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Thucydides · History of the Peloponnesian War §1.127.1-1.127.3

Spartan Motive in Expelling the Curse: Pericles

Passage 127 of 917 · Greek

Summary

The text explains that the true motive of the Lacedaemonians in demanding the expulsion of the curse was to weaken or discredit Pericles, who was the most powerful advocate of war in Athens.

§1.127.1τοῦτο δὴ τὸ ἄγος οἱ Λακεδαιμόνιοι ἐκέλευον ἐλαύνειν δῆθεν τοῖς θεοῖς πρῶτον τιμωροῦντες, εἰδότες δὲ Περικλέα τὸν Ξανθίππου προσεχόμενον αὐτῷ κατὰ τὴν μητέρα καὶ νομίζοντες ἐκπεσόντος αὐτοῦ ῥᾷον 〈ἂν〉 σφίσι προχωρεῖν τὰ ἀπὸ τῶν Ἀθηναίων.
The Lacedaemonians ordered them to drive out this curse, ostensibly to avenge the gods first, but in reality because they knew that Pericles, the son of Xanthippus, was connected with it on his mother's side, and they thought that if he were banished, their affairs with the Athenians would proceed more easily for them.
§1.127.2οὐ μέντοι τοσοῦτον ἤλπιζον παθεῖν ἂν αὐτὸν τοῦτο ὅσον διαβολὴν οἴσειν αὐτῷ πρὸς τὴν πόλιν ὡς καὶ διὰ τὴν ἐκείνου ξυμφορὰν τὸ μέρος ἔσται ὁ πόλεμος.
They did not, however, expect so much that he would actually suffer this fate as that it would bring odium upon him in the eyes of the city, on the ground that the war would be partly due to his misfortune.
§1.127.3ὢν γὰρ δυνατώτατος τῶν καθ’ ἑαυτὸν καὶ ἄγων τὴν πολιτείαν ἠναντιοῦτο πάντα τοῖς Λακεδαιμονίοις, καὶ οὐκ εἴα ὑπείκειν, ἀλλ’ ἐς τὸν πόλεμον ὥρμα τοὺς Ἀθηναίους.
For, being the most powerful man of his time and leading the state, he opposed the Lacedaemonians in everything, and would not allow the Athenians to give way, but was urging them on to war.

Notes

  1. 1.127.1προσεχόμενον — A participle in the accusative agreeing with Περικλέα, serving as the supplementary participle after εἰδότες ('knowing that Pericles was connected...').
  2. 1.127.1ἐκπεσόντος αὐτοῦ — Genitive absolute expressing condition ('if he were banished'). The verb ἐκπίπτω serves as the passive of ἐκβάλλω, meaning 'to be banished'.
  3. 1.127.1προχωρεῖν — Infinitive of indirect discourse depending on νομίζοντες, with τὰ ἀπὸ τῶν Ἀθηναίων as its subject. Accompanied by the potential particle ἂν, it represents the apodosis of a conditional sentence ('would proceed').
  4. 1.127.2οἴσειν — Future infinitive depending on ἤλπιζον, standing in correlation with παθεῖν ἂν through the correlative construction οὐ τοσοῦτον ... ὅσον. The subject αὐτόν is understood from the previous clause.
  5. 1.127.2τὸ μέρος — Adverbial accusative meaning 'partly' or 'in part'.

Cite this passage

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War §1.127.1-1.127.3. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0003.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:1.127.1-1.127.3

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