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Dionysius of Halicarnassus · Roman Antiquities §6.80.1-6.80.4

Justification for Migration and Demand for Families' Return

Passage 486 of 962 · Greek

Summary

The speaker cites ancestors like Aeneas and Romulus as examples, asserting that their migration possesses both greater strength and a more just cause. He bids farewell, declaring that they will depart peacefully without bloodshed, demanding only the return of their remaining children, parents, and wives.

§6.80.1παραδείγματα δὲ τούτων γενέσθωσαν ἡμῖν πολλοί τε Ἕλληνες πολλοί τε βάρβαροι, μάλιστα δʼ οἱ τούτων τε καὶ ἡμῶν πρόγονοι· ὧν οἱ μὲν μετʼ Αἰνείου συναναστάντες ἐκ τῆς Ἀσίας εἰς τὴν Εὐρώπην ἐν τῇ Λατίνων γῇ πόλιν ᾤκισαν, οἱ δʼ ὕστερον ἐξ Ἄλβας ἀναστάντες Ῥωμύλου τὴν ἀποικίαν ἄγοντος ἐν τοῖσδε τοῖς τόποις ἱδρύσαντο τὴν ὑφʼ ἡμῶν ἐκλειπομένην.
And let many Greeks and many barbarians, and especially the ancestors of both these men and ourselves, be examples to us of these things; of whom some, having set out with Aeneas from Asia to Europe, founded a city in the land of the Latins, while others later, having set out from Alba when Romulus was leading the colony, established in these very places the city that is now being abandoned by us.
§6.80.2ὑπάρχει τε ἡμῖν δύναμις οὐκ ὀλίγῳ πλείων μόνον τῆς ἐκείνοις γενομένης, ἀλλὰ καὶ τριπλασία, καὶ πρόφασις δικαιοτέρα τῆς μεταναστάσεως.
And we possess a force not only slightly greater than that which they had, but even threefold, and a more just cause for our migration.
οἱ μέν γε ἐξ Ἰλίου μεταναστάντες ὑπὸ πολεμίων ἐξηλαύνοντο, ἡμεῖς δʼ αὐτόθεν ὑπὸ φίλων· ἐλεεινότερον δὲ δήπου τὸ πρὸς τῶν οἰκείων ἢ τῶν ἀλλοτρίων ἐλαύνεσθαι.
For those who migrated from Ilium were driven out by enemies, but we are driven out from this very place by friends; and it is surely more pitiable to be driven out by one's own people than by strangers.
οἱ δὲ Ῥωμύλῳ §6.80.3συναράμενοι τῆς στρατείας ἐπὶ τῷ κτήσασθαι κρείττονα γῆν ὑπερεῖδον τῆς πατρῴας· ἡμεῖς δὲ τὸν ἄπολιν καὶ τὸν ἀνέστιον ἐκλείποντες βίον, οὔτε θεοῖς ἐπίφθονον οὔτε ἀνθρώποις λυπηρὰν οὔτε γῇ τινι βαρεῖαν στέλλομεν ἀποικίαν, οὐδὲ διʼ αἵματος καὶ φόνων ἐμφυλίων ἐλθόντες πρὸς τοὺς ἀπελαύνοντας ἡμᾶς, οὐδὲ πυρὶ καὶ σιδήρῳ κακώσαντες τὴν ἐκλειπομένην γῆν, οὐδʼ ἄλλο μνημόσυνον οὐδὲν αἰωνίου καταλιπόντες ἔχθρας, ὡς ταῖς παρεσπονδημέναις φυγαῖς καὶ εἰς ἀβουλήτους ἀνάγκας κατακλεισθείσαις ἔθος ἐστὶ §6.80.4δρᾶν.
And those who with Romulus having joined in the expedition for the purpose of acquiring a better land, looked down upon their ancestral land; but we, leaving behind a life without a city and without a hearth, are sending forth a colony that is neither offensive to the gods, nor painful to men, nor burdensome to any land, neither having resorted to blood and civil slaughter against those who drive us out, nor having damaged with fire and sword the land we are leaving, nor leaving behind any other monument of eternal enmity, as is the custom of those exiles who have been perfidiously treated and driven into involuntary necessities to do.
θεούς τε ἐπιμαρτυράμενοι καὶ δαίμονας, οἳ τὰ θνητὰ πάντα κατὰ δίκην ἄγουσι, καὶ καταλιπόντες ἐκείνοις ἀναπράξασθαι τὰς ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν δίκας, ἐκεῖνο μόνον ἀξιοῦμεν, οἷς ἐστιν ἡμῶν ἐν τῇ πόλει τέκνα νήπια καὶ γονεῖς καὶ εἴ τινες ἄρα γυναῖκες ἡμῖν ἐθελήσουσι κοινωνεῖν τῆς τύχης, τὰ σώματʼ ἀπολαβεῖν.
Having called to witness the gods and deities who guide all mortal affairs according to justice, and having left it to them to exact justice on our behalf, we demand only this: that those of us who have infant children and parents in the city, and if indeed any wives wish to share our fortune, should recover their persons.
ταῦθʼ ἡμῖν ἀπόχρη λαβεῖν, καὶ οὐκέτι οὐδενὸς ἄλλου δεόμεθα τῶν ἐκ τῆς πατρίδος.
It is enough for us to receive these, and we no longer need any other of the things from our fatherland.
ἀλλʼ εὐτυχεῖτε καὶ ζῆτε βίον, ὃν ἂν προαιρῆσθε, οὕτως ἀπολίτευτα καὶ ἀκοινώνητα πρὸς τοὺς ταπεινοτέρους φρονοῦντες.
But fare you well, and live whatever life you choose, holding such unsocial and uncooperative thoughts toward those who are humbler.

Notes

  1. 6.80.1τούτων — A neuter plural genitive referring to the general situation or fate of migrations mentioned in the previous chapter, serving as an explanatory genitive with the noun παραδείγματα. Interpreting it as masculine referring to 'these men' (the patricians) is contextually unnatural.
  2. 6.80.3παρεσπονδημέναις φυγαῖς — The abstract noun φυγαῖς (flights, exiles) is used metonymically here to refer to concrete groups of 'exiles' or 'banished people'. The perfect passive participle παρεσπονδημέναις (betrayed, perfidiously treated) indicates that these exiles have been treated in bad faith.
  3. 6.80.4οἷς ἐστιν ἡμῶν... τὰ σώματʼ ἀπολαβεῖν — The infinitive phrase τὰ σώματʼ ἀπολαβεῖν (to recover their persons) depends on the main verb ἀξιῶ (to demand). The relative clause οἷς ἐστιν ἡμῶν... acts as the logical subject of this infinitive via a dative of possession ('that those of us to whom there are... should recover...'). Furthermore, τὰ σώματα (bodies) is used idiomatically to mean 'persons' or 'family members'.

Cite this passage

Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities §6.80.1-6.80.4. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:6.80.1-6.80.4

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