Humanitext Reader

Diodorus Siculus · Bibliotheca Historica §11.19.1-11.19.6

Victory at Salamis and the Retreat of Xerxes

Passage 20 of 723 · Greek

Summary

The Battle of Salamis ends in a Greek victory with heavy Persian losses. Themistocles deceives King Xerxes into believing his retreat to Asia is about to be cut off, causing the king to withdraw the bulk of his land army from Greece.

§11.19.1τῶν δὲ Φοινισσῶν καὶ Κυπρίων νεῶν ὑπὸ τῶν Ἀθηναίων χειρουμένων, αἱ τῶν Κιλίκων καὶ Παμφύλων, ἔτι δὲ Λυκίων νῆες, ἐχόμεναι τούτων οὖσαι, τὸ μὲν πρῶτον εὐρώστως ἀντείχοντο, ὡς δʼ εἶδον τὰς κρατίστας ναῦς πρὸς φυγὴν ὡρμημένας, καὶ αὐταὶ τὸν κίνδυνον ἐξέλιπον.
When the Phoenician and Cyprian ships were being worsted by the Athenians, the ships of the Cilicians and Pamphylians, and also of the Lycians, which were adjacent to them, at first held out vigorously; but when they saw the strongest ships turned to flight, they too abandoned the struggle.
§11.19.2ἐπὶ δὲ θατέρου κέρατος γενομένης καρτερᾶς ναυμαχίας μέχρι μέν τινος ἰσόρροπος ἦν ὁ κίνδυνος· ὡς δὲ οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι πρὸς τὴν γῆν καταδιώξαντες τοὺς Φοίνικας καὶ Κυπρίους ἐπέστρεψαν, ἐκβιασθέντες ὑπὸ τούτων ἐτράπησαν οἱ βάρβαροι καὶ πολλὰς ναῦς ἀπέβαλον.
On the other wing, a fierce sea-battle took place, and for a certain time the conflict was evenly balanced; but when the Athenians, after pursuing the Phoenicians and Cyprians to the land, turned back, the barbarians, forced back by them, were put to flight and lost many ships.
§11.19.3οἱ μὲν οὖν Ἕλληνες τοῦτον τὸν τρόπον προτερήσαντες ἐπιφανεστάτῃ ναυμαχίᾳ τοὺς βαρβάρους ἐνίκησαν· κατὰ δὲ τὸν κίνδυνον διεφθάρησαν νῆες τῶν μὲν Ἑλλήνων τετταράκοντα, τῶν δὲ Περσῶν ὑπὲρ τὰς διακοσίας χωρὶς τῶν σὺν αὐτοῖς ἀνδράσι ληφθεισῶν.
In this manner, then, the Greeks, having gained the upper hand, defeated the barbarians in a most famous sea-battle; and in the conflict forty ships of the Greeks were destroyed, and of the Persians over two hundred, apart from those that were captured together with their crews.
§11.19.4ὁ δὲ βασιλεὺς παρʼ ἐλπίδας ἡττημένος τῶν μὲν Φοινίκων τῶν ἀρξάντων τῆς φυγῆς τοὺς αἰτιωτάτους ἀπέκτεινε, τοῖς δʼ ἄλλοις ἠπείλησεν ἐπιθήσειν τὴν προσήκουσαν τιμωρίαν.
The king, defeated contrary to his expectations, put to death those most responsible among the Phoenicians who had begun the flight, and threatened the others that he would inflict the fitting punishment.
οἱ δὲ Φοίνικες φοβηθέντες τὰς ἀπειλὰς τὸ μὲν πρῶτον εἰς τὴν Ἀττικὴν κατέπλευσαν, τῆς δὲ νυκτὸς ἐπιγενομένης ἀπῆραν εἰς τὴν Ἀσίαν.
The Phoenicians, fearing the threats, at first sailed down to Attica, but when night came on, they set sail for Asia.
§11.19.5Θεμιστοκλῆς δὲ δόξας αἴτιος γενέσθαι τῆς νίκης, ἕτερον οὐκ ἔλαττον τούτου στρατήγημα ἐπενόησε.
And Themistocles, having been thought to be the cause of the victory, devised another stratagem no less important than this.
φοβουμένων γὰρ τῶν Ἑλλήνων πεζῇ διαγωνίζεσθαι πρὸς τοσαύτας μυριάδας, ἐταπείνωσε πολὺ τὰς δυνάμεις τῶν πεζῶν στρατοπέδων τοιῷδέ τινι τρόπῳ. τὸν παιδαγωγὸν τῶν ἰδίων υἱῶν ἀπέστειλε πρὸς τὸν Ξέρξην δηλώσοντα, διότι μέλλουσιν οἱ Ἕλληνες πλεύσαντες ἐπὶ τὸ ζεῦγμα λύειν τὴν γέφυραν.
For since the Greeks were afraid to contend on land against so many myriads, he greatly weakened the forces of the land armies in some such manner: he sent the tutor of his own sons to Xerxes to declare that the Greeks were about to sail to the bridge of boats to destroy the bridge.
§11.19.6διόπερ ὁ βασιλεὺς πιστεύσας τοῖς λόγοις διὰ τὴν πιθανότητα, περίφοβος ἐγένετο μὴ τῆς εἰς τὴν Ἀσίαν ἐπανόδου στερηθῇ, τῶν Ἑλλήνων θαλαττοκρατούντων, ἔγνω δὲ τὴν ταχίστην διαβαίνειν ἐκ τῆς Εὐρώπης εἰς τὴν Ἀσίαν, καταλιπὼν Μαρδόνιον ἐπὶ τῆς Ἑλλάδος μετὰ τῶν ἀρίστων ἱππέων τε καὶ πεζῶν, ὧν ὁ σύμπας ἀριθμὸς ὑπῆρχεν οὐκ ἐλάττων τῶν τετταράκοντα μυριάδων.
Therefore the king, believing the words because of their plausibility, became terrified lest he should be deprived of his return to Asia, since the Greeks ruled the sea; and he resolved to cross as quickly as possible from Europe into Asia, leaving Mardonius in Greece with the best of both the cavalry and the infantry, of whom the total number was not less than forty myriads.
Θεμιστοκλῆς μὲν οὖν δυσὶ στρατηγήμασι χρησάμενος μεγάλων προτερημάτων αἴτιος ἐγένετο τοῖς Ἕλλησι.
Thus Themistocles, by employing two stratagems, became the cause of great successes for the Greeks.
καὶ τὰ μὲν κατὰ τὴν Ἑλλάδα πραχθέντα ἐν τούτοις ἦν.
And such were the events that took place in Greece.

Notes

  1. §11.19.1ἐχόμεναι τούτων οὖσαι — ἐχόμεναι is the present middle/passive participle, nominative feminine plural, modifying the subject αἱ... νῆες. The middle voice ἔχομαι takes a genitive (τούτων, referring to the Phoenician and Cyprian ships) in the sense of 'being adjacent to' or 'next to.' The combination with οὖσαι (participle of εἰμί) emphasizes their status.
  2. §11.19.2ἐκβιασθέντες ὑπὸ τούτων — Regarding the referent of the demonstrative pronoun τούτων (genitive plural). In this context, it refers to οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι (the Athenians), who are the subject of the immediately preceding clause. It indicates the causal relation that the barbarians (οἱ βάρβαροι) were forced back because the Athenians turned back and attacked them.
  3. §11.19.3χωρὶς τῶν σὺν αὐτοῖς ἀνδράσι ληφθεισῶν — ληφθεισῶν is the first aorist passive participle, genitive feminine plural, of λαμβάνω, agreeing with the implied νεῶν from the previous clause, meaning '(ships) having been captured.' χωρίς is a preposition governing the genitive. αὐτοῖς modifies ἀνδράσι (men, meaning the crews/soldiers), meaning 'together with the men themselves.'
  4. §11.19.5δηλώσοντα, διότι — δηλώσοντα is the future active participle, accusative masculine singular, of δηλόω, expressing purpose and modifying the preceding παιδαγωγόν. While διότι usually means 'because' in classical prose, in Hellenistic and subsequent Greek (such as Koine), it is frequently used like ὅτι to introduce a noun clause representing the content of statement ('that'). Here it introduces the reported message.

Cite this passage

Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica §11.19.1-11.19.6. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0060.tlg001.humanitext-grc4:11.19.1-11.19.6

Please note the AI-draft status of the translation and the date accessed.

Translation, notes and summary are AI-generated drafts, revised through reader feedback.