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Polybius · The Histories §31.30.1-31.30.4

Reasons for Recounting Scipio's Youth and Return to the Narrative

Passage 1204 of 1311 · Greek

Summary

The author explains his intention behind the detailed account of Scipio's youth, emphasizing its benefit to readers and its role in establishing credibility for future narratives, before returning from the digression to the main subject.

§31.30.1ἐγὼ δὲ πλείω πεποίημαι λόγον ὑπὲρ τῆς Σκιπίωνος αἱρέσεως ἐκ τῆς πρώτης ἡλικίας, ἡδεῖαν μὲν ὑπολαμβάνων εἶναι τοῖς πρεσβυτέροις, ὠφέλιμον δὲ τοῖς νέοις τὴν τοιαύτην ἱστορίαν, §31.30.2μάλιστα δὲ βουλόμενος πίστιν παρασκευάζειν τοῖς λέγεσθαι μέλλουσιν ἐν ταῖς ἑξῆς βύβλοις περὶ αὐτοῦ πρὸς τὸ μήτε διαπορεῖν τοὺς ἀκούοντας διὰ τὸ παράδοξά τινα φανήσεσθαι τῶν συμβαινόντων μετὰ ταῦτα περὶ αὐτόν, §31.30.3μήτʼ ἀφαιρουμένους τἀνδρὸς τὰ κατὰ λόγον γεγονότα κατορθώματα τῇ τύχῃ προσάπτειν, ἀγνοοῦντας τὰς αἰτίας, ἐξ ὧν ἕκαστα συνέβη γενέσθαι, πλὴν τελέως ὀλίγων, ἃ δεῖ μόνα προσάπτειν τῇ τύχῃ καὶ ταὐτομάτῳ.
But I have made a longer account of Scipio's choice of life from his early youth, considering that such history is pleasant to the older and useful to the younger, and especially because I wished to prepare belief in what is going to be said about him in the following books, so that the listeners may neither be perplexed because some of the events that happened to him after this will appear marvelous, nor, being ignorant of the causes from which each event happened to come about, deprive the man of his successes achieved in accordance with reason and attribute them to fortune, except for a very few, which alone must be attributed to fortune and chance.
§31.30.4ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον ἡμεῖς διεληλυθότες κατὰ τὴν παρέκβασιν αὖθις ἐπάνιμεν ἐπὶ τὴν ἐκτροπὴν τῆς ὑποκειμένης διηγήσεως.
Therefore, having gone through these matters to this extent in our digression, we shall return again to the departure point of our present narrative.

Notes

  1. §31.30.1ὑπολαμβάνων εἶναι... τὴν τοιαύτην ἱστορίαν — The participle ὑπολαμβάνων (nominative singular masculine) modifies the subject of the main clause 'I' (ἐγώ), taking an accusative-with-infinitive construction as its complement, where τὴν τοιαύτην ἱστορίαν is the subject accusative, ἡδεῖαν / ὠφέλιμον are the predicate adjectives, and εἶναι is the infinitive.
  2. §31.30.2πρὸς τὸ μήτε διαπορεῖν... μήτʼ ... προσάπτειν — The preposition πρός followed by the neuter singular accusative article τό and infinitives expresses purpose ('so that... not'). The negative correlatives μήτε... μήτε... connect the two infinitives διαπορεῖν and προσάπτειν in parallel.
  3. §31.30.3ἀφαιρουμένους τἀνδρὸς — Since the verb ἀφαιρέομαι ('to deprive') takes a genitive of the person and an accusative of the thing (τὰ ... κατορθώματα), τἀνδρὸς (τοῦ ἀνδρός) is a genitive of separation. The participle ἀφαιρουμένους (present middle/passive participle, accusative plural) modifies the implied accusative subject of the infinitive προσάπτειν, which refers to the 'listeners/readers'.

Cite this passage

Polybius, The Histories §31.30.1-31.30.4. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0543.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:31.30.1-31.30.4

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