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Herodotus · Histories §1.163.1-1.163.4

Phocaean Sea Voyages and the Wall Built with Tartessian Aid

Passage 163 of 1577 · Greek

Summary

Harpagus targets Phocaea first. The Phocaeans, known as the first Greeks to undertake long voyages, had gained the favor of King Arganthonius of Tartessus, who provided them with funds to build defensive walls against the growing power of the Medes.

§1.163.1πρώτῃ δὲ Φωκαίῃ Ἰωνίης ἐπεχείρησε.
He attacked Phocaea first of the Ionian cities.
οἱ δὲ Φωκαιέες οὗτοι ναυτιλίῃσι μακρῇσι πρῶτοι Ἑλλήνων ἐχρήσαντο, καὶ τὸν τε Ἀδρίην καὶ τὴν Τυρσηνίην καὶ τὴν Ἰβηρίην καὶ τὸν Ταρτησσὸν οὗτοι εἰσὶ οἱ καταδέξαντες·
These Phocaeans were the first of the Greeks to make long voyages, and it was they who made known the Adriatic, Tyrrhenia, Iberia, and Tartessus.
§1.163.2ἐναυτίλλοντο δὲ οὐ στρογγύλῃσι νηυσὶ ἀλλὰ πεντηκοντέροισι.
They sailed not in round merchant ships, but in fifty-oared vessels.
ἀπικόμενοι δὲ ἐς τὸν Ταρτησσὸν προσφιλέες ἐγένοντο τῷ βασιλέι τῶν Ταρτησσίων, τῷ οὔνομα μὲν ἦν, Ἀργανθώνιος, ἐτυράννευσε δὲ Ταρτησσοῦ ὀγδώκοντα ἔτεα, ἐβίωσε δὲ πάντα εἴκοσι καὶ ἑκατόν.
On arriving at Tartessus, they became great favorites of the king of the Tartessians, whose name was Arganthonius; he ruled Tartessus for eighty years, and lived in all one hundred and twenty years.
§1.163.3τούτῳ δὴ τῷ ἀνδρὶ προσφιλέες οἱ Φωκαιέες οὕτω δή τι ἐγένοντο ὡς τὰ μὲν πρῶτα σφέας ἐκλιπόντας Ἰωνίην ἐκέλευε τῆς ἑωυτοῦ χώρης οἰκῆσαι ὅκου βούλονται·
The Phocaeans became so very dear to this man that at first he urged them to leave Ionia and settle in any part of his own land they wished.
μετὰ δέ, ὡς τοῦτό γε οὐκ ἔπειθε τοὺς Φωκαιέας, ὁ δὲ πυθόμενος τὸν Μῆδον παρʼ αὐτῶν ὡς αὔξοιτο, ἐδίδου σφι χρήματα τεῖχος περιβαλέσθαι τὴν πόλιν, §1.163.4ἐδίδου δὲ ἀφειδέως· καὶ γὰρ καὶ ἡ περίοδος τοῦ τείχεος οὐκ ὀλίγοι στάδιοι εἰσί, τοῦτο δὲ πᾶν λίθων μεγάλων καὶ εὖ συναρμοσμένων.
Afterwards, however, when he could not persuade the Phocaeans to do this, having learned from them how the power of the Mede was growing, he gave them money to build a wall around their city, and he gave it unsparingly; for the circumference of the wall is not a few stades, and all of this is built of great stones well fitted together.

Notes

  1. 1.163.1Ἰωνίης — Genitive feminine singular of the proper noun Ἰωνίη. It functions as a partitive genitive modifying the adjective πρώτῃ ('first', dative feminine singular), meaning 'first among the cities of Ionia.'
  2. 1.163.3οὕτω δή τι ἐγένοντο ὡς — Correlation between the demonstrative adverb οὕτω ('so', accompanied by the particles δή and τι) and the conjunction ὡς (equivalent to ὥστε here) introducing a clause of result. It expresses the high degree to which the Phocaeans became dear to the king, and the subsequent consequence.
  3. 1.163.3τὸν Μῆδον παρʼ αὐτῶν ὡς αὔξοιτο — Anticipation (prolepsis), where τὸν Μῆδον, which logically should be the subject of the dependent clause (ὡς clause), is anticipated as the direct object (accusative) of the participle πυθόμενος in the main construction. The verb αὔξοιτο in the dependent clause is in the optative of indirect discourse following a past narrative tense.
  4. 1.163.4λίθων μεγάλων καὶ εὖ συναρμοσμένων — Genitive of material or composition. It serves as a predicate genitive modifying the subject τοῦτο πᾶν ('all of this', referring to the wall), showing what the wall was constructed of: 'made of great stones well fitted together.'

Cite this passage

Herodotus, Histories §1.163.1-1.163.4. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:1.163.1-1.163.4

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