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Thucydides · History of the Peloponnesian War §7.20.1-7.20.3

Athenian Expedition around the Peloponnese and Relief for Sicily

Passage 741 of 917 · Greek

Summary

In response to the fortification of Decelea, the Athenians dispatch Charicles with a fleet around the Peloponnese and send Demosthenes with a large reinforcement to Sicily. Demosthenes assembles his forces at Aegina, awaiting Charicles to bring the Argive allies.

§7.20.1ἐν δὲ τούτῳ καὶ οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι ἅμα τῆς Δεκελείας τῷ τειχισμῷ καὶ τοῦ ἦρος εὐθὺς ἀρχομένου περί τε Πελοπόννησον ναῦς τριάκοντα ἔστειλαν καὶ Χαρικλέα τὸν Ἀπολλοδώρου ἄρχοντα, ᾧ εἴρητο καὶ ἐς Ἄργος ἀφικομένῳ κατὰ τὸ ξυμμαχικὸν παρακαλεῖν Ἀργείων [τε] ὁπλίτας ἐπὶ τὰς ναῦς,
In the meantime, at the same time as the fortification of Decelea and at the very beginning of spring, the Athenians also sent thirty ships around the Peloponnese and Charicles the son of Apollodorus as commander, who had been instructed, upon arriving at Argos, to call upon the Argive hoplites to embark on the ships in accordance with the alliance.
§7.20.2καὶ τὸν Δημοσθένη ἐς τὴν Σικελίαν, ὥσπερ ἔμελλον, ἀπέστελλον ἑξήκοντα μὲν ναυσὶν Ἀθηναίων καὶ πέντε Χίαις, ὁπλίταις δὲ ἐκ καταλόγου Ἀθηναίων διακοσίοις καὶ χιλίοις, καὶ νησιωτῶν ὅσοις ἑκασταχόθεν οἷόν τ’ ἦν πλείστοις χρήσασθαι, καὶ ἐκ τῶν ἄλλων ξυμμάχων τῶν ὑπηκόων, εἴ ποθέν τι εἶχον ἐπιτήδειον ἐς τὸν πόλεμον, ξυμπορίσαντες.
And they were dispatching Demosthenes to Sicily, as they had intended, with sixty Athenian and five Chian ships, twelve hundred Athenian hoplites from the roll, as many of the islanders from various places as it was possible to employ, and having collected from the other subject allies whatever they had that was useful for the war from any source.
εἴρητο δ’ αὐτῷ πρῶτον μετὰ τοῦ Χαρικλέους ἅμα περιπλέοντα ξυστρατεύεσθαι περὶ τὴν Λακωνικήν.
And he had been instructed first, while sailing round together with Charicles, to join in the campaign around Laconia.
§7.20.3καὶ ὁ μὲν Δημοσθένης ἐς τὴν Αἴγιναν προσπλεύσας τοῦ στρατεύματός τε εἴ τι ὑπελέλειπτο περιέμενε καὶ τὸν Χαρικλέα τοὺς Ἀργείους παραλαβεῖν.
So Demosthenes, having sailed to Aegina, waited there for any part of the army that had been left behind, and for Charicles to pick up the Argives.

Notes

  1. §7.20.1ᾧ εἴρητο... παρακαλεῖν — The passive perfect εἴρητο is used impersonally with the dative of agent ᾧ, meaning 'it had been told to him,' with the infinitive παρακαλεῖν serving as the grammatical subject. The participle ἀφικομένῳ agrees in the dative with ᾧ.
  2. §7.20.2αὐτῷ ... περιπλέοντα ξυστρατεύεσθαι — While the dative αὐτῷ denotes the person commanded (as the agent of the impersonal εἴρητο), the participle περιπλέοντα modifying the subject of the infinitive ξυστρατεύεσθαι is in the accusative case. This shift from dative to accusative for the subject of an infinitive is a common classical idiom.
  3. §7.20.3τὸν Χαρικλέα ... παραλαβεῖν — The verb περιέμενε ('waited for') takes a genitive object in the first half of the sentence (τοῦ στρατεύματος), but here takes an Accusative with Infinitive construction (τὸν Χαρικλέα ... παραλαβεῖν) as its object, showing the verb's capacity to govern different syntactical structures in parallel.

Cite this passage

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War §7.20.1-7.20.3. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0003.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:7.20.1-7.20.3

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