Hey, I’m trying to translate the following:
“ζήνωνος τελευτήσαντος Ἀντίγονος ὁ δεύτερος, βασιλεύς τῶν Μακεδόνων, ἔλεγεν ὅτι τὸ τῶν ἑαυτοῦ ἔργων θέατρον ἀνῃρημένον εἴη
What I got is: He said that the theater of his works was [in a state of, perfect] achievement (??)”
I know this isn’t right. What did I get wrong?
edit: corrected typos, thanks Paul.
“After the death of Zeno, Antigonus II, the king of the Macedonians, said that the theatre of his (Antigonus’) achievements had been taken away/destroyed.”
I’m not sure what this means. Ελεγεμ is a typo for ελεγεν, μακεδονω for μακεδονων.
The optative ειη is used because it expresses the opinion of Antigonus, but the writer does not want say if he agrees or not.
Diogenes Laertius’ Life of Zeno (7.1.15):
λέγεται δὲ καὶ μετὰ τὴν τελευτὴν τοῦ Ζήνωνος εἰπεῖν τὸν Ἀντίγονον, οἷον εἴη θέατρον ἀπολωλεκώς.
Zeno had been unimpressed by Antigonus’ weath and power. Apocryphal, obviously.
The passage cited by mwh maked more sense to me. Θεατρον must mean “audience”.