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Diodorus Siculus · Bibliotheca Historica §12.59.1-12.59.5

Major Earthquakes in Greece and Foundation of Heracleia

Passage 153 of 723 · Greek

Summary

This passage describes how the Lacedaemonian invasion of Attica was aborted due to earthquakes, the geographical changes caused by these severe earthquakes, and the foundation of the populous colony of Heracleia in Trachis by the Lacedaemonians.

§12.59.1τῶν δʼ Ἀθηναίων περὶ ταῦτʼ ἀσχολουμένων Λακεδαιμόνιοι τοὺς Πελοποννησίους παραλαβόντες κατεστρατοπέδευσαν περὶ τὸν ἰσθμόν, διανοούμενοι πάλιν εἰς τὴν Ἀττικὴν εἰσβαλεῖν· σεισμῶν δὲ μεγάλων γινομένων δεισιδαιμονήσαντες ἀνέκαμψαν εἰς τὰς πατρίδας.
While the Athenians were occupied with these matters, the Lacedaemonians, taking the Peloponnesians with them, encamped near the Isthmus, intending to invade Attica again; but when great earthquakes occurred, they returned to their own countries out of superstitious fear.
§12.59.2τηλικούτους δὲ τοὺς σεισμοὺς συνέβη γενέσθαι κατὰ πολλὰ μέρη τῆς Ἑλλάδος, ὥστε καὶ πόλεις τινὰς ἐπιθαλαττίους ἐπικλύσασαν τὴν θάλατταν διαφθεῖραι, καὶ κατὰ τὴν Λοκρίδα χερρονήσου καθεστώσης ῥῆξαι μὲν τὸν ἰσθμόν, ποιῆσαι δὲ νῆσον τὴν ὀνομαζομένην Ἀταλάντην.
And it happened that these earthquakes were so great in many parts of Greece that the sea, overflowing, destroyed certain coastal cities, and in Locris, where there was a peninsula, it broke through the isthmus and made an island named Atalante.
§12.59.3ἅμα δὲ τούτοις πραττομένοις Λακεδαιμόνιοι τὴν Τραχῖνα καλουμένην ᾤκισαν καὶ μετωνόμασαν Ἡράκλειαν διὰ τοιαύτας τινὰς αἰτίας.
At the same time that these things were being done, the Lacedaemonians settled the place called Trachis and renamed it Heracleia for some such reasons as follows.
§12.59.4Τραχίνιοι πρὸς Οἰταίους ὁμόρους ὄντας ἔτη πολλὰ διεπολέμουν καὶ τοὺς πλείους τῶν πολιτῶν ἀπέβαλον.
The Trachinians had been at war for many years with their neighbors, the Oetaeans, and had lost most of their citizens.
ἐρήμου δʼ οὔσης τῆς πόλεως ἠξίωσαν Λακεδαιμονίους ὄντας ἀποίκους ἐπιμεληθῆναι τῆς πόλεως.
Since their city was deserted, they requested the Lacedaemonians, as being founders of colonies, to take charge of the city.
οἱ δὲ καὶ διὰ τὴν συγγένειαν καὶ διὰ τὸ τὸν Ἡρακλέα, πρόγονον ἑαυτῶν ὄντα, ἐγκατῳκηκέναι κατὰ τοὺς ἀρχαίους χρόνους ἐν τῇ Τραχῖνι, ἔγνωσαν μεγάλην αὐτὴν ποιῆσαι πόλιν.
And the Lacedaemonians, both because of their kinship and because Heracles, who was their ancestor, had dwelt in Trachis in ancient times, resolved to make it a great city.
§12.59.5διὸ καὶ Λακεδαιμονίων μὲν καὶ τῶν Πελοποννησίων τετρακισχιλίους οἰκήτορας ἐκπεμψάντων, καὶ παρὰ τῶν ἄλλων Ἑλλήνων τοὺς βουλομένους μετέχειν τῆς ἀποικίας προσεδέξαντο· οὗτοι δʼ ἦσαν οὐκ ἐλάττους τῶν ἑξακισχιλίων.
Therefore, while the Lacedaemonians and the Peloponnesians sent out four thousand settlers, they also accepted from the other Greeks those who wished to share in the colony; and these were not fewer than six thousand.
διὸ καὶ τὴν Τραχῖνα μυρίανδρον ποιήσαντες, καὶ τὴν χώραν κατακληρουχήσαντες, ὠνόμασαν τὴν πόλιν Ἡράκλειαν.
Having thus made Trachis a city of ten thousand men and having distributed the land in allotments, they named the city Heracleia.

Notes

  1. §12.59.2ἐπικλύσασαν τὴν θάλατταν διαφθεῖραι — In this ὥστε clause of result, the feminine singular accusative noun τὴν θάλατταν (the sea), accompanied by the participle ἐπικλύσασαν (having overflowed), acts as the subject of the infinitive διαφθεῖραι. Its object is the feminine plural accusative πόλεις τινὰς ἐπιθαλαττίους (certain coastal cities).
  2. §12.59.4ὄντας ἀποίκους — A participial phrase modifying the accusative Λακεδαιμονίους. While ἄποικος usually means 'colonist', here it has the sense of 'colony founders' or 'metropolis of the colony', reflecting that the Trachinians requested the Lacedaemonians as leaders or patrons for their new settlement.
  3. §12.59.5προσεδέξαντο — The main verb of the sentence. Although the preceding μὲν clause (Λακεδαιμονίων... ἐκπεμψάντων) is structured as a genitive absolute, the unexpressed subject of the main verb προσεδέξαντο is also 'the Lacedaemonians', representing an irregular use where the subject of the genitive absolute is identical to that of the main clause.

Cite this passage

Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica §12.59.1-12.59.5. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0060.tlg001.humanitext-grc4:12.59.1-12.59.5

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