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Thucydides · History of the Peloponnesian War §6.105.1-6.105.3

Athenian Aid to Argos and the Breach of Treaty

Passage 721 of 917 · Greek

Summary

During the same summer, the Lacedaemonians invaded Argos, and the Athenians sent thirty ships to aid the Argives, openly breaking their treaty. After the Athenian withdrawal, the Argives raided Phliasia.

§6.105.1κατὰ δὲ τοὺς αὐτοὺς χρόνους τούτου τοῦ θέρους καὶ Λακεδαιμόνιοι ἐς τὸ Ἄργος ἐσέβαλον αὐτοί τε καὶ οἱ ξύμμαχοι καὶ τῆς γῆς τὴν πολλὴν ἐδῄωσαν, καὶ Ἀθηναῖοι Ἀργείοις τριάκοντα ναυσὶν ἐβοήθησαν· αἵπερ τὰς σπονδὰς φανερώτατα τὰς πρὸς τοὺς Λακεδαιμονίους αὐτοῖς ἔλυσαν.
About the same time of this summer, the Lacedaemonians and their allies also invaded Argos and ravaged most of their land, and the Athenians assisted the Argives with thirty ships, which action most openly broke the treaty they had with the Lacedaemonians.
§6.105.2πρότερον μὲν γὰρ λῃστείαις ἐκ Πύλου καὶ περὶ τὴν ἄλλην Πελοπόννησον μᾶλλον ἢ ἐς τὴν Λακωνικὴν ἀποβαίνοντες μετά τε Ἀργείων καὶ Μαντινέων ξυνεπολέμουν, καὶ πολλάκις Ἀργείων κελευόντων ὅσον σχόντας μόνον ξὺν ὅπλοις ἐς τὴν Λακωνικὴν καὶ τὸ ἐλάχιστον μετὰ σφῶν δῃώσαντας ἀπελθεῖν οὐκ ἤθελον·
For formerly, they had carried on the war in cooperation with the Argives and Mantineans by predatory excursions from Pylos, and by landing on other parts of the Peloponnesus rather than on Laconia; and though the Argives repeatedly urged them only to touch at Laconia with their arms, and after ravaging the smallest part with them to depart, they would not do so.
τότε δὲ Πυθοδώρου καὶ Λαισποδίου καὶ Δημαράτου ἀρχόντων ἀποβάντες ἐς Ἐπίδαυρον τὴν Λιμηρὰν καὶ Πρασιὰς καὶ ὅσα ἄλλα ἐδῄωσαν τῆς γῆς, καὶ τοῖς Λακεδαιμονίοις ἤδη εὐπροφάσιστον μᾶλλον τὴν αἰτίαν ἐς τοὺς Ἀθηναίους τοῦ ἀμύνεσθαι ἐποίησαν.
But now, under the command of Pythodorus, Laespodias, and Demaratus, they landed at Epidaurus Limera, Prasiae, and other places, and ravaged the land, thereby making the ground of complaint which the Lacedaemonians had against the Athenians more plausible for taking revenge.
§6.105.3ἀναχωρησάντων δὲ τῶν Ἀθηναίων ἐκ τοῦ Ἄργους ταῖς ναυσὶ καὶ τῶν Λακεδαιμονίων οἱ Ἀργεῖοι ἐσβαλόντες ἐς τὴν Φλειασίαν τῆς τε γῆς αὐτῶν ἔτεμον καὶ ἀπέκτεινάν τινας, καὶ ἀπῆλθον ἐπ’ οἴκου.
When the Athenians had withdrawn from Argos with their ships, and the Lacedaemonians had also retired, the Argives invaded Phliasia, and after cutting down some of their crops and killing some men, they returned home.

Notes

  1. 6.105.1αἵπερ — The relative pronoun αἵπερ (feminine plural nominative) takes the preceding τριάκοντα ναυσίν ("thirty ships", since ναῦς is feminine) as its antecedent and functions as the subject of the clause.
  2. 6.105.1αὐτοῖς — The dative αὐτοῖς refers to the Athenians (the subject of the previous clause, Ἀθηναῖοι) as a dative of disadvantage or reference, emphasizing that it was for them that the treaty was broken.
  3. 6.105.2πολλάκις Ἀργείων κελευόντων ὅσον σχόντας μόνον ξὺν ὅπλοις ἐς τὴν Λακωνικὴν καὶ τὸ ἐλάχιστον μετὰ σφῶν δῃώσαντας ἀπελθεῖν οὐκ ἤθελον — Ἀργείων κελευόντων is a genitive absolute. The accusative participles σχόντας (from ἔχω, here meaning "to touch at a place / land") and δῃώσαντας refer to the subject of the main verb οὐκ ἤθελον (the Athenians) and modify the infinitive ἀπελθεῖν. The phrase ὅσον... μόνον functions as a restrictive adverbial expression ("only so much as to").
  4. 6.105.2τοῦ ἀμύνεσθαι — The articular infinitive in the genitive, τοῦ ἀμύνεσθαι, functions as a genitive of explanation or purpose modifying τὴν αἰτίαν, explaining the nature of the "ground of complaint" (i.e., for defending themselves or taking revenge).

Cite this passage

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War §6.105.1-6.105.3. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0003.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:6.105.1-6.105.3

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