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Thucydides · History of the Peloponnesian War §3.111.1-3.111.4

Secret Retreat of Peloponnesians and Slaughter of Ambraciots

Passage 360 of 917 · Greek

Summary

Under the secret treaty, the Peloponnesians and Mantineans quietly begin their retreat, but the Ambraciots attempt to follow them, leading to a slaughter of the Ambraciots by the Acarnanians.

§3.111.1ἐν τούτῳ δ’ οἱ Μαντινῆς καὶ οἷς ἔσπειστο πρόφασιν ἐπὶ λαχανισμὸν καὶ φρυγάνων ξυλλογὴν ἐξελθόντες ὑπαπῇσαν κατ’ ὀλίγους, ἅμα ξυλλέγοντες ἐφ’ ἃ ἐξῆλθον δῆθεν·
In the meantime, the Mantineans and those with whom the treaty had been made, going out under the pretext of gathering herbs and collecting firewood, began to slip away in small groups, pretending to collect the very things for which they had gone out.
προκεχωρηκότες δὲ ἤδη ἄπωθεν τῆς Ὄλπης θᾶσσον ἀπεχώρουν.
When they had already advanced some distance from Olpae, they began to retreat more rapidly.
§3.111.2οἱ δ’ Ἀμπρακιῶται καὶ οἱ ἄλλοι, ὅσοι † μὲν ἐτύγχανον οὕτως † ἁθρόοι ξυνεξελθόντες, ὡς ἔγνωσαν ἀπιόντας, ὥρμησαν καὶ αὐτοὶ καὶ ἔθεον δρόμῳ, ἐπικαταλαβεῖν βουλόμενοι.
The Ambraciots and the others, as many of them as happened to have gone out together in a body, when they realized that they were departing, also started off and ran at full speed, wishing to overtake them.
§3.111.3οἱ δὲ Ἀκαρνᾶνες τὸ μὲν πρῶτον καὶ πάντας ἐνόμισαν ἀπιέναι ἀσπόνδους ὁμοίως καὶ τοὺς Πελοποννησίους ἐπεδίωκον, καί τινας αὐτῶν τῶν στρατηγῶν κωλύοντας καὶ φάσκοντας ἐσπεῖσθαι αὐτοῖς ἠκόντισέ τις, νομίσας καταπροδίδοσθαι σφᾶς·
At first, the Acarnanians thought that all of them alike were departing without a treaty, and they pursued the Peloponnesians as well. Some of their own generals who tried to stop them and said that a treaty had been made with them, were even struck with javelins by some who thought they were being betrayed.
ἔπειτα μέντοι τοὺς μὲν Μαντινέας καὶ τοὺς Πελοποννησίους ἀφίεσαν, τοὺς δ’ Ἀμπρακιώτας ἔκτεινον.
Afterwards, however, they let the Mantineans and the Peloponnesians go, but slaughtered the Ambraciots.
§3.111.4καὶ ἦν πολλὴ ἔρις καὶ ἄγνοια εἴτε Ἀμπρακιώτης τίς ἐστιν εἴτε Πελοποννήσιος.
There was much dispute and difficulty in knowing whether a man was an Ambraciot or a Peloponnesian.
καὶ ἐς διακοσίους μέν τινας αὐτῶν ἀπέκτειναν· οἱ δ’ ἄλλοι διέφυγον ἐς τὴν Ἀγραΐδα ὅμορον οὖσαν, καὶ Σαλύνθιος αὐτοὺς ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν Ἀγραίων φίλος ὢν ὑπεδέξατο.
And they killed about two hundred of them; the rest escaped to Agraea, which is a bordering territory, and Salynthius, the king of the Agraeans, who was their friend, received them.

Notes

  1. §3.111.1οἷς ἔσπειστο — The antecedent ἐκείνοις of the relative pronoun οἷς in the dative is omitted. ἔσπειστο is the third-person singular pluperfect passive of σπένδω used impersonally, meaning 'a treaty had been made (with whom)'.
  2. §3.111.1πρόφασιν — Adverbial accusative of the noun πρόφασις ('under the pretext of', 'ostensibly'), modifying the participle ἐξελθόντες.
  3. §3.111.3τινας αὐτῶν τῶν στρατηγῶν — Direct object of the verb ἠκόντισε ('hurled a javelin', whose subject is the singular τις 'someone'). αὐτῶν τῶν στρατηγῶν is a partitive genitive referring to the Acarnanians' own generals, modifying τινας ('some'). The participles κωλύοντας καὶ φάσκοντας ('preventing and asserting') agree with this object in gender, number, and case.
  4. §3.111.3καταπροδίδοσθαι σφᾶς — Complementary infinitive clause after the participle νομίσας. σφᾶς is the third-person plural indirect reflexive pronoun acting as the subject of the present passive infinitive καταπροδίδοσθαι, referring back to the main subject (the Acarnanians, or those who threw the javelins), meaning 'that they themselves were being betrayed'.

Cite this passage

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War §3.111.1-3.111.4. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0003.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:3.111.1-3.111.4

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