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Thucydides · History of the Peloponnesian War §1.115.1-1.115.5

Thirty Years' Peace and the Revolt of Samos

Passage 115 of 917 · Greek

Summary

The Athenians conclude a thirty years' treaty with the Lacedaemonians, restoring territories. Later, they intervene in a dispute between Samos and Miletus, establishing a democracy in Samos, which is soon overthrown by Samian exiles with Persian support.

§1.115.1ἀναχωρήσαντες δὲ ἀπ’ Εὐβοίας οὐ πολλῷ ὕστερον σπονδὰς ἐποιήσαντο πρὸς Λακεδαιμονίους καὶ τοὺς ξυμμάχους τριακοντούτεις, ἀποδόντες Νίσαιαν καὶ Πηγὰς καὶ Τροιζῆνα καὶ Ἀχαΐαν· ταῦτα γὰρ εἶχον Ἀθηναῖοι Πελοποννησίων. §1.115.2ἕκτῳ δὲ ἔτει Σαμίοις καὶ Μιλησίοις πόλεμος ἐγένετο περὶ Πριήνης, καὶ οἱ Μιλήσιοι ἐλασσούμενοι τῷ πολέμῳ παρ’ Ἀθηναίους ἐλθόντες κατεβόων τῶν Σαμίων.
\nAfter returning from Euboea, not long afterwards they made a thirty years' treaty with the Lacedaemonians and their allies, giving up Nisaea, Pegae, Troezen, and Achaea; for these the Athenians had held from the Peloponnesians.\n\nIn the sixth year, a war broke out between the Samians and the Milesians over Priene. The Milesians, getting the worst of the war, came to the Athenians and cried out against the Samians.
ξυνεπελάβοντο δὲ καὶ ἐξ αὐτῆς τῆς Σάμου ἄνδρες ἰδιῶται νεωτερίσαι βουλόμενοι τὴν πολιτείαν. §1.115.3πλεύσαντες οὖν Ἀθηναῖοι ἐς Σάμον ναυσὶ τεσσαράκοντα δημοκρατίαν κατέστησαν, καὶ ὁμήρους ἔλαβον τῶν Σαμίων πεντήκοντα μὲν παῖδας, ἴσους δὲ ἄνδρας, καὶ κατέθεντο ἐς Λῆμνον, καὶ φρουρὰν ἐγκαταλιπόντες ἀνεχώρησαν. §1.115.4τῶν δὲ Σαμίων ἦσαν γάρ τινες οἳ οὐχ ὑπέμειναν, ἀλλ’ ἔφυγον ἐς τὴν ἤπειρον, ξυνθέμενοι τῶν ἐν τῇ πόλει τοῖς δυνατωτάτοις καὶ Πισσούθνῃ τῷ Ὑστάσπου ξυμμαχίαν, ὃς εἶχε Σάρδεις τότε, ἐπικούρους τε ξυλλέξαντες ἐς ἑπτακοσίους διέβησαν ὑπὸ νύκτα ἐς τὴν Σάμον, §1.115.5καὶ πρῶτον μὲν τῷ δήμῳ ἐπανέστησαν καὶ ἐκράτησαν τῶν πλείστων, ἔπειτα τοὺς ὁμήρους ἐκκλέψαντες ἐκ Λήμνου τοὺς αὑτῶν ἀπέστησαν, καὶ τοὺς φρουροὺς τοὺς Ἀθηναίων καὶ τοὺς ἄρχοντας οἳ ἦσαν παρὰ σφίσιν ἐξέδοσαν Πισσούθνῃ, ἐπί τε Μίλητον εὐθὺς παρεσκευάζοντο στρατεύειν.
They were joined by certain private individuals from Samos itself, who wished to revolutionize the constitution.\n\nThe Athenians therefore sailed to Samos with forty ships and established a democracy; they also took fifty boys and as many men from the Samians as hostages, and deposited them in Lemnos, and after leaving a garrison there, they withdrew.\n\nBut some of the Samians did not submit, but fled to the mainland; having made an alliance with the most powerful of those left in the city, and with Pissuthnes son of Hystaspes, who then held Sardis, and having collected about seven hundred mercenaries, they crossed over by night to Samos.\n\nAnd first they rose against the commons and secured most of them; then they secretly rescued their hostages from Lemnos and declared their revolt, and delivered up to Pissuthnes the Athenian garrison and the officials who were among them; and they immediately prepared to make an expedition against Miletus.
ξυναπέστησαν δ’ αὐτοῖς καὶ Βυζάντιοι.
The Byzantines also revolted along with them.

Notes

  1. 1.115.1ἀποδόντες — The aorist participle ἀποδόντες expresses the condition or means under which the main verb ἐποιήσαντο (made a treaty) takes place ('by giving up' or 'on condition of restoring').
  2. 1.115.1Πελοποννησίων — An ablative genitive of separation, meaning 'from the Peloponnesians' (with εἶχον). Although it could be construed as a possessive genitive ('the property of the Peloponnesians'), the ablative sense indicating the source from which the Athenians had acquired these places is preferred.
  3. 1.115.4τῶν δὲ Σαμίων — A partitive genitive placed at the beginning of the sentence. While conceptually starting as 'of the Samians, some...', the insertion of the parenthetical γάρ-clause (ἦσαν γάρ τινες οἳ...) shifts the syntax, making the relative pronoun οἳ the functional subject of the subsequent participles like ξυνθέμενοι and the main verb διέβησαν.

Cite this passage

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War §1.115.1-1.115.5. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0003.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:1.115.1-1.115.5

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