of Demetrius the kingdom of Macedonia, and Cleomenes of Sparta fled from Greece, and at the same time Antiochus succeeded to the kingdom in Syria, and Ptolemy called Philopator to that in Egypt, we promised that, starting again from these times, in which fell the hundred and thirty-ninth Olympiad, we would relate the general history of the world, marking it out by Olympiads, dividing it by years, and comparing parallel events, down to the fall of Carthage and the battle of the Achaeans and Romans at the Isthmus, and also the subsequent settlement established among the Greeks.

§39.8.7

ἐξ ὧν τὸ κάλλιστον ἔφαμεν, ἅμα δʼ ὠφελιμώτατον περιγενέσθαι τοῖς φιλομαθοῦσι· τοῦτο δʼ ἦν τὸ γνῶναι πῶς καὶ τίνι γένει πολιτείας ἐπικρατηθέντα σχεδὸν ἅπαντα τὰ κατὰ τὴν οἰκουμένην ὑπὸ μίαν ἀρχὴν ἔπεσε τὴν Ῥωμαίων, ὃ πρότερον οὐχ εὑρίσκεται γεγονός.

From which we said that the finest and at the same time most useful result would be obtained for those who love knowledge; and this was to learn how and under what kind of constitution almost all the inhabited world was conquered and fell under the single rule of the Romans, a thing which is not found to have happened before.

§39.8.8

τούτων δὴ πάντων ἡμῖν ἐπιτετελεσμένων λείπεται διασαφῆσαι τοὺς χρόνους τοὺς περιειλημμένους ὑπὸ τῆς ἱστορίας καὶ τὸ πλῆθος τῶν βύβλων καὶ τὸν ἀριθμὸν τῆς ὅλης πραγματείας.

Now that all these things have been accomplished by us, it remains to make clear the times embraced by the history, the number of books, and the total count of the entire work.

Syntax notes4 items

39.8.1ὡσανεὶ ... κατειργασμένοι
A perfect middle-passive participle accompanied by "ὡσανεί" (as if), agreeing with the subject of the main clause "ἡμεῖς" (we), functioning as a circumstantial participle to describe their mental state or status upon their return.
39.8.1χάριν ἀξίαν
An accusative noun phrase meaning "return" or "recompense" in this context, functioning in apposition to the action expressed by the preceding participle clause (accusative of apposition).
39.8.2ὡς ἔστιν ἀγαθὴ φθονῆσαι
The adjective "ἀγαθή" is followed by a limiting infinitive "φθονῆσαι", expressing a tendency or inclination ("apt to envy"). Furthermore, the object of the main verb, "τὴν τύχην", is attracted into the main clause from the "ὡς" clause as its logical subject (prolepsis).
39.8.5ἐπιδραμόντες ... ἐπηγγειλάμεθα
The grammatical structure starting with the participle "ἐπιδραμόντες" in §39.8.5, followed by a long temporal clause starting with "ὅτʼ ἀνήλθομεν", finally resolves to the main verb "ἐπηγγειλάμεθα" in §39.8.6. The backbone of the structure is "when we arrived at the times... we promised."

Translated by Gemini 3.5 Flash (published 2026-05-25) · Revision history (1, latest 2026-10-09)

2026-10-09 Collated with the printed edition — source 1

urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0543.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:39.8.1-39.8.8