- 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-grc2:5.32.1-5.32.5
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-09
The author quotes the proverb "the beginning is half of the whole," but argues that in historical writing, the beginning is even more crucial because it influences the entire course up to the end.
τατον. οἱ μὲν γὰρ ἀρχαῖοι τὴν ἀρχὴν ἥμισυ τοῦ παντὸς εἶναι φάσκοντες μεγίστην παρῄνουν ποιεῖσθαι σπουδὴν ἐν ἑκάστοις ὑπὲρ τοῦ καλῶς ἄρξασθαι·
-t. For the ancients, asserting that the beginning is half of the whole, exhorted us to take the greatest care in every matter to make a good beginning.
δοκοῦντες1 δὴ λέγειν ὑπερβολικῶς ἐλλιπέστερόν μοι φαίνονται τῆς ἀληθείας εἰρηκέναι. θαρρῶν γὰρ ἄν τις εἴπειεν οὐχ ἥμισυ τὴν ἀρχὴν εἶναι τοῦ παντός, ἀλλὰ καὶ πρὸς τὸ τέλος διατείνειν.
Indeed, while they seem to speak hyperbolically, they appear to me to have fallen short of the truth. For one might confidently assert that the beginning is not merely half of the whole, but that it reaches even to the end.
πῶς γὰρ ἄρξασθαί τινος καλῶς οἷόν τε μὴ προπεριλαβόντα2 τῷ νῷ τὴν συντέλειαν τῆς ἐπιβολῆς μηδὲ γινώσκοντα ποῦ καὶ πρὸς τί καὶ τίνος χάριν ἐπιβάλλεται τοῦτο ποιεῖν;
For how is it possible to make a good beginning of anything without having first grasped in the mind the completion of the undertaking, and without knowing where, to what, and for what purpose one is setting about to do this?
πῶς δὲ πάλιν οἷόν τε συγκεφαλαιώσασθαι πράγματα δεόντως μὴ συναναφέροντα τὴν ἀρχὴν πόθεν ἢ πῶς ἢ διὰ τί πρὸς τὰς ἐνεστώσας ἀφῖκται πράξεις;
And on the other hand, how is it possible to summarize events properly without referring them back to the beginning, showing from what source, how, or why they have arrived at the present situation?
διόπερ οὐχ ἕως τοῦ μέσου νομίζοντας διατείνειν τὰς ἀρχάς, ἀλλʼ ἕως τοῦ τέλους, πλείστην περὶ ταύτας ποιητέον σπουδὴν καὶ τοὺς λέγοντας3 καὶ τοὺς ἀκούοντας περὶ τῶν ὅλων. ὃ δὴ καὶ νῦν ἡμεῖς πειρασόμεθα ποιεῖν.
Therefore, in the belief that beginnings extend not merely to the middle but to the very end, both those who write and those who read general history must pay the greatest attention to them. This is precisely what we shall now endeavor to do.
- 5.32.2δοκοῦντες
Nominative masculine plural participle agreeing with the subject of φαίνονται, which refers back to οἱ ἀρχαῖοι. It has a concessive force here ('although they seem...').
- 5.32.3μὴ προπεριλαβόντα
Accusative masculine singular participle. It agrees with an implied indefinite subject (τινά) of the infinitive ἄρξασθαι after the impersonal construction οἷόν τε [ἐστί].
- 5.32.5ποιητέον ... καὶ τοὺς λέγοντας
An impersonal construction with the verbal adjective ποιητέον (neuter singular). The agents are expressed in the accusative (the participles beginning with καὶ τοὺς λέγοντας), which is a common alternative in Hellenistic Greek to the classical dative of agent.