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Thucydides · History of the Peloponnesian War §8.108.1-8.108.5

Alcibiades' Return to Samos and the Revolt of Antandrus

Passage 916 of 917 · Greek

Summary

Alcibiades returns to Samos to report his successes, while Tissaphernes moves to Ionia. In Antandros, the inhabitants expel the Persian garrison due to oppression and fear of their commander Arsaces.

§8.108.1κατέπλευσε δὲ ὑπὸ τοὺς αὐτοὺς χρόνους τούτους καὶ ὁ Ἀλκιβιάδης ταῖς τρισὶ καὶ δέκα ναυσὶν ἀπὸ τῆς Καύνου καὶ Φασήλιδος ἐς τὴν Σάμον, ἀγγέλλων ὅτι τάς τε Φοινίσσας ναῦς ἀποστρέψειε Πελοποννησίοις ὥστε μὴ ἐλθεῖν καὶ τὸν Τισσαφέρνην ὅτι φίλον πεποιήκοι μᾶλλον Ἀθηναίοις ἢ πρότερον.
About this same time, Alcibiades also sailed back to Samos with his thirteen ships from Caunus and Phaselis, reporting that he had turned back the Phoenician ships so that they should not come to the Peloponnesians, and that he had made Tissaphernes a warmer friend to the Athenians than before.
§8.108.2καὶ πληρώσας ναῦς ἐννέα πρὸς αἷς εἶχεν Ἁλικαρνασσέας τε πολλὰ χρήματα ἐξέπραξε καὶ Κῶν ἐτείχισεν.
And having manned nine ships in addition to those he had, he exacted a large sum of money from the Halicarnassians and fortified Cos.
ταῦτα δὲ πράξας καὶ ἄρχοντα ἐν τῇ Κῷ καταστήσας πρὸς τὸ μετόπωρον ἤδη ἐς τὴν Σάμον κατέπλευσεν.
Having done this and established a governor in Cos, he sailed back to Samos already towards autumn.
§8.108.3καὶ ὁ Τισσαφέρνης ἀπὸ τῆς Ἀσπένδου, ὡς ἐπύθετο τὰς τῶν Πελοποννησίων ναῦς ἐκ τῆς Μιλήτου ἐς τὸν Ἑλλήσποντον πεπλευκυίας, ἀναζεύξας ἤλαυνεν ἐπὶ τῆς Ἰωνίας.
Meanwhile Tissaphernes, when he heard that the Peloponnesian ships had sailed from Miletus to the Hellespont, set out from Aspendus and marched towards Ionia.
§8.108.4ὄντων δὲ τῶν Πελοποννησίων ἐν τῷ Ἑλλησπόντῳ, Ἀντάνδριοι (εἰσὶ δὲ Αἰολῆς) παρακομισάμενοι ἐκ τῆς Ἀβύδου πεζῇ διὰ τῆς Ἴδης τοῦ ὄρους ὁπλίτας ἐσηγάγοντο ἐς τὴν πόλιν, ὑπὸ Ἀρσάκου τοῦ Πέρσου Τισσαφέρνους ὑπάρχου ἀδικούμενοι, ὅσπερ καὶ Δηλίους τοὺς Ἀτραμύττιον κατοικήσαντας ὅτε ὑπ’ Ἀθηναίων Δήλου καθάρσεως ἕνεκα ἀνέστησαν, ἔχθραν προσποιησάμενος ἄδηλον καὶ ἐπαγγείλας στρατιὰν αὐτῶν τοῖς βελτίστοις, ἐξαγαγὼν ὡς ἐπὶ φιλίᾳ καὶ ξυμμαχίᾳ, τηρήσας ἀριστοποιουμένους καὶ περιστήσας τοὺς ἑαυτοῦ κατηκόντισεν.
While the Peloponnesians were in the Hellespont, the Antandrians (who are Aeolians) brought in heavy-armed infantry from Abydos by land across Mount Ida, and introduced them into their city, because they were being wronged by Arsaces, the Persian lieutenant of Tissaphernes. This same Arsaces had also, pretending a secret enmity and calling for a levy from the best of the Delians who had settled at Adramyttium (when they were expelled from Delos by the Athenians for the sake of its purification), led them out as if for friendship and alliance, and then, watching them while they were at dinner, surrounded them with his own men and shot them down with javelins.
§8.108.5φοβούμενοι οὖν αὐτὸν διὰ τοῦτο τὸ ἔργον μήποτε καὶ περὶ σφᾶς τι παρανομήσῃ, καὶ ἄλλα ἐπιβάλλοντος αὐτοῦ ἃ φέρειν οὐκ ἐδύναντο, ἐκβάλλουσι τοὺς φρουροὺς αὐτοῦ ἐκ τῆς ἀκροπόλεως.
Fearing him, therefore, because of this deed, lest he might some day commit some outrage against them too, and as he was also imposing other burdens upon them which they could not bear, they expelled his garrison from their acropolis.

Notes

  1. 8.108.1τὸν Τισσαφέρνην ὅτι φίλον πεποιήκοι — A construction known as "prolepsis" (anticipation), where τὸν Τισσαφέρνην, which would logically be the subject of the ὅτι-clause, is drawn forward as the accusative object of the main verb phrase. The verb πεποιήκοι is an optative of indirect discourse, representing an original perfect indicative (πεποίηκε) after the secondary main verb κατέπλευσε.
  2. 8.108.4ὅσπερ καὶ Δηλίους τοὺς Ἀτραμύττιον κατοικήσαντας... κατηκόντισεν — A long sentence extending from the relative pronoun ὅσπερ (representing the subject) to the main verb κατηκόντισεν at the very end. After the direct object Δηλίους, a temporal clause (ὅτε...) and a series of five circumstantial participles (προσποιησάμενος, ἐπαγγείλας, ἐξαγαγὼν, τηρήσας, περιστήσας) are inserted, meaning the core structure is "ὅσπερ καὶ Δηλίους ... κατηκόντισεν".
  3. 8.108.5μήποτε καὶ περὶ σφᾶς τι παρανομήσῃ — A subjunctive of fear or apprehension (μή with the subjunctive) introduced by the participle of fearing φοβούμενοι. Because the main verb is a historical present (ἐκβάλλουσι), the primary sequence is retained, allowing the aorist subjunctive παρανομήσῃ.

Cite this passage

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War §8.108.1-8.108.5. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0003.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:8.108.1-8.108.5

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