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Cornelius Nepos · Conon §1.1-1.3

Conon's Early Career and the Defeat at Aegospotami

Passage 1 of 5 · Latin

Summary

Describes the early career of the Athenian general Conon and how his absence led to the disastrous defeat of the Athenians at the Battle of Aegospotami.

§1.1Conon Atheniensis Peloponnesio bello accessit ad rem publicam, in eoque eius opera magni fuit.
Conon the Athenian entered public life during the Peloponnesian War, and in it his service was of great value.
nam et praetor pedestribus exercitibus praefuit et praefectus classis magnas mari res gessit.
For he both commanded land forces as general and, as commander of the fleet, achieved great deeds at sea.
quas ob causas praecipuus ei honos habitus est.
For these reasons, special honor was paid to him.
namque omnibus unus insulis praefuit, in qua potestate Pheras cepit, coloniam Lacedaemoniorum.
Indeed, he alone had command over all the islands, in which office he captured Pherae, a colony of the Lacedaemonians.
§1.2fuit etiam extremo Peloponnesio bello praetor, cum apud Aegos flumen copiae Atheniensium ab Lysandro sunt devictae.
He was also general at the very end of the Peloponnesian War, when the Athenian forces were utterly defeated by Lysander at the Goat's River (Aegospotami).
sed tum afuit, eoque peius res administrata est: nam et prudens rei militaris et diligens erat imperator.
But at that time he was absent, and for that reason the campaign was managed the worse; for he was a commander both skilled in military matters and diligent.
§1.3itaque nemini erat iis temporibus dubium, si affuisset, illam Athenienses calamitatem accepturos non fuisse.
Therefore, no one at that time had any doubt that, if he had been present, the Athenians would not have suffered that disaster.

Notes

  1. §1.1magni — Genitive of value. Used with the verb esse (fuit) to express 'of great value' or 'highly esteemed', modifying the subject eius opera (his service).
  2. §1.1quas ob causas — Relative connection where the relative adjective quas modifies causas, with the preposition ob placed between them (anastrophe), meaning 'for these reasons'.
  3. §1.2extremo Peloponnesio bello — Ablative of time. The adjective extremus modifies bello to denote a part of the whole, meaning 'at the very end of the war'.
  4. §1.3si affuisset, illam Athenienses calamitatem accepturos non fuisse — A contrary-to-fact conditional sentence in the past within indirect speech, functioning as the accusative and infinitive clause dependent on nemini erat dubium. In direct speech, the apodosis would be accepturi fuerunt (or accepissent), which becomes accepturos fuisse (future active participle + fuisse) in this construction.

Cite this passage

Cornelius Nepos, Conon §1.1-1.3. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0588.abo009.humanitext-lat2:1.1-1.3

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