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Pausanias · Description of Greece §1.9.6-1.9.8

Campaigns of Lysimachus and the Desecration Accusation

Passage 10 of 465 · Greek

Summary

The passage describes Lysimachus' campaigns against neighboring peoples and rival successors, his reconstruction of Ephesus, and the author's rejection of Hieronymus' claim that Lysimachus desecrated Epirote royal tombs.

§1.9.6τότε δὲ ὁ Λυσίμαχος πρώτοις τῶν περιοίκων ἐπολέμησεν Ὀδρύσαις, δεύτερα δὲ ἐπὶ Δρομιχαίτην καὶ Γέτας ἐστράτευσεν·
that time Lysimachus fought first among the neighboring peoples with the Odrysae, and secondly he marched against Dromichaetes and the Getae.
οἷα δὲ ἀνδράσι συμβαλὼν οὐκ ἀπείροις πολέμων, ἀριθμῷ δὲ καὶ πολὺ ὑπερβεβληκόσιν, αὐτὸς μὲν ἐς τὸ ἔσχατον ἐλθὼν κινδύνου διέφυγεν, ὁ δέ οἱ παῖς Ἀγαθοκλῆς συστρατευόμενος τότε πρῶτον ὑπὸ τῶν Γετῶν ἑάλω.
Having encountered men who were not inexperienced in war and far surpassed them in number, he himself escaped after reaching the extreme of danger, but his son Agathocles, who was campaigning with him, was then for the first time captured by the Getae.
Λυσίμαχος δὲ καὶ ὕστερον προσπταίσας μάχαις καὶ τὴν ἅλωσιν τοῦ παιδὸς οὐκ ἐν παρέργῳ ποιούμενος συνέθετο πρὸς Δρομιχαίτην εἰρήνην, τῆς τε ἀρχῆς τῆς αὑτοῦ τὰ πέραν Ἴστρου παρεὶς τῷ Γέτῃ καὶ θυγατέρα συνοικίσας ἀνάγκῃ τὸ πλέον·
Lysimachus, having met with setbacks in battles even later and not treating the capture of his son as a secondary matter, concluded peace with Dromichaetes, giving up to the Getan the parts of his own dominion beyond the Ister and marrying his daughter to him, largely out of necessity.
οἱ δὲ οὐκ Ἀγαθοκλέα, Λυσίμαχον δὲ αὐτὸν ἁλῶναι λέγουσιν, ἀνασωθῆναι δὲ Ἀγαθοκλέους τὰ πρὸς τὸν Γέτην ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ πράξαντος.
But some say that not Agathocles but Lysimachus himself was captured, and was saved by Agathocles negotiating with the Getan on his behalf.
ὡς δὲ ἐπανῆλθεν, Ἀγαθοκλεῖ Λυσάνδραν γυναῖκα ἠγάγετο, Πτολεμαίου τε τοῦ Λάγου καὶ Εὐρυδίκης οὖσαν. §1.9.7διέβη δὲ καὶ ναυσὶν ἐπὶ τὴν Ἀσίαν καὶ τὴν ἀρχὴν τὴν Ἀντιγόνου συγκαθεῖλε.
When he returned, he married Lysandra to Agathocles, who was the daughter of Ptolemy the son of Lagus and Eurydice. also crossed with ships to Asia and helped to overthrow the rule of Antigonus.
συνῴκισε δὲ καὶ Ἐφεσίων ἄχρι θαλάσσης τὴν νῦν πόλιν, ἐπαγαγόμενος ἐς αὐτὴν Λεβεδίους τε οἰκήτορας καὶ Κολοφωνίους, τὰς δὲ ἐκείνων ἀνελὼν πόλεις, ὡς Φοίνικα ἰάμβων ποιητὴν Κολοφωνίων θρηνῆσαι τὴν ἅλωσιν.
He also founded the present city of the Ephesians as far as the sea by bringing into it Lebedians and Colophonians as inhabitants, after destroying their cities, so that Phoenix, the iambic poet of the Colophonians, lamented its capture.
Ἑρμησιάναξ δὲ ὁ τὰ ἐλεγεῖα γράψας οὐκέτι ἐμοὶ δοκεῖν περιῆν· πάντως γάρ που καὶ αὐτὸς ἂν ἐπὶ ἁλούσῃ Κολοφῶνι ὠδύρατο.
Hermesianax, the writer of elegiacs, does not seem to me to have still been alive; for surely he too would have lamented for captured Colophon.
Λυσίμαχος δὲ καὶ ἐς πόλεμον πρὸς Πύρρον κατέστη τὸν Αἰακίδου· φυλάξας δὲ ἐξ Ἠπείρου ἀπιόντα, οἷα δὴ τὰ πολλὰ ἐκεῖνος ἐπλανᾶτο, τήν τε ἄλλην ἐλεηλάτησεν Ἤπειρον καὶ ἐπὶ τὰς θήκας ἦλθε τῶν βασιλέων. §1.9.8τὰ δὲ ἐντεῦθεν ἐμοί ἐστιν οὐ πιστά, Ἱερώνυμος δὲ ἔγραψε Καρδιανὸς Λυσίμαχον τὰς θήκας τῶν νεκρῶν ἀνελόντα τὰ ὀστᾶ ἐκρῖψαι.
Lysimachus also entered into a war against Pyrrhus, the son of Aeacides; having watched for his departure from Epirus, as indeed he often wandered, he plundered the rest of Epirus and went to the tombs of the kings. the events from this point are not credible to me; Hieronymus of Cardia wrote that Lysimachus, having destroyed the tombs of the dead, cast out the bones.
ὁ δὲ Ἱερώνυμος οὗτος ἔχει μὲν καὶ ἄλλως δόξαν πρὸς ἀπέχθειαν γράψαι τῶν βασιλέων πλὴν Ἀντιγόνου, τούτῳ δὲ οὐ δικαίως χαρίζεσθαι· τὰ δὲ ἐπὶ τοῖς τάφοις τῶν Ἠπειρωτῶν παντάπασίν ἐστι φανερὸς ἐπηρείᾳ συνθείς, ἄνδρα Μακεδόνα θήκας νεκρῶν ἀνελεῖν.
This Hieronymus indeed has a reputation in other respects for writing with hostility toward the kings except Antigonus, and for favoring him unjustly; but concerning the tombs of the Epiriotes, he is completely obvious in having composed it out of spite, that a Macedonian man would destroy the tombs of the dead.
χωρὶς δὲ ἠπίστατο δή που καὶ Λυσίμαχος οὐ Πύρρου σφᾶς προγόνους μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ Ἀλεξάνδρου τοὺς αὐτοὺς τούτους ὄντας· καὶ γὰρ Ἀλέξανδρος Ἠπειρώτης τε ἦν καὶ τῶν Αἰακιδῶν τὰ πρὸς μητρός, ἥ τε ὕστερον Πύρρου πρὸς Λυσίμαχον συμμαχία δηλοῖ καὶ πολεμήσασιν ἀδιάλλακτόν γε οὐδὲν πρὸς ἀλλήλους γενέσθαι σφίσι.
Moreover, Lysimachus surely knew that these were the ancestors not only of Pyrrhus but also of Alexander; for Alexander was both an Epiriote and of the Aeacidae on his mother's side, and the subsequent alliance of Pyrrhus with Lysimachus shows that, even though they fought, nothing irreconcilable arose between them.
τῷ δὲ Ἱερωνύμῳ τάχα μέν που καὶ ἄλλα ἦν ἐς Λυσίμαχον ἐγκλήματα, μέγιστον δὲ ὅτι τὴν Καρδιανῶν πόλιν ἀνελὼν Λυσιμάχειαν ἀντʼ αὐτῆς ᾤκισεν ἐπὶ τῷ ἰσθμῷ τῆς Θρᾳκίας χερρονήσου.
Perhaps Hieronymus had other charges against Lysimachus, but the greatest was that he destroyed the city of the Cardians and founded Lysimacheia in its place on the isthmus of the Thracian Chersonese.

Notes

  1. §1.9.6οἷα δὲ ἀνδράσι συμβαλὼν — The participle συμβαλὼν is nominative singular agreeing with the subject of the main clause (Lysimachus), and οἷα functions with the participle to emphasize the causal reason ("since he encountered...").
  2. §1.9.6τῆς τε ἀρχῆς τῆς αὑτοῦ τὰ πέραν Ἴστρου — The partitive genitive τῆς ἀρχῆς τῆς αὑτοῦ depends on the substantivized neuter plural phrase τὰ πέραν Ἴστρου (the regions beyond the Ister), which is the direct object of the participle παρεὶς.
  3. §1.9.7ἐμοὶ δοκεῖν — An absolute use of the infinitive in the parenthetical expression ἐμοὶ δοκεῖν ("in my opinion" or "as it seems to me").
  4. §1.9.7ἂν ... ὠδύρατο — The combination of the particle ἄν with the aorist indicative ὠδύρατο expresses a past contrary-to-fact condition ("he would have lamented [but he did not, because he was no longer alive]").
  5. §1.9.8ἐγκλήματα — The prepositional phrase ἐς Λυσίμαχον functions in place of an objective genitive with the noun ἐγκλήματα, indicating the target of the charges or grievances ("charges against Lysimachus").

Cite this passage

Pausanias, Description of Greece §1.9.6-1.9.8. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:1.9.6-1.9.8

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