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Dionysius of Halicarnassus · Roman Antiquities §12.7.1-12.7.2

Tribune's Impatience and the Enemy's Evasive Tactics

Passage 871 of 962 · Greek

Summary

While the Roman military tribune is eager for a quick victory, the enemy leader avoids a direct pitched battle, opting instead for deceits and stratagems to exploit any Roman mistake.

§12.7.1ἔσπευδε τὸν πόλεμον συντελέσαι ἐν ὀλίγαις ἡμέραις ὁ Ῥωμαίων χιλίαρχος ὡς δὴ ῥᾴδιόν τι πρᾶγμα καὶ κατὰ χειρὸς αὐτῷ γενησόμενον ὑποχειρίους ποιήσασθαι μίᾳ μάχῃ τοὺς πολεμίους.
The Roman military tribune hastened to finish the war in a few days, as if indeed it were an easy matter and within his power to subject the enemy in a single battle.
§12.7.2τῷ δὲ ἡγεμόνι τῶν πολεμίων ἐνθυμουμένῳ τό τε ἐμπειροπόλεμον τῶν Ῥωμαίων καὶ τὸ ἐν τοῖς κινδύνοις καρτερικὸν μάχην μὲν ἐκ παρατάξεως ἴσην καὶ φανερὰν ποιεῖσθαι πρὸς αὐτοὺς οὐκ ἐδόκει, διαστρατηγεῖν δὲ τὸν πόλεμον ἀπάταις τισὶ καὶ δόλοις καὶ παρατηρεῖν, εἴ τι πλεονέκτημα καθʼ ἑαυτῶν ἐκεῖνοι παρέξουσιν.
But to the leader of the enemy, who reflected on both the military experience of the Romans and their endurance in dangers, it did not seem best to engage in an equal and open pitched battle against them, but rather to conduct the war with certain deceits and stratagems, and to watch whether they would afford any advantage against themselves.
Τραυματίας καὶ παρασχεδὸν ἐλθὼν ἀποθανεῖν.
Wounded and having come very near to death.

Notes

  1. 12.7.1ὡς δὴ ῥᾴδιόν τι πρᾶγμα καὶ κατὰ χειρὸς αὐτῷ γενησόμενον — An accusative absolute construction introduced by the conjunction ὡς. Accompanying the participle of an impersonal verb/adjective (γενησόμενον), it expresses a subjective reason or expectation ('as if indeed', 'thinking that').
  2. 12.7.2καθʼ ἑαυτῶν — The reflexive pronoun ἑαυτῶν (third-person plural) refers to the subject of the subordinate clause, ἐκεῖνοι (the Romans), rather than the subject of the main clause (the enemy leader), meaning 'an advantage [to be used] against themselves (the Romans themselves),' i.e., giving an opening to their own disadvantage.
  3. 12.7.2παρασχεδὸν ἐλθὼν ἀποθανεῖν — A fragmentary phrase placed without a conjunction. The adverb παρασχεδόν ('almost, nearly') modifies the participle ἐλθών ('having come'), which governs the infinitive ἀποθανεῖν, forming an idiomatic expression meaning 'having come very near to dying.'

Cite this passage

Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities §12.7.1-12.7.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:12.7.1-12.7.2

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