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Herodotus · Histories §9.3.1-9.3.2

Mardonius' Recapture of the Deserted Athens

Passage 1456 of 1577 · Greek

Summary

Mardonius rejects the advice of the Thebans and recaptures Athens to report it to the King, only to find the city already deserted by its citizens.

§9.3.1οἳ μὲν ταῦτα συνεβούλευον, ὁ δὲ οὐκ ἐπείθετο, ἀλλά οἱ δεινὸς ἐνέστακτο ἵμερος τὰς Ἀθήνας δεύτερα ἑλεῖν, ἅμα μὲν ὑπʼ ἀγνωμοσύνης, ἅμα δὲ πυρσοῖσι διὰ νήσων ἐδόκεε βασιλέι δηλώσειν ἐόντι ἐν Σάρδισι ὅτι ἔχοι Ἀθήνας·
They gave this advice, but he was not persuaded; rather, a fierce desire had been instilled in him to capture Athens a second time, partly due to his stubbornness, and partly because he thought he would signal to the King, who was in Sardis, by means of fire-signals through the islands, that he held Athens.
§9.3.2ὃς οὐδὲ τότε ἀπικόμενος ἐς τὴν Ἀττικὴν εὗρε τοὺς Ἀθηναίους, ἀλλʼ ἔν τε Σαλαμῖνι τοὺς πλείστους ἐπυνθάνετο εἶναι ἔν τε τῇσι νηυσί, αἱρέει τε ἔρημον τὸ ἄστυ.
And so when he arrived in Attica, not even then did he find the Athenians, but he learned that most of them were either in Salamis or on board the ships, and he captured the city deserted.
ἡ δὲ βασιλέος αἵρεσις ἐς τὴν ὑστέρην τὴν Μαρδονίου ἐπιστρατηίην δεκάμηνος ἐγένετο.
Ten months had elapsed from the King's capture of the city to this later expedition of Mardonius.

Notes

  1. §9.3.1ἐδόκεε — The verb ἐδόκεε can be interpreted either personally with Mardonius as the subject ('he thought/intended to show') or impersonally ('it seemed likely that...'). Here, the personal interpretation is adopted. In Herodotus, δοκέω with a nominative subject and a future infinitive frequently means 'to intend to' or 'to think that one will'.
  2. §9.3.2ὃς — The relative pronoun ὃς at the beginning of the sentence functions as a connective link ('and he', referring to Mardonius), similar to the 'qui connectivus' (connective relative) in Latin syntax.

Cite this passage

Herodotus, Histories §9.3.1-9.3.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:9.3.1-9.3.2

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