Herodotus · Histories §4.141.1

Loud-Voiced Egyptian and Histiaeus Repairing the Bridge

Passage 705 of 1577 · Greek

Summary

Darius orders an Egyptian with an exceptionally loud voice to call Histiaeus, who responds immediately by sending ships to ferry the Persian army and repairing the bridge.

§4.141.1ἦν δὲ περὶ Δαρεῖον ἀνὴρ Αἰγύπτιος φωνέων μέγιστον ἀνθρώπων· τοῦτον τὸν ἄνδρα καταστάντα ἐπὶ τοῦ χείλεος τοῦ Ἴστρου ἐκέλευε Δαρεῖος καλέειν Ἱστιαῖον Μιλήσιον.

Now there was in Darius's company an Egyptian man who had the loudest voice of all mankind; Darius ordered this man to take his stand on the bank of the Ister and call for Histiaeus of Miletus.

ὃ μὲν δὴ ἐποίεε ταῦτα, Ἱστιαῖος δὲ ἐπακούσας τῷ πρώτῳ κελεύσματι τάς τε νέας ἁπάσας παρεῖχε διαπορθμεύειν τὴν στρατιὴν καὶ τὴν γέφυραν ἔζευξε.

He indeed did so, and Histiaeus, hearing the very first shout, provided all the ships to ferry the army across and joined the bridge together again.

Notes

4.141.1φωνέων μέγιστον ἀνθρώπων — The present participle φωνέων is modified by the adverbial accusative μέγιστον ('most loudly'), and ἀνθρώπων is a partitive genitive dependent on the superlative idea. Together they mean 'shouting the loudest of all men'.
4.141.1παρεῖχε διαπορθμεύειν τὴν στρατιὴν — The direct object of παρεῖχε is the preceding phrase τάς τε νέας ἁπάσας. The infinitive διαπορθμεύειν functions to express purpose ('provided [all the ships] to ferry the army across').

Cite this passage

Herodotus, Histories §4.141.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:4.141.1

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