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Thucydides · History of the Peloponnesian War §5.115.1-5.115.4

Skirmishes in Greece and the Melian Night Attack

Passage 615 of 917 · Greek

Summary

Describes the defeat of the Argive forces, the Athenian plunder from Pylos and Sparta's response, the Corinthian hostilities, and the Melians' successful night attack on the Athenian siege wall.

§5.115.1καὶ Ἀργεῖοι κατὰ τὸν χρόνον τὸν αὐτὸν ἐσβαλόντες ἐς τὴν Φλειασίαν καὶ λοχισθέντες ὑπό τε Φλειασίων καὶ τῶν σφετέρων φυγάδων διεφθάρησαν ὡς ὀγδοήκοντα.
About the same time, the Argives invaded Phliasia, but being ambushed by the Phliasians and their own exiles, they lost about eighty of their men.
§5.115.2καὶ οἱ ἐκ τῆς Πύλου Ἀθηναῖοι Λακεδαιμονίων πολλὴν λείαν ἔλαβον· καὶ Λακεδαιμόνιοι δι’ αὐτὸ τὰς μὲν σπονδὰς οὐδ’ ὣς ἀφέντες ἐπολέμουν αὐτοῖς, ἐκήρυξαν δὲ εἴ τις βούλεται παρὰ σφῶν Ἀθηναίους λῄζεσθαι.
And the Athenians from Pylos took much booty from the Lacedaemonians; yet even so, the Lacedaemonians did not renounce the treaty and make war upon them, but made a proclamation that if any of their people wished to plunder the Athenians, they might do so.
§5.115.3καὶ Κορίνθιοι ἐπολέμησαν ἰδίων τινῶν διαφορῶν ἕνεκα τοῖς Ἀθηναίοις· οἱ δ’ ἄλλοι Πελοποννήσιοι ἡσύχαζον.
The Corinthians also made war on the Athenians on account of certain private quarrels of their own; but the rest of the Peloponnesians remained quiet.
§5.115.4εἷλον δὲ καὶ οἱ Μήλιοι τῶν Ἀθηναίων τοῦ περιτειχίσματος τὸ κατὰ τὴν ἀγορὰν προσβαλόντες νυκτός, καὶ ἄνδρας τε ἀπέκτειναν καὶ ἐσενεγκάμενοι σῖτόν τε καὶ ὅσα πλεῖστα ἐδύναντο χρήσιμα ἀναχωρήσαντες ἡσύχαζον· καὶ οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι ἄμεινον τὴν φυλακὴν τὸ ἔπειτα παρεσκευάζοντο.
The Melians too, attacking by night, took that part of the Athenian wall of circumvallation which was near the market-place, killed some of the guards, and, having brought in corn and as many other useful things as they could, withdrew and remained quiet; and the Athenians made preparations to keep better guard for the future.
καὶ τὸ θέρος ἐτελεύτα.
And the summer ended.

Notes

  1. 5.115.1σφετέρων — The reflexive possessive adjective refers to the subject of the main clause, Ἀργεῖοι (the Argives). It indicates that the exiles were from Argos, who joined forces with the Phliasians to ambush the Argive invaders.
  2. 5.115.2οὐδ’ ὣς — Meaning 'even so... not'. The negative force of οὐ- in οὐδ’ ὣς affects both the participle ἀφέντες (renouncing) and the main verb ἐπολέμουν (making war), implying that they neither renounced the treaty nor initiated war against them.
  3. 5.115.4τῶν Ἀθηναίων τοῦ περιτειχίσματος — Double genitive construction. τῶν Ἀθηναίων is a possessive genitive (of the Athenians), and τοῦ περιτειχίσματος is a partitive genitive (of the wall of circumvallation), both modifying the nominalized phrase τὸ κατὰ τὴν ἀγορὰν (the part near the market-place).

Cite this passage

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War §5.115.1-5.115.4. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0003.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:5.115.1-5.115.4

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