- 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-grc2:9.34.1-9.34.11
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-07
The speaker defends the achievements of Alexander the Great and his successors, while retaliating by enumerating the opponents' past impious deeds, such as plundering temples and breaking treaties.
πάλιν Ἀλεξάνδρῳ διότι μὲν ἀδικεῖσθαι δόξας τὴν Θηβαίων πόλιν ἐκόλασε, τοῦτο πικρῶς ὠνείδισας,1 ὅτι δὲ τιμωρίαν ἔλαβε παρὰ τῶν Περσῶν ὑπὲρ τῆς εἰς ἅπαντας τοὺς Ἕλληνας ὕβρεως, οὐκ ἐποιήσω μνήμην, οὐδὲ διότι μεγάλων κακῶν κοινῇ πάντας ἡμᾶς ἔλυσε, καταδουλωσάμενος τοὺς βαρβάρους καὶ παρελόμενος αὐτῶν τὰς χορηγίας, αἷς ἐκεῖνοι χρώμενοι κατέφθειραν τοὺς Ἕλληνας, ποτὲ μὲν Ἀθηναίους καὶ τοὺς τούτων προγόνους ἀγωνοθετοῦντες καὶ συμβάλλοντες,2 ποτὲ δὲ Θηβαίους, καὶ τέλος ὑπήκοον ἐποίησε τὴν Ἀσίαν τοῖς Ἕλλησι.
Again, you bitterly reproached Alexander with this, namely that, thinking himself wronged, he punished the city of the Thebans; but of the fact that he exacted vengeance from the Persians for their outrage against all the Greeks, you made no mention; nor that he delivered all of us in common from great evils by subjugating the barbarians and depriving them of their resources, using which they were ruining the Greeks, sometimes staging contests for and setting in conflict the Athenians and their ancestors, sometimes the Thebans, and finally made Asia subject to the Greeks.
περὶ δὲ τῶν διαδεξαμένων πῶς καὶ τολμᾶτε μνημονεύειν; ἐκεῖνοι γὰρ κατὰ τὰς τῶν καιρῶν περιστάσεις οἷς μὲν ἀγαθῶν οἷς δὲ κακῶν ἐγίνοντο παραίτιοι πολλάκις· περὶ ὧν τοῖς μὲν ἄλλοις ἴσως ἂν ἐξείη μνησικακεῖν, ὑμῖν δʼ οὐδαμῶς καθήκει τοῦτο ποιεῖν τοῖς ἀγαθοῦ μὲν μηδενὶ μηδενὸς παραιτίοις γεγονόσι, κακῶν δὲ πολλοῖς καὶ πολλάκις.
But concerning his successors, how do you even dare to make mention? For they, according to the circumstances of the times, often became the partial causes, to some of good things, to others of evils; concerning which things, for others it might perhaps be permitted to bear a grudge, but for you it is by no means fitting to do this, who have been the cause of no good thing to anyone, but of many evils to many people and many times.
ἐπεὶ τίνες οἱ τὸν Ἀντίγονον εἰσὶ τὸν Δημητρίου παρακαλέσαντες ἐπὶ διαιρέσει τοῦ τῶν Ἀχαιῶν ἔθνους;
For who are those who invited Antigonus, the son of Demetrius, for the division of the Achaean nation?
τίνες δʼ οἱ πρὸς τὸν Ἀλέξανδρον τὸν Ἠπειρώτην ὅρκους ποιησάμενοι καὶ συνθήκας ἐπʼ ἐξανδραποδισμῷ καὶ μερισμῷ τῆς Ἀκαρνανίας;
And who are those who made oaths and treaties with Alexander of Epirus for the enslavement and division of Acarnania?
οὐχ ὑμεῖς; τίνες δὲ κατὰ κοινὸν τοιούτους ἡγεμόνας ἐξέπεμψαν οἵους ὑμεῖς; οἵ γε καὶ τοῖς ἀσύλοις ἱεροῖς ἐτόλμησαν προσάγειν τὰς χεῖρας.
Was it not you? And who collectively sent out such commanders as you did? Who dared to lay hands even upon inviolable sanctuaries.
ὧν Τίμαιος μὲν τό τʼ ἐπὶ Ταινάρῳ τοῦ Ποσειδῶνος καὶ τὸ τῆς ἐν Λούσοις ἱερὸν Ἀρτέμιδος ἐσύλησε, Φάρυκος δὲ καὶ Πολύκριτος, ὁ μὲν τὸ τῆς Ἥρας ἐν Ἄργει τέμενος, ὁ δὲ τὸ τοῦ Ποσειδῶνος ἐν Μαντινείᾳ διήρπασε.
Of whom Timaeus plundered the temple of Poseidon at Taenarum and that of Artemis at Lusi, and Pharycus and Polycritus: the former pillaged the precinct of Hera at Argos, and the latter that of Poseidon at Mantinea.
τί δαὶ Λάτταβος καὶ Νικόστρατος; οὐ τὴν τῶν Παμβοιωτίων πανήγυριν εἰρήνης οὔσης παρεσπόνδησαν, Σκυθῶν ἔργα καὶ Γαλατῶν ἐπιτελοῦντες; ὧν οὐδὲν πέπρακται τοῖς διαδεξαμένοις.3
What indeed of Lattabus and Nicostratus? Did they not violate the treaty at the festival of the Pamboeotians during a time of peace, performing deeds worthy of Scythians and Galatians? None of which things has been done by the successors.
- 9.34.1Ἀλεξάνδρῳ ... ὠνείδισας
The syntax of ὀνειδίζω (to reproach): it takes the person reproached in the dative (Ἀλεξάνδρῳ) and the thing reproached in the accusative (τοῦτο). Here, the accusative pronoun τοῦτο is further apposed by the causal διότι clause.
- 9.34.3ἀγωνοθετοῦντες καὶ συμβάλλοντες
Nominative plural participles agreeing with ἐκεῖνοι (the Persians), which is the subject of the relative clause αἷς ἐκεῖνοι χρώμενοι... Although ἀγωνοθετέω literally means 'to act as a president in games,' here it refers to the political intervention of staging conflicts among Greek cities. Along with συμβάλλω (to set in conflict), it describes the Persian method of ruining the Greeks by using their resources to divide them.
- 9.34.11τοῖς διαδεξαμένοις
A 'dative of agent' accompanying the perfect passive verb πέπρακται. This is a typical classical usage where the agent is expressed in the dative rather than by ὑπό with the genitive.