Humanitext Reader

Herodotus · Histories §1.17.1-1.17.3

Alyattes and His Annual Invasions of Miletus

Passage 17 of 1577 · Greek

Summary

Alyattes inherited the war against Miletus from his father, repeatedly invading the territory when crops were ripe to the sound of music, destroying the fields but deliberately leaving the houses intact to allow future cultivation and subsequent plunder.

§1.17.1ἐπολέμησε Μιλησίοισι, παραδεξάμενος τὸν πόλεμον παρὰ τοῦ πατρός.
He made war against the Milesians, having inherited the war from his father.
ἐπελαύνων γὰρ ἐπολιόρκεε τὴν Μίλητον τρόπῳ τοιῷδε· ὅκως μὲν εἴη ἐν τῇ γῇ καρπὸς ἁδρός, τηνικαῦτα ἐσέβαλλε τὴν στρατιήν· ἐστρατεύετο δὲ ὑπὸ συρίγγων τε καὶ πηκτίδων καὶ αὐλοῦ γυναικηίου τε καὶ ἀνδρηίου.
For when he marched against them, he besieged Miletus in the following manner: whenever the crops on the land were ripe, at that very time he would invade with his army; and he marched to the sound of pan-pipes and harps, and of flutes, both feminine and masculine.
§1.17.2ὡς δὲ ἐς τὴν Μιλησίην ἀπίκοιτο, οἰκήματα μὲν τὰ ἐπὶ τῶν ἀγρῶν οὔτε κατέβαλλε οὔτε ἐνεπίμπρη οὔτε θύρας ἀπέσπα, ἔα δὲ κατὰ χώρην ἑστάναι· ὁ δὲ τὰ τε δένδρεα καὶ τὸν καρπὸν τὸν ἐν τῇ γῇ ὅκως διαφθείρειε, ἀπαλλάσσετο ὀπίσω.
And whenever he arrived in the territory of Miletus, he neither pulled down nor burned the dwellings in the fields, nor did he tear off their doors, but allowed them to stand as they were; but when he had destroyed the trees and the crops on the land, he would depart back again.
§1.17.3τῆς γὰρ θαλάσσης οἱ Μιλήσιοι ἐπεκράτεον, ὥστε ἐπέδρης μὴ εἶναι ἔργον τῇ στρατιῇ.
For the Milesians were masters of the sea, so that there was no use for the army to undertake a blockade.
τὰς δὲ οἰκίας οὐ κατέβαλλε ὁ Λυδὸς τῶνδε εἵνεκα, ὅκως ἔχοιεν ἐνθεῦτεν ὁρμώμενοι τὴν γῆν σπείρειν τε καὶ ἐργάζεσθαι οἱ Μιλήσιοι, αὐτὸς δὲ ἐκείνων ἐργαζομένων ἔχοι τι καὶ σίνεσθαι ἐσβάλλων.
The Lydian did not pull down the houses for this reason: so that the Milesians, making them their starting points, might sow and till the land, and that he himself, while they were cultivating it, might have something to plunder when he invaded.

Notes

  1. §1.17.1ὑπὸ συρίγγων — The preposition ὑπό with the genitive case here denotes musical accompaniment, meaning "to the sound of" or "accompanied by," rather than its usual sense of "under" or agency ("by").
  2. §1.17.1ὅκως μὲν εἴη — The conjunction ὅκως (Ionic for ὅπως) with the optative mood, corresponding to the imperfect tense in the main clause (ἐσέβαλλε), expresses a repeated or customary action in past time ("whenever...").
  3. §1.17.2ἔα — The third-person singular imperfect of ἐάω. It is an uncontracted Ionic form, representing a repeated action in the past corresponding to the previous optative clause.
  4. §1.17.3ὥστε ἐπέδρης μὴ εἶναι ἔργον — The noun ἔργον here means "utility," "profit," or "purpose" rather than simple "work." Thus, the phrase means "so that a blockade was of no use (or brought no result) for the army."
  5. §1.17.3ἔχοιεν ἐνθεῦτεν ὁρμώμενοι — Part of the purpose clause introduced by ὅκως explaining why he did not pull down the houses. The participle ὁρμώμενοι means "starting from there" or "making them their base of operations."

Cite this passage

Herodotus, Histories §1.17.1-1.17.3. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:1.17.1-1.17.3

Please note the AI-draft status of the translation and the date accessed.

Translation, notes and summary are AI-generated drafts, revised through reader feedback.