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Thucydides · History of the Peloponnesian War §7.64.1-7.64.2

Nicias on the Fate of Athens and the Final Stakes

Passage 785 of 917 · Greek

Summary

Nicias warns the Athenian soldiers that no reserve ships or troops remain at home and that defeat would lead to the fall of both the expedition and Athens itself, urging them to fight with everything at stake.

§7.64.1τούς τε Ἀθηναίους ὑμῶν πάλιν αὖ καὶ τάδε ὑπομιμνῄσκω, ὅτι οὔτε ναῦς ἐν τοῖς νεωσοίκοις ἄλλας ὁμοίας ταῖσδε οὔτε ὁπλιτῶν ἡλικίαν ὑπελίπετε, εἴ τε ξυμβήσεταί τι ἄλλο ἢ τὸ κρατεῖν ὑμῖν, τούς τε ἐνθάδε πολεμίους εὐθὺς ἐπ’ ἐκεῖνα πλευσομένους καὶ τοὺς ἐκεῖ ὑπολοίπους ἡμῶν ἀδυνάτους ἐσομένους τούς τε αὐτοῦ καὶ τοὺς ἐπελθόντας ἀμύνασθαι.
And to those of you who are Athenians, I remind you once again of this: that you have left behind in your docks no other ships like these, nor any reserve of hoplites of military age; and if anything other than victory should befall you, the enemy here will immediately sail for Athens, and our countrymen left behind there will be unable to defend themselves against both the local force and those who will have invaded.
καὶ οἱ μὲν ἂν ὑπὸ Συρακοσίοις εὐθὺς γίγνοισθε, οἷς αὐτοὶ ἴστε οἵᾳ γνώμῃ ἐπήλθετε, οἱ δὲ ἐκεῖ ὑπὸ Λακεδαιμονίοις.
And you who are here would immediately fall under the power of the Syracusans—with what intentions you yourselves know you attacked them—while those over there would fall under the Lacedaemonians.
§7.64.2ὥστε ἐν ἑνὶ τῷδε ὑπὲρ ἀμφοτέρων ἀγῶνι καθεστῶτες καρτερήσατε, εἴπερ ποτέ, καὶ ἐνθυμεῖσθε καθ’ ἑκάστους τε καὶ ξύμπαντες ὅτι οἱ ἐν ταῖς ναυσὶν ὑμῶν νῦν ἐσόμενοι καὶ πεζοὶ τοῖς Ἀθηναίοις εἰσὶ καὶ νῆες καὶ ἡ ὑπόλοιπος πόλις καὶ τὸ μέγα ὄνομα τῶν Ἀθηνῶν, περὶ ὧν, εἴ τίς τι ἕτερος ἑτέρου προφέρει ἢ ἐπιστήμῃ ἢ εὐψυχίᾳ, οὐκ ἂν ἐν ἄλλῳ μᾶλλον καιρῷ ἀποδειξάμενος αὐτός τε αὑτῷ ὠφέλιμος γένοιτο καὶ τοῖς ξύμπασι σωτήριος. ’
Therefore, standing as you do in this single struggle on behalf of both, endure now if ever you did, and bear in mind, both individually and collectively, that those of you now about to go on board the ships are both the army and the navy for the Athenians, and the rest of the state, and the great name of Athens. On behalf of these, if anyone excels another in skill or courage, there is no other occasion on which he could display it to be more useful to himself and a savior to the whole community.

Notes

  1. 7.64.1τούς τε ἐνθάδε πολεμίους... πλευσομένους — There is a grammatical shift (anacoluthon) where the construction starts with a ὅτι-clause (with the indicative past ὑπελίπετε) but transitions after the conjunction τε into a direct object of ὑπομιμνῄσκω (accusative with participle).
  2. 7.64.1οἷς αὐτοὶ ἴστε οἵᾳ γνώμῃ ἐπήλθετε — A double subordinate structure where the indirect question clause οἵᾳ γνώμῃ ('with what intention') is embedded within the relative clause introduced by the dative relative pronoun οἷς, which refers to the antecedent Συρακοσίοις.
  3. 7.64.2ἕτερος ἑτέρου — A contrastive juxtaposition of the same pronoun in different cases (nominative ἕτερος and genitive ἑτέρου). The genitive ἑτέρου is a genitive of comparison governed by the verb προφέρει, which means to excel or surpass.

Cite this passage

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War §7.64.1-7.64.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0003.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:7.64.1-7.64.2

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