ἀπὸ δὲ οἵας τε ἐπιτηδεύσεως ἤλθομεν ἐπ᾽ αὐτὰ καὶ μεθ᾽ οἵας πολιτείας καὶ τρόπων ἐξ οἵων μεγάλα ἐγένετο, ταῦτα δηλώσας πρῶτον εἶμι καὶ ἐπὶ τὸν τῶνδε ἔπαινον Thucydides 2 36 4
How is αυτα best translated?
Richard Ross
them
It refers back to τα . . . κατα πολεμους εργα in the preceding sentence. But mwh is right–best translation is “them.”
In his ‘Green and Yellow’ Cambridge edition of Book II, J.S. Rusten takes αὐτὰ in 2.36.4 as ‘the power whose growth is sketched in 36. 2-3: κτησάμενοι γὰρ … αὐταρκεστάτην’. Rusten adds that Thucydides ‘occasionally uses the neuter plural αὐτὰ to refer with a single substantive to groups of ideas just described’; he cites other examples from Book 2 at 42.4 (ποθεινοτέραν αὐτῶν), 43.1 (αὐτὰ ἐκτήσαντο) and 60.7 (μοι … παρεῖναι αὐτὰ). On this basis, one could translate 2.36.4 as:
‘… I shall first explain the principles whereby our fathers arrived at this power, and the form of government and ways of life through which it became great …’
I hope this helps.
John