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Herodotus · Histories §9.67.1

Clash Between Thebans and Athenians and the Theban Flight

Passage 1522 of 1577 · Greek

Summary

While Artabazus's forces retreated, the pro-Persian Thebans fought fiercely against the Athenians, suffering heavy casualties, including three hundred of their best men. Upon their defeat, they fled to Thebes by a route different from that taken by the fleeing Persians and other allies.

§9.67.1καὶ δὴ οὗτοι μὲν ταύτῃ ἐτράποντο·
And indeed these turned in this direction.
τῶν δὲ ἄλλων Ἑλλήνων τῶν μετὰ βασιλέος ἐθελοκακεόντων Βοιωτοὶ Ἀθηναίοισι ἐμαχέσαντο χρόνον ἐπὶ συχνόν.
But while the other Greeks on the King's side were deliberately slack, the Boeotians fought against the Athenians for a long time.
οἱ γὰρ μηδίζοντες τῶν Θηβαίων, οὗτοι εἶχον προθυμίην οὐκ ὀλίγην μαχόμενοί τε καὶ οὐκ ἐθελοκακέοντες, οὕτω ὥστε τριηκόσιοι αὐτῶν οἱ πρῶτοι καὶ ἄριστοι ἐνθαῦτα ἔπεσον ὑπὸ Ἀθηναίων.
For those of the Thebans who sided with the Persians showed no small zeal, fighting and not shirking, so that three hundred of their foremost and best men fell there at the hands of the Athenians.
ὡς δὲ ἐτράποντο καὶ οὗτοι, ἔφευγον ἐς τὰς Θήβας, οὐ τῇ περ οἱ Πέρσαι καὶ τῶν ἄλλων συμμάχων ὁ πᾶς ὅμιλος, οὔτε διαμαχεσάμενος οὐδενὶ οὔτε τι ἀποδεξάμενος, ἔφευγον.
When these too were turned, they fled to Thebes, fleeing not by the same way as the Persians and the whole multitude of the other allies, who had fled without having fought through to the end with anyone or accomplished any deed of valor.

Notes

  1. 9.67.1τῶν δὲ ἄλλων Ἑλλήνων τῶν μετὰ βασιλέος ἐθελοκακεόντων — Genitive absolute expressing concession or contrast to the main clause: "while the other Greeks on the King's side were deliberately slack."
  2. 9.67.1οὐ τῇ περ — The dative feminine singular relative pronoun (or adverb) τῇ implies the ellipsis of the noun ὁδῷ ("way, road"), meaning "by the same way as...".
  3. 9.67.1οὔτε διαμαχεσάμενος οὐδενὶ οὔτε τι ἀποδεξάμενος — The nominative singular participles διαμαχεσάμενος and ἀποδεξάμενος grammatically agree with the collective noun ὁ πᾶς ὅμιλος ("the whole multitude").
  4. 9.67.1ἔφευγον... ἔφευγον — Repetition of the main verb ἔφευγον. Because the main clause ("they fled to Thebes") is interrupted by a long comparative clause ("not by the same way as..."), the verb is repeated at the end to close the sentence.

Cite this passage

Herodotus, Histories §9.67.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:9.67.1

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