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Herodotus · Histories §7.233.1-7.233.2

Surrender of the Thebans and Royal Branding

Passage 1296 of 1577 · Greek

Summary

The Thebans surrendered to the Persians by claiming their loyalty but most were branded with royal marks. Their commander Leontiades' son was later killed by Plataeans.

§7.233.1οἱ δὲ Θηβαῖοι, τῶν ὁ Λεοντιάδης ἐστρατήγεε, τέως μὲν μετὰ τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἐόντες ἐμάχοντο ὑπʼ ἀναγκαίης ἐχόμενοι πρὸς τὴν βασιλέος στρατιήν·
But the Thebans, whom Leontiades commanded, remained for a time with the Greeks and fought against the king's army under constraint.
ὡς δὲ εἶδον κατυπέρτερα τῶν Περσέων γινόμενα τὰ πρήγματα, οὕτω δή, τῶν σὺν Λεωνίδῃ Ἑλλήνων ἐπειγομένων ἐπὶ τὸν κολωνόν, ἀποσχισθέντες τούτων χεῖράς τε προέτεινον καὶ ἤισαν ἆσσον τῶν βαρβάρων, λέγοντες τὸν ἀληθέστατον τῶν λόγων, ὡς καὶ μηδίζουσι καὶ γῆν τε καὶ ὕδωρ ἐν πρώτοισι ἔδοσαν βασιλέι, ὑπὸ δὲ ἀναγκαίης ἐχόμενοι ἐς Θερμοπύλας ἀπικοίατο καὶ ἀναίτιοι εἶεν τοῦ τρώματος τοῦ γεγονότος βασιλέι.
When, however, they saw the fortunes of the Persians becoming superior, just then, while the Greeks with Leonidas were hurrying to the hill, they separated themselves from these, stretched out their hands, and went closer to the barbarians, saying what was the truest of claims: that they were on the side of the Medes and had been among the first to give earth and water to the king, and that they had come to Thermopylae held by constraint, and were guiltless of the harm done to the king.
§7.233.2ὥστε ταῦτα λέγοντες περιεγίνοντο· εἶχον γὰρ καὶ Θεσσαλοὺς τούτων τῶν λόγων μάρτυρας·
So by saying this they saved themselves, for they had the Thessalians as witnesses to these words.
οὐ μέντοι τά γε πάντα εὐτύχησαν· ὡς γὰρ αὐτοὺς ἔλαβον οἱ βάρβαροι ἐλθόντας, τοὺς μὲν τινὰς καὶ ἀπέκτειναν προσιόντας, τοὺς δὲ πλεῦνας αὐτῶν κελεύσαντος Ξέρξεω ἔστιζον στίγματα βασιλήια, ἀρξάμενοι ἀπὸ τοῦ στρατηγοῦ Λεοντιάδεω· τοῦ τὸν παῖδα Εὐρύμαχον χρόνῳ μετέπειτα ἐφόνευσαν Πλαταιέες στρατηγήσαντα ἀνδρῶν Θηβαίων τετρακοσίων καὶ σχόντα τὸ ἄστυ τὸ Πλαταιέων.
Yet they did not fare well in all respects; for when the barbarians took them as they came, they killed some of them even as they approached, and the majority of them, by command of Xerxes, they branded with the royal marks, beginning with their general, Leontiades, whose son Eurymachus was in after times slain by the Plataeans, when he had commanded four hundred Thebans and seized the town of the Plataeans.

Notes

  1. 7.233.1ὑπʼ ἀναγκαίης ἐχόμενοι — The present passive participle ἐχόμενοι ('being held' or 'constrained') combined with the prepositional phrase ὑπʼ ἀναγκαίης ('by necessity/constraint') expresses a passive meaning: 'held by constraint' or 'forced'.
  2. 7.233.1τὸν ἀληθέστατον τῶν λόγων — This expression, 'the truest of claims/words' using the superlative adjective, carries Herodotus' characteristic irony, suggesting that this was the most convincing or advantageous excuse for the Persians. The following ὡς clause explains its content in apposition.
  3. 7.233.1ἀπικοίατο — An Ionic dialect form for the third-person plural aorist optative, equivalent to Attic ἀπίκοιντο. Because the main verb (λέγοντες) is in a past context, the indicative aorist (ἀπίκοντο) is shifted to the optative in indirect discourse. Similarly, the following εἶεν is a present optative shifted from the present indicative (εἰσί).
  4. 7.233.2τοῦ τὸν παῖδα — The genitive of the relative pronoun τοῦ (referring back to Λεοντιάδεω in the previous sentence) functions connectively and modifies the following noun τὸν παῖδα ('the son'), meaning 'whose son' or 'the son of this man'.

Cite this passage

Herodotus, Histories §7.233.1-7.233.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:7.233.1-7.233.2

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