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Herodotus · Histories §5.29.1-5.29.2

Parian Arbitration and Governance of Miletus

Passage 798 of 1577 · Greek

Summary

The Parian arbiters toured the territory of Miletus, identified the owners of well-cultivated fields amidst the ruin, and proposed that these individuals be appointed to govern the city.

§5.29.1κατήλλαξαν δὲ σφέας ὧδε Πάριοι.
The Parians reconciled them in the following way.
ὡς ἀπίκοντο αὐτῶν ἄνδρες οἱ ἄριστοι ἐς τὴν Μίλητον, ὥρων γὰρ δή σφεας δεινῶς οἰκοφθορημένους, ἔφασαν αὐτῶν βούλεσθαι διεξελθεῖν τὴν χώρην·
When the most eminent of them arrived in Miletus and saw that they were dreadfully ruined in their households, they said that they wished to go through their territory.
ποιεῦντες δὲ ταῦτα καὶ διεξιόντες πᾶσαν τὴν Μιλησίην, ὅκως τινὰ ἴδοιεν ἐν ἀνεστηκυίῃ τῇ χώρῃ ἀγρὸν εὖ ἐξεργασμένον, ἀπεγράφοντο τὸ οὔνομα τοῦ δεσπότεω τοῦ ἀγροῦ.
Doing this and going through all the Milesian land, whenever they saw a well-cultivated field belonging to anyone in the devastated countryside, they wrote down the name of the owner of that field.
§5.29.2διεξελάσαντες δὲ πᾶσαν τὴν χώρην καὶ σπανίους εὑρόντες τούτους, ὡς τάχιστα κατέβησαν ἐς τὸ ἄστυ, ἁλίην ποιησάμενοι ἀπέδεξαν τούτους μὲν πόλιν νέμειν τῶν εὗρον τοὺς ἀγροὺς εὖ ἐξεργασμένους· δοκέειν γὰρ ἔφασαν καὶ τῶν δημοσίων οὕτω δή σφεας ἐπιμελήσεσθαι ὥσπερ τῶν σφετέρων·
Having traversed the whole country and found only a few of these, they went down to the city as quickly as possible. Having called an assembly, they appointed those very men, whose well-cultivated fields they had found, to govern the city; for they said they believed that these men would take care of public affairs just as they had of their own private property.
τοὺς δὲ ἄλλους Μιλησίους τοὺς πρὶν στασιάζοντας τούτων ἔταξαν πείθεσθαι.
And they ordered the other Milesians, who had previously been in strife, to obey these men.

Notes

  1. 5.29.1ὅκως τινὰ ἴδοιεν — The conjunction ὅκως combined with the optative ἴδοιεν expresses a past iterative action ('whenever they saw').
  2. 5.29.2τῶν εὗρον τοὺς ἀγροὺς εὖ ἐξεργασμένους — The relative pronoun τῶν stands for [ἐκείνων] οὓς, where the antecedent is omitted and the relative pronoun is attracted to the genitive case required by the partitive construction with τούτους ('those of [the men whom] they found...').
  3. 5.29.2δοκέειν γὰρ ἔφασαν καὶ τῶν δημοσίων οὕτω δή σφεας ἐπιμελήσεσθαι ὥσπερ τῶν σφετέρων — A double infinitive structure in indirect discourse. The infinitive δοκέειν depends on the main verb ἔφασαν ('they said'), and the future infinitive ἐπιμελήσεσθαι with its subject accusative σφεας ('they') depends in turn on δοκέειν ('for they said that they thought that these men would care for...').

Cite this passage

Herodotus, Histories §5.29.1-5.29.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:5.29.1-5.29.2

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