Quoted below is a snip from a long sentence in 69.1.5. It is part of a speech made by the Corinthians before the Spartan assembly, in order to persuade the Spartans to act more energetically against Athens, described as dangerously aggressive. The Corinthians scold Sparta for sluggish inactivity against the Athenian threat, when Sparta’s threatened allies need action. In this sentence is a historical reference.
Translation effort: For the Persian [Μῆδον] we know ourselves moved right up to the Peloponnesus before Sparta advanced [against Persia] in a manner worthy of your standing.
I am particularly unsure:
about my translation of πρότερον as “before”, both as to meaning and placement in English;
πρότερον (…) ἢ. Since πρότερον is actually a comparative it’s only natural for it to be coupled with ἤ. “X before Y” = X προτερον ἢ Y. Cf. Eng. “earlier than”
ἐκ περάτων γῆς “from the ends of the earth”
τὰ παρ᾽ὑμῶν “your forces”—the subject of προαπαντῆσαι (παρά w/ gen. because that’s where they came from)
You have missed ἐκ περάτων γῆς in “ἐκ περάτων γῆς …ἐπὶ τὴν Πελοπόννησον ἐλθόντα” which tells us that the Mede came from a long way away.
Marchant says “πρότερον ἤ with infin., a rare constn. except in Herod. Thuc., Antiphon.” But I think it means before here. He also says “τὰ παρ᾽ ὑμῶν—your forces.”
I see MWH has posted so I will just post what I found out but it is superfluous now.
I think if you had looked at Marchant you could have got a bit further. Maybe something to think about in future.
ἐκ περάτων γῆς (note the absence of articles) must be a proverbial expression deriving from poetry. πείρατα γαίης has a Homeric ring, and a fragment of Alcaeus actually begins ηλθες εκ περατων γᾶς.
I remember it from the new Sapho: ἔσχατα γᾶς. But it must be older than Greek. The same is all over the Old Testament (making its way into the famous NT usage through the LXX) but also (if translations are to be believed) Egyptian Hieroglyphic texts. It may just be a natural expression of ancient cosmogony.
The commentaries I consulted rendered this as “your forces”, but I didn’t see any rationale for this rendering. I did not know whether the Greek phrase is a known idiom, or, whether this rendering states an expert judgment what the meaning must be, considering the the context.
Could the phrase in other contexts mean “your money”, “your workforce”, or “your resources”?
Literally it is the things beside you. So what are those things? They are your resources or in this context “your forces”. Have you not come across the things of Aphrodite as a metaphor for sex?
Just to make a slight clarification, with the genitive, τὰ παρ’ὑμῶν is “the things from you.” The mention of “the Mede,” synecdoche for the Persian army, makes it clear that τὰ παρ’ὑμῶν refers to the Spartan forces confronting the Persian army. Greeks generally seem to refer to Medes and Persians interchangeably unless a distinction is to be drawn.)
