Herodotus · Histories §6.33.1-6.33.3

Phoenician Conquest of Cities on the Hellespont

Passage 935 of 1577 · Greek

Summary

The Persian fleet under the Phoenicians sails from Ionia to conquer and burn the cities on the European side of the Hellespont, while the Byzantines flee to the Euxine Sea, and Cyzicus is spared due to its prior submission.

§6.33.1ἀπὸ δὲ Ἰωνίης ἀπαλλασσόμενος ὁ ναυτικὸς στρατὸς τὰ ἐπʼ ἀριστερὰ ἐσπλέοντι τοῦ Ἑλλησπόντου αἵρεε πάντα· τὰ γὰρ ἐπὶ δεξιὰ αὐτοῖσι τοῖσι Πέρσῃσι ὑποχείρια ἦν γεγονότα κατʼ ἤπειρον.

Setting sail from Ionia, the fleet captured everything on the left as one enters the Hellespont; for the lands on the right had already been brought under subjection by the Persians themselves by way of the mainland.

εἰσὶ δὲ αἱ ἐν τῇ Εὐρώπῃ αἵδε τοῦ Ἑλλησπόντου, Χερσόνησός τε, ἐν τῇ πόλιες συχναὶ ἔνεισι, καὶ Πέρινθος καὶ τὰ τείχεα τὰ ἐπὶ Θρηίκης καὶ Σηλυμβρίη τε καὶ Βυζάντιον.

These are the places of the Hellespont in Europe: the Chersonese, in which there are many cities, Perinthus, the fortresses towards Thrace, Selymbria, and Byzantium.

§6.33.2Βυζάντιοι μέν νυν καὶ οἱ πέρηθε Καλχηδόνιοι οὐδʼ ὑπέμειναν ἐπιπλέοντας τοὺς Φοίνικας, ἀλλʼ οἴχοντο ἀπολιπόντες τὴν σφετέρην ἔσω ἐς τὸν Εὔξεινον πόντον, καὶ ἐνθαῦτα πόλιν Μεσαμβρίην οἴκησαν.

Now the Byzantines and the Chalcedonians from the opposite shore did not even await the onset of the Phoenicians, but abandoned their own land and fled inside into the Euxine Sea, and there they settled the city of Mesambria.

οἱ δὲ Φοίνικες κατακαύσαντες ταύτας τὰς χώρας τὰς καταλεχθείσας τρέπονται ἐπί τε Προκόννησον καὶ Ἀρτάκην, πυρὶ δὲ καὶ ταύτας νείμαντες ἔπλεον αὖτις ἐς τὴν Χερσόνησον ἐξαιρήσοντες τὰς ἐπιλοίπους τῶν πολίων, ὅσας πρότερον προσσχόντες οὐ κατέσυραν.

But the Phoenicians, after burning these aforementioned places, turned against Proconnesus and Artace, and having committed these also to the flames, they sailed back to the Chersonese to destroy the remaining cities which they had not laid waste when they touched there before.

§6.33.3ἐπὶ δὲ Κύζικον οὐδὲ ἔπλωσαν ἀρχήν· αὐτοὶ γὰρ Κυζικηνοὶ ἔτι πρότερον τοῦ Φοινίκων ἐσπλόου ἐγεγόνεσαν ὑπὸ βασιλέϊ, Οἰβάρεϊ τῷ Μεγαβάζου ὁμολογήσαντες τῷ ἐν Δασκυλείῳ ὑπάρχῳ.

Against Cyzicus they did not sail at all in the first place; for the Cyzicenes themselves, even before the entrance of the Phoenicians, had already come under the King's power, having made terms with Oibares, the son of Megabazus, the governor in Dascylium.

Notes

6.33.1ἐσπλέοντι — Dative masculine singular of the present participle ἐσπλέων. It functions as a dative of reference (or dative of the person judging), meaning 'for one sailing into (the Hellespont),' establishing the geographic perspective of the voyager to define the direction (on the left).
6.33.2οἴχοντο ἀπολιπόντες — The imperfect of the verb οἴχομαι (to go/be gone) combined with the aorist participle of ἀπολείπω (to leave behind). The construction of οἴχομαι with a participle is an idiomatic expression emphasizing that the action has already been performed and the subjects are gone (they 'departed having abandoned,' i.e., 'fled away').
6.33.3ἀρχήν — The adverbial accusative of the noun ἀρχή (beginning). When accompanied by a negative (here οὐδέ), it is a standard idiomatic expression meaning 'at all' or 'not in the first place,' strengthening the negation.

Cite this passage

Herodotus, Histories §6.33.1-6.33.3. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:6.33.1-6.33.3

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