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Herodotus · Histories §8.68C.1

Artemisia on the Risks of Sea Battle and Useless Allies

Passage 1376 of 1577 · Greek

Summary

Artemisia warns against rushing into a sea-battle, noting that a defeat could ruin the land army, and argues that Xerxes' allies are merely useless "bad slaves."

§8.68C.1ἢν δὲ αὐτίκα ἐπειχθῇς ναυμαχῆσαι, δειμαίνω μὴ ὁ ναυτικὸς στρατὸς κακωθεὶς τὸν πεζὸν προσδηλήσηται.
But if you rush to fight a sea-battle immediately, I fear lest the fleet, if defeated, may bring ruin upon the land army as well.
πρὸς δὲ, ὦ βασιλεῦ, καὶ τόδε ἐς θυμὸν βάλευ, ὡς τοῖσι μὲν χρηστοῖσι τῶν ἀνθρώπων κακοὶ δοῦλοι φιλέουσι γίνεσθαι, τοῖσι δὲ κακοῖσι χρηστοί.
Moreover, O King, lay this also to heart, that good men tend to have bad slaves, and bad men good ones.
σοὶ δὲ ἐόντι ἀρίστῳ ἀνδρῶν πάντων κακοὶ δοῦλοι εἰσί, οἳ ἐν συμμάχων λόγῳ λέγονται εἶναι ἐόντες Αἰγύπτιοί τε καὶ Κύπριοι καὶ Κίλικες καὶ Πάμφυλοι, τῶν ὄφελος ἐστὶ οὐδέν.
And to you, who are the best of all men, there belong bad slaves, those who are said to be in the rank of allies, being Egyptians, Cyprians, Cilicians, and Pamphylians, of whom there is no use at all.

Notes

  1. §8.68C.1δειμαίνω μὴ — An object clause introduced by a verb of fearing, meaning 'fear lest' or 'fear that'. It takes the subjunctive; here, the aorist active subjunctive third person singular προσδηλήσηται ('bring ruin in addition' or 'harm further') is used.
  2. §8.68C.1ἐς θυμὸν βάλευ — An idiomatic expression meaning 'lay to heart' or 'take to mind'. The second-person singular aorist middle imperative of the verb βάλλω, which would be βάλου in Attic, appears here in its Ionic contracted form -ευ (contracted from -εο).
  3. §8.68C.1τῶν ὄφελος ἐστὶ οὐδέν — The genitive of the relative pronoun τῶν (referring to the preceding allies like Egyptians, etc.) modifies the neuter noun ὄφελος ('advantage' or 'use'), which is commonly used with or without ἐστί. It means 'of whom there is no use/benefit at all.'

Cite this passage

Herodotus, Histories §8.68C.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:8.68C.1

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