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Cornelius Nepos · Miltiades §5.1-5.5

Defeat of the Persians at the Battle of Marathon

Passage 5 of 8 · Latin

Summary

The Athenian army, reinforced by one thousand Plataeans to reach ten thousand men, marched out under the leadership of Miltiades and defeated the far larger Persian force at Marathon by utilizing the terrain.

§5.1Hoc in tempore nulla civitas Atheniensibus auxilio fuit praeter Plataeenses.
At this time, no state was of assistance to the Athenians except the Plataeans.
ea mille misit militum.
This state sent a thousand soldiers.
itaque horum adventu decem milia armatorum completa sunt, quae manus mirabili flagrabat pugnandi cupiditate.
Thus, by their arrival, a force of ten thousand armed men was completed, which band was burning with a wonderful desire for fighting.
§5.2quo factum est ut plus quam collegae Miltiades valeret.
Because of this, it came about that Miltiades had more influence than his colleagues.
eius ergo auctoritate impulsi Athenienses copias ex urbe eduxerunt locoque idoneo castra fecerunt.
Driven therefore by his authority, the Athenians led their forces out of the city and pitched camp in a suitable place.
§5.3dein postero die sub montis radicibus acie regione instructa non apertissima (namque arbores multis locis erant rarae) proelium commiserunt hoc consilio, ut et montium altitudine tegerentur et arborum tractu equitatus hostium impediretur.
Then on the following day, having drawn up their battle line at the foot of the mountain in a terrain that was not very open (for in many places trees were scattered), they joined battle with this design, that they might be protected by the height of the mountains and that the cavalry of the enemy might be hindered by the tract of trees.
§5.4Datis etsi non aequum locum videbat suis, tamen fretus numero copiarum suarum confligere cupiebat, eoque magis, quod, priusquam Lacedaemonii subsidio venirent, dimicare utile arbitrabatur.
Datis, although he saw that the position was not favorable for his men, yet relying on the number of his forces, was eager to engage, and all the more so because he thought it advantageous to fight before the Lacedaemonians should arrive as reinforcement.
itaque in aciem peditum centum, equitum decem milia produxit proeliumque commisit.
Therefore, he led out into the battle line a hundred thousand infantry and ten thousand cavalry, and joined battle.
§5.5in quo tanto plus virtute valuerunt Athenienses, ut decemplicem numerum hostium profligarint, adeoque eos perterruerunt, ut Persae non castra, sed naves petierint.
In which battle the Athenians prevailed so much more by their valor that they routed a force of the enemy ten times their own number, and they threw them into such a panic that the Persians sought not their camp, but their ships.
qua pugna nihil adhuc exstitit nobilius: nulla enim umquam tam exigua manus tantas opes prostravit.
Than this battle, nothing has ever arisen more famous; for no such small band ever overthrew so great power.

Notes

  1. 5.1auxilio — Dative of purpose. Combined with Atheniensibus (dative of reference/interest), it forms a so-called double dative construction.
  2. 5.1ea — Feminine singular nominative demonstrative pronoun. It refers not directly to Plataeenses (masculine plural) itself, but to the feminine singular noun civitas (state) from the previous sentence.
  3. 5.1quae manus — A case of relative connection (connection of clauses). The relative pronoun quae functions as an adjective modifying the noun manus, working at the beginning of the sentence equivalently to 'et haec manus'.
  4. 5.3regione instructa non apertissima — While 'acie ... instructa' is an ablative absolute ('the battle line having been drawn up'), 'regione ... non apertissima' is an ablative of place where (with the preposition 'in' omitted), describing the terrain in which the line was formed.
  5. 5.5profligarint — Perfect subjunctive in a clause of result (ut ... profligarint). Although the main verb is in a historical tense (valuerunt), the perfect tense is used in the result clause to emphasize the past result as an actual historical fact.

Cite this passage

Cornelius Nepos, Miltiades §5.1-5.5. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0588.abo001.humanitext-lat2:5.1-5.5

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