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Thucydides · History of the Peloponnesian War §3.34.1-3.34.4

Paches Recaptures Notion and Kills Hippias

Passage 283 of 917 · Greek

Summary

Paches touches at Notion, where he intervenes in a factional strife by treacherously capturing and executing the mercenary commander Hippias. He restores Notion to the Colophonians excluding the Persian faction, and Athens later recolonizes it.

§3.34.1παραπλέων δὲ πάλιν ἔσχε καὶ ἐς Νότιον τὸ Κολοφωνίων, οὗ κατῴκηντο Κολοφώνιοι τῆς ἄνω πόλεως ἑαλωκυίας ὑπὸ Ἰταμάνους καὶ τῶν βαρβάρων κατὰ στάσιν ἰδίαν ἐπαχθέντων·
Sailing back along the coast, Paches touched also at Notion, the port of the Colophonians, where the Colophonians had settled because the upper city had been captured by Itamanes and the barbarians, who had been brought in owing to a private factional strife.
ἑάλω δὲ μάλιστα αὕτη ὅτε ἡ δευτέρα Πελοποννησίων ἐσβολὴ ἐς τὴν Ἀττικὴν ἐγίγνετο.
This upper city had been captured chiefly at the time when the second Peloponnesian invasion of Attica was taking place.
§3.34.2ἐν οὖν τῷ Νοτίῳ οἱ καταφυγόντες καὶ κατοικήσαντες αὐτόθι αὖθις στασιάσαντες, οἱ μὲν παρὰ Πισσούθνου ἐπικούρους Ἀρκάδων τε καὶ τῶν βαρβάρων ἐπαγαγόμενοι ἐν διατειχίσματι εἶχον, καὶ τῶν ἐκ τῆς ἄνω πόλεως Κολοφωνίων οἱ μηδίσαντες ξυνεσελθόντες ἐπολίτευον, οἱ δὲ ὑπεξελθόντες τούτους καὶ ὄντες φυγάδες τὸν Πάχητα ἐπάγονται.
Now, those who had fled to Notion and settled there fell into factional strife once more. One party, having brought in mercenary auxiliaries of Arcadians and barbarians from Pissuthnes, held them in a fortified quarter separated by a wall, and those of the Colophonians from the upper city who were of the Persian party joined them and shared in the government; while the other party, who had withdrawn from these and were in exile, brought in Paches.
§3.34.3ὁ δὲ προκαλεσάμενος ἐς λόγους Ἱππίαν τῶν ἐν τῷ διατειχίσματι Ἀρκάδων ἄρχοντα, ὥστε, ἢν μηδὲν ἀρέσκον λέγῃ, πάλιν αὐτὸν καταστήσειν ἐς τὸ τεῖχος σῶν καὶ ὑγιᾶ, ὁ μὲν ἐξῆλθε παρ’ αὐτόν, ὁ δ’ ἐκεῖνον μὲν ἐν φυλακῇ ἀδέσμῳ εἶχεν, αὐτὸς δὲ προσβαλὼν τῷ τειχίσματι ἐξαπιναίως καὶ οὐ προσδεχομένων αἱρεῖ, τούς τε Ἀρκάδας καὶ τῶν βαρβάρων ὅσοι ἐνῆσαν διαφθείρει·
He, having invited Hippias, the commander of the Arcadians in the fortified quarter, to a parley on the condition that, if they should agree on nothing to his liking, he would restore him safe and sound to the wall, Hippias went out to him. But Paches kept him under guard without bonds, and himself making a sudden attack on the fortified quarter when they were not expecting it, captured it, and put to death all the Arcadians and barbarians who were inside.
καὶ τὸν Ἱππίαν ὕστερον ἐσαγαγὼν ὥσπερ ἐσπείσατο, ἐπειδὴ ἔνδον ἦν, ξυλλαμβάνει καὶ κατατοξεύει.
Afterward, having conducted Hippias inside, as he had agreed to do, as soon as he was within, he seized him and shot him down with arrows.
§3.34.4Κολοφωνίοις δὲ Νότιον παραδίδωσι πλὴν τῶν μηδισάντων.
Paches then delivered Notion to the Colophonians, except for those of the Persian party.
καὶ ὕστερον Ἀθηναῖοι οἰκιστὰς πέμψαντες κατὰ τοὺς ἑαυτῶν νόμους κατῴκισαν τὸ Νότιον, ξυναγαγόντες πάντας ἐκ τῶν πόλεων, εἴ πού τις ἦν Κολοφωνίων.
Later on, the Athenians sent out founders and colonized Notion according to their own laws, having gathered together all the Colophonians from the various cities wherever any were to be found.

Notes

  1. 3.34.1τῆς ἄνω πόλεως ἑαλωκυίας — A genitive absolute construction expressing cause. The agent is expressed by ὑπὸ Ἰταμάνους (with the accusative instead of the usual genitive), and this is conjoined with τῶν βαρβάρων ... ἐπαχθέντων, where the genitive participle modifies 'the barbarians.'
  2. 3.34.2οἱ καταφυγόντες καὶ κατοικήσαντες αὐτόθι αὖθις στασιάσαντες — An anacoluthon (broken construction) where a nominative participle phrase is placed at the beginning of the sentence but, instead of leading to a single main verb, splits into the contrasting subjects οἱ μὲν ... οἱ δὲ ... .
  3. 3.34.3ὥστε, ἢν μηδὲν ἀρέσκον λέγῃ, πάλιν αὐτὸν καταστήσειν — The conjunction ὥστε followed by the future infinitive καταστήσειν expresses not a result but a condition or covenant ('on the condition that...'). The subject of the embedded conditional clause ἢν μηδὲν ἀρέσκον λέγῃ is Paches, meaning 'if he (Paches) should say nothing to his (Hippias's) liking.'
  4. 3.34.3ὁ δὲ προκαλεσάμενος ... ὁ μὲν ἐξῆλθε ... ὁ δ' — A highly complex anacoluthon. The sentence begins with ὁ δὲ (Paches) as the subject, but because another main clause ὁ μὲν ἐξῆλθε (Hippias went out) is inserted midway, the initial subject is left without a verb and is picked up again with ὁ δ'.

Cite this passage

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War §3.34.1-3.34.4. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0003.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:3.34.1-3.34.4

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