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Thucydides · History of the Peloponnesian War §8.21.1

Popular Uprising and Democracy in Samos

Passage 829 of 917 · Greek

Summary

In Samos, the commons, supported by the Athenians, rose up against the powerful, killing or exiling many of them, and established a democracy that excluded the landowning class.

§8.21.1ἐγένετο δὲ κατὰ τὸν χρόνον τοῦτον καὶ ἡ ἐν Σάμῳ ἐπανάστασις ὑπὸ τοῦ δήμου τοῖς δυνατοῖς μετὰ Ἀθηναίων, οἳ ἔτυχον ἐν τρισὶ ναυσὶ παρόντες.
About this same time, there also occurred in Samos the uprising of the commons against the powerful, in cooperation with the Athenians, who happened to be present with three ships.
καὶ ὁ δῆμος ὁ Σαμίων ἐς διακοσίους μέν τινας τοὺς πάντας τῶν δυνατωτάτων ἀπέκτεινε, τετρακοσίους δὲ φυγῇ ζημιώσαντες καὶ αὐτοὶ τὴν γῆν αὐτῶν καὶ οἰκίας νειμάμενοι, Ἀθηναίων τε σφίσιν αὐτονομίαν μετὰ ταῦτα ὡς βεβαίοις ἤδη ψηφισαμένων, τὰ λοιπὰ διῴκουν τὴν πόλιν, καὶ τοῖς γεωμόροις μετεδίδοσαν οὔτε ἄλλου οὐδενὸς οὔτε ἐκδοῦναι οὐδ’ ἀγαγέσθαι παρ’ ἐκείνων οὐδ’ ἐς ἐκείνους οὐδενὶ ἔτι τοῦ δήμου ἐξῆν.
And the Samos commons put to death some two hundred in all of the most powerful, and having punished four hundred with exile, and themselves divided up their land and houses—the Athenians, moreover, having after this voted them autonomy as being already trustworthy—they governed the city in other respects, and they shared nothing else with the geomoroi, nor was it any longer permitted for anyone of the commons to take a wife from them or to give a daughter in marriage to them.

Notes

  1. 8.21.1τοῖς δυνατοῖς — Dative governed by the noun `ἐπανάστασις` (uprising), indicating the object of hostility or opposition ("uprising against the powerful").
  2. 8.21.1ζημιώσαντες ... νειμάμενοι — Nominative plural participles used in agreement with the singular collective noun `ὁ δῆμος` according to its sense (constructio ad sensum). The subsequent main verb `διῴκουν` is also in the third-person plural.
  3. 8.21.1τοῖς γεωμόροις μετεδίδοσαν οὔτε ἄλλου οὐδενὸς — The verb `μεταδίδωμι` (share) takes the recipient in the dative (`τοῖς γεωμόροις`) and the thing shared in the genitive (`ἄλλου οὐδενὸς`), meaning "they shared nothing else with the geomoroi."
  4. 8.21.1ἐκδοῦναι οὐδ’ ἀγαγέσθαι — Idiomatic marriage terminology in classical Greek. The active `ἐκδίδωμι` means "to give (a daughter) in marriage," while the middle `ἄγομαι` means "to take (a wife) for oneself." The respective direct objects ("daughter" and "wife") are omitted as understood from the context.

Cite this passage

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War §8.21.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0003.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:8.21.1

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