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Diodorus Siculus · Bibliotheca Historica §11.28.1-11.28.6

Athenian Rejection of Persia and Second Fall of Athens

Passage 29 of 723 · Greek

Summary

Ambassadors from the Persians and the Lacedaemonians arrive in Athens, where the Athenians reject the Persian proposals and request urgent aid from Sparta. However, due to Spartan delay, Mardonius' forces invade Attica, forcing the Athenians to flee once more to Salamis, and Athens is utterly devastated.

§11.28.1διαβοηθείσης δὲ τῆς τῶν Ἀθηναίων πρὸς τοὺς Ἕλληνας ἀλλοτριότητος, ἧκον εἰς τὰς Ἀθήνας πρέσβεις παρὰ Περσῶν καὶ παρὰ τῶν Ἑλλήνων.
When the estrangement of the Athenians toward the rest of the Greeks was rumored abroad, ambassadors came to Athens from the Persians and from the Greeks.
οἱ μὲν οὖν ὑπὸ τῶν Περσῶν ἀποσταλέντες ἔφασαν τὸν στρατηγὸν Μαρδόνιον ἐπαγγέλλεσθαι τοῖς Ἀθηναίοις, ἐὰν τὰ Περσῶν προέλωνται, δώσειν χώραν ἣν ἂν βούλωνται τῆς Ἑλλάδος, καὶ τὰ τείχη καὶ τοὺς ναοὺς πάλιν ἀνοικοδομήσειν, καὶ τὴν πόλιν ἐάσειν αὐτόνομον· οἱ δὲ παρὰ τῶν Λακεδαιμονίων πεμφθέντες ἠξίουν μὴ πεισθῆναι τοῖς βαρβάροις, ἀλλὰ τηρεῖν τὴν πρὸς τοὺς Ἕλληνας καὶ συγγενεῖς καὶ ὁμοφώνους εὔνοιαν.
Now those sent by the Persians said that the general Mardonius promised the Athenians that, if they should choose the cause of the Persians, he would give them whatever territory in Greece they wished, and rebuild their walls and temples again, and leave their city autonomous; but those sent by the Lacedaemonians demanded that they should not be persuaded by the barbarians, but should preserve their goodwill toward the Greeks, who were their kinsmen and spoke the same language.
§11.28.2οἱ δὲ Ἀθηναῖοι τοῖς βαρβάροις ἀπεκρίθησαν, ὡς οὔτε χώρα τοῖς Πέρσαις ἐστὶ τοιαύτη οὔτε χρυσὸς τοσοῦτος ὃν Ἀθηναῖοι δεξάμενοι τοὺς Ἕλληνας ἐγκαταλείψουσι· τοῖς δὲ Λακεδαιμονίοις εἶπον, ὡς αὐτοὶ μὲν ἣν πρότερον ἐποιοῦντο φροντίδα τῆς Ἑλλάδος καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα πειράσονται τὴν αὐτὴν διαφυλάττειν, ἐκείνους δʼ ἠξίουν τὴν ταχίστην ἐλθεῖν εἰς τὴν Ἀττικὴν μετὰ πάντων τῶν συμμάχων· πρόδηλον γὰρ εἶναι, διότι Μαρδόνιος, ἠναντιωμένων τῶν Ἀθηναίων αὐτῷ, μετὰ δυνάμεως ἥξει ἐπὶ τὰς Ἀθήνας.
The Athenians replied to the barbarians that there was neither any such territory nor so much gold in the possession of the Persians that the Athenians would accept it and abandon the Greeks; and to the Lacedaemonians they said that, as for themselves, they would try to preserve in the future the same concern for Greece which they had previously shown, but they demanded of them that they come to Attica with all their allies as quickly as possible; for it was obvious that, since the Athenians had opposed him, Mardonius would come with his army against Athens.
ὃ καὶ συνέβη γενέσθαι· §11.28.3ὁ γὰρ Μαρδόνιος ἐν τῇ Βοιωτίᾳ διατρίβων μετὰ τῶν δυνάμεων τὸ μὲν πρῶτον τῶν ἐν Πελοποννήσῳ πόλεων ἐπειρᾶτό τινας ἀφιστάνειν,χρήματα διαπεμπόμενος τοῖς προεστηκόσι τῶν πόλεων, μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα πυνθανόμενος τὴν τῶν Ἀθηναίων ἀπόκρισιν καὶ παροξυνθείς, ἅπασαν ἦγεν ἐπὶ τὴν Ἀττικὴν τὴν δύναμιν· §11.28.4χωρὶς γὰρ τῆς δεδομένης ὑπὸ Ξέρξου στρατιᾶς πολλοὺς ἄλλους αὐτὸς Μαρδόνιος ἐκ τῆς Θρᾴκης καὶ Μακεδονίας καὶ τῶν ἄλλων τῶν συμμαχίδων πόλεων ἠθροίκει, πλείους τῶν εἴκοσι μυριάδων.
And this is indeed what happened; for Mardonius, while staying in Boeotia with his forces, at first tried to make some of the cities in the Peloponnese revolt, sending money to the leading men of the cities, but afterwards, learning of the reply of the Athenians and being provoked, he led his entire force against Attica; for besides the army given to him by Xerxes, Mardonius himself had assembled many others from Thrace, Macedonia, and the other allied cities, to the number of more than two hundred thousand men.
§11.28.5τηλικαύτης δὲ δυνάμεως προαγούσης εἰς τὴν Ἀττικήν, οἱ μὲν Ἀθηναῖοι βιβλιαφόρους ἀπέστειλαν πρὸς τοὺς Λακεδαιμονίους δεόμενοι βοηθεῖν· βραδυνόντων δὲ αὐτῶν καὶ τῶν βαρβάρων ἐμβαλόντων εἰς τὴν Ἀττικήν, κατεπλάγησαν, καὶ πάλιν ἀναλαβόντες τέκνα καὶ γυναῖκας καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ὅσα δυνατὸν ἦν ταχέως ἀποκομίζειν, ἐξέλιπον τὴν πατρίδα καὶ συνέφυγον πάλιν εἰς τὴν Σαλαμῖνα.
When so great a force was advancing into Attica, the Athenians sent letter-carriers to the Lacedaemonians begging them to help; but since they delayed and the barbarians invaded Attica, they were struck with terror, and taking up again their children and wives and whatever other things it was possible to carry away quickly, they abandoned their native land and fled together again to Salamis.
§11.28.6ὁ δὲ Μαρδόνιος χαλεπῶς ἔχων πρὸς αὐτούς, τὴν χώραν ἅπασαν κατέφθειρε καὶ τὴν πόλιν κατέσκαψε καὶ τὰ ἱερὰ τὰ καταλελειμμένα παντελῶς ἐλυμήνατο.
And Mardonius, being enraged at them, devastated the entire country, razed the city to the ground, and utterly ruined the temples that had been left.

Notes

  1. 11.28.1ἐὰν τὰ Περσῶν προέλωνται — The neuter plural accusative τὰ Περσῶν (the affairs or cause of the Persians) serves as the direct object of the verb προαιρέομαι (to choose, prefer). The clause forms a future vivid conditional protasis (ἐάν with aorist subjunctive), meaning 'if they should choose the cause of the Persians.'
  2. 11.28.2ὃν Ἀθηναῖοι δεξάμενοι τοὺς Ἕλληνας ἐγκαταλείψουσι — The relative pronoun ὅν refers back to the antecedent χρυσός (gold). The circumstantial participle δεξάμενοι (receiving, if they receive) functions either temporally or conditionally (equivalent to εἰ δέξαιντο), modifying the main future indicative verb ἐγκαταλείψουσι (they will abandon). The future indicative in the relative clause emphasizes the certainty of the hypothetical result.
  3. 11.28.2πρόδηλον γὰρ εἶναι, διότι — The infinitive εἶναι indicates the continuation of the indirect discourse introduced by the preceding verb εἶπον (they said). The conjunction διότι here does not mean 'because', but is used as a substitute for ὅτι to introduce a noun clause ('that...'), which serves as the subject of the impersonal predicate πρόδηλον ([it is] clear).
  4. 11.28.3τῶν ἐν Πελοποννήσῳ πόλεων ἐπειρᾶτό τινας ἀφιστάνειν — The genitive phrase τῶν ἐν Πελοποννήσῳ πόλεων (of the cities in the Peloponnese) functions as a partitive genitive modifying the indefinite pronoun τινας (some). The word order is inverted (hyperbaton) to place the partitive genitive before its headword, lending it emphasis.
  5. 11.28.5βραδυνόντων δὲ αὐτῶν — A genitive absolute construction. The pronoun αὐτῶν refers to the Lacedaemonians and acts as the subject of the present participle βραδυνόντων (delaying). This construction is employed because the subject of the main verb (the Athenians, implied in κατεπλάγησαν) is different.

Cite this passage

Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica §11.28.1-11.28.6. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0060.tlg001.humanitext-grc4:11.28.1-11.28.6

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