§6.1καὶ μὴν τὰ περὶ τὰς ἁρπαγὰς τῶν γυναικῶν ἡμαρτημένα Θησεῖ μὲν εὐσχήμονος ἐνδεᾶ προφάσεως γέγονε.
Furthermore, in the matter of the abductions of women, Theseus's offenses lack any decent excuse.
πρῶτον μὲν ὅτι πολλάκις· ἥρπασε γὰρ Ἀριάδνην καὶ Ἀντιόπην καὶ Ἀναξὼ τὴν Τροιζηνίαν, ἐπὶ πάσαις δὲ τὴν Ἑλένην, παρηκμακὼς οὐκ ἀκμάζουσαν, ἀλλὰ νηπίαν καὶ ἄωρον αὐτὸς ὥραν ἔχων ἤδη γάμων πεπαῦσθαι καὶ νομίμων ἔπειτα διὰ τὴν αἰτίαν οὐ γὰρ ἀξιώτεραί γε παιδοποιοὶ τῶν Ἀθήνησιν Ἐρεχθηίδων καὶ Κεκροπίδων αἱ Τροιζηνίων καὶ Λακώνων καὶ Ἀμαζόνων ἀνέγγυοι θυγατέρες ἦσαν.
First, because they occurred many times; for he abducted Ariadne, Antiope, and Anaxo of Troezen, and above all Helen, who was not in her prime but rather an infant and unripe, while he himself was already of an age to have retired even from lawful marriages. Second, because of the motive; for the unwed daughters of the Troezenians, Lacedaemonians, and Amazons were surely no more worthy to bear children than the daughters of Erechtheus and Cecrops in Athens.
§6.2ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν ὑποψίαν ἔχει πρὸς ὕβριν καὶ καθʼ ἡδονὴν πεπρᾶχθαι.
But these actions carry the suspicion of having been done out of wantonness and for pleasure.
Ῥωμύλος δὲ πρῶτον μὲν ὀκτακοσίων ὀλίγον ἀριθμῷ δεούσας ἁρπάσας, οὐ πάσας, ἀλλὰ μίαν, ὥς φασιν, Ἑρσιλίαν ἔλαβε, τὰς δʼ ἄλλας διένειμε τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς τῶν πολιτῶν ἔπειτα τῇ μετὰ ταῦτα τιμῇ καὶ ἀγαπήσει καὶ δικαιοσύνῃ τῇ περὶ τὰς γυναῖκας ἀπέδειξε τὴν βίαν ἐκείνην καὶ τὴν ἀδικίαν κάλλιστον ἔργον καὶ πολιτικώτατον εἰς κοινωνίαν γενομένην.
Romulus, on the other hand, in the first place, when he abducted women numbering slightly fewer than eight hundred, did not take them all for himself, but, as they say, took only one, Hersilia, and distributed the rest to the best of the citizens; in the second place, by the subsequent respect, affection, and justice shown to the women, he demonstrated that that act of violence and injustice had become a most beautiful deed and a highly political one for the creation of a community.
§6.3οὕτω συνέμιξεν ἀλλήλοις καὶ συνέπηξε τὰ γένη, καὶ παρέσχε πηγὴν τῆς εἰς αὖθις εὐνοίας καὶ δυνάμεως τοῖς πράγμασιν.
In this way he mixed and welded the stocks together with one another, and provided the state with a fountainhead of future goodwill and power.
αἰδοῦς δὲ καὶ φιλίας καὶ βεβαιότητος, ἣν εἰργάσατο περὶ τοὺς γάμους, ὁ χρόνος ἐστὶ μάρτυς, ἐν γὰρ ἔτεσι τριάκοντα καὶ διακοσίοις οὔτε ἀνὴρ ἐτόλμησε γυναικὸς οὔτε γυνὴ κοινωνίαν ἀνδρὸς ἐγκαταλιπεῖν, ἀλλʼ ὥσπερ ἐν Ἓλλησιν οἱ σφόδρα περιττοὶ τὸν πρῶτον ἔχουσιν εἰπεῖν πατροκτόνον ἢ μητροφόνον, οὕτω Ῥωμαῖοι πάντες ἴσασιν ὅτι Καρβίλιος Σπόριος ἀπεπέμψατο γυναῖκα πρῶτος, ἀπαιδίαν αἰτιασάμενος.
And of the respect, friendship, and stability which he established concerning marriages, time is the witness; for in two hundred and thirty years, neither did a husband dare to desert his wife, nor a wife her husband’s partnership. Rather, just as among the Greeks the most exceptional of men are able to name the first patricide or matricide, so all Romans know that Spurius Carvilius was the first to divorce his wife, accusing her of barrenness.
§6.4τῷ δὲ τοσούτῳ χρόνῳ συμμαρτυρεῖ καὶ τὰ ἔργα.
The deeds themselves also bear witness to this long period.
καὶ γὰρ ἀρχῆς ἐκοινώνησαν οἱ βασιλεῖς, καὶ πολιτείας τὰ γένη διὰ τὴν ἐπιγαμίαν ἐκείνην ἀπὸ δὲ τῶν Θησέως γάμων Ἀθηναίοις φιλικὸν μὲν οὐδὲν οὐδὲ κοινωνικὸν ὑπῆρξε πρὸς οὐδένα συμβόλαιον, ἔχθραι δὲ καὶ πόλεμοι καὶ φόνοι πολιτῶν καὶ τέλος Ἀφίδνας ἀπολέσαι καὶ μόλις ὑπʼ οἴκτου τῶν πολεμίων, προσκυνήσαντας καὶ θεοὺς ἀνειπόντας, μὴ παθεῖν ἃ Τρῶες ἔπαθον διʼ Ἀλέξανδρον.
For the kings shared the rule, and the stocks shared the citizenship because of that intermarriage; whereas from the marriages of Theseus, nothing friendly or cooperative in the way of a treaty accrued to the Athenians with anyone, but rather hatreds, wars, and slaughters of citizens, and finally the loss of Aphidnae, and they barely escaped, by the pity of their enemies, after bowing down and proclaiming them gods, suffering what the Trojans suffered because of Alexander.
§6.5ἡ μέντοι μήτηρ ἡ Θησέως οὐκ ἐκινδύνευσεν, ἀλλʼ ἔπαθε τὰ τῆς Ἑκάβης, ἐγκαταλιπόντος καὶ προεμένου τοῦ παιδός, εἴγε μὴ πέπλασται τὰ τῆς αἰχμαλωσίας, ὡς ἔδει γε καὶ τοῦτο ψεῦδος εἶναι καὶ τὰ πλεῖστα τῶν ἄλλων, ἐπεὶ καὶ τὰ περὶ τοῦ θείου μυθολογούμενα πολλὴν ποιεῖ διαφοράν.
Indeed, the mother of Theseus did not merely run a risk, but suffered the fate of Hecuba, being abandoned and given up by her son, if indeed the story of her captivity is not a fiction—as indeed this and most of the other stories ought to be false, since what is told in myth about the divine also makes a great difference.
Ῥωμύλῳ μὲν γὰρ ἡ σωτηρία μετὰ πολλῆς ὑπῆρξε θεῶν εὐμενείας, ὁ δʼ Αἰγεῖ δοθεὶς χρησμός, ἀπέχεσθαι γυναικὸς ἐπὶ ξένης, ἔοικεν ἀποφαίνειν παρὰ γνώμην θεῶν γεγονέναι τὴν Θησέως τέκνωσιν.
For to Romulus, his preservation came with much goodwill from the gods, while the oracle given to Aegeus, warning him to abstain from women in a foreign land, seems to show that the procreation of Theseus occurred contrary to the will of the gods.