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Polybius · The Histories §28.10.1-28.10.2

Perseus's Blame of Hippias and the Difficulty of Self-Knowledge

Passage 1102 of 1311 · Greek

Summary

Triggered by Perseus's blaming of Hippias after the Roman invasion of Macedonia, the author reflects on the ease of criticizing others versus the supreme difficulty of managing one's own affairs.

§28.10.1ὅτι ὁ Περσεὺς ἐπταικὼς τοῖς ὅλοις ἐπὶ τῷ εἰσελθεῖν Ῥωμαίους εἰς Μακεδονίαν τῷ Ἱππίᾳ ἐπετίμα.
Perseus, having suffered a decisive setback because the Romans had entered Macedonia, began to blame Hippias.
§28.10.2ἀλλά μοι δοκεῖ τὸ μὲν ἐπιτιμῆσαι τοῖς ἄλλοις εἶναι ῥᾴδιον καὶ συνιδεῖν τὰς τῶν πέλας ἁμαρτίας, τὸ δʼ αὐτὸν πράττειν τὰ δυνατὰ καὶ γνῶναι τὰ καθʼ αὑτὸν πάντων δυσχερέστατον.
But it seems to me that while it is easy to blame others and to see the errors of one's neighbors, to do what is in one's own power and to know one's own affairs is the most difficult of all things.
ὃ καὶ περὶ τὸν Περσέα συνέβη γενέσθαι. —
And this is precisely what happened in the case of Perseus. —

Notes

  1. §28.10.1ἐπταικὼς τοῖς ὅλοις — The participle ἐπταικώς (perfect active of πταίω, 'to stumble' or 'fail') is modified by τοῖς ὅλοις (dative neuter plural used adverbially to mean 'in the whole' or 'entirely'), meaning 'having failed utterly' or 'having suffered a decisive setback'.
  2. §28.10.1ἐπὶ τῷ εἰσελθεῖν Ῥωμαίους — The preposition ἐπί followed by the dative articular infinitive τῷ εἰσελθεῖν expresses the cause, with the accusative Ῥωμαίους acting as the subject accusative of the infinitive.
  3. §28.10.2τὸ μὲν ἐπιτιμῆσαι ... τὸ δʼ αὐτὸν πράττειν — Using the contrasting particles μέν and δέ, two articular infinitive clauses (one with the aorist ἐπιτιμῆσαι, the other with the present πράττειν) are contrasted. In the latter clause, the accusative αὐτόν serves as the subject of the infinitive.

Cite this passage

Polybius, The Histories §28.10.1-28.10.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0543.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:28.10.1-28.10.2

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