I am having some trouble translating this passage, especially the last line. Here is the passage:
Here is how I am translating it so far:
“And never will anyone say, the men soldiers, that I led the Greeks to the Barbarians and next left the Greeks and chose the friendship of the Barbarians. But since you were not willing to obey me, I will obey you.” Clearchus said these things. For he believed that the soldiers were to him both fatherland and friends and allies. The soldiers who praised both of those [of them, belonging to those/them?] and the other things.
οι δε στρατιωται οι τ᾽εκεινου και οι αλλοι – “The soldiers, both his own and the others,”
ταυτ᾽ επηνεσαν – “praised/approved these things”, less literally, “approved this”.
και επειτα ελιπον μεν τους Ελληνας την δε των βαρβαρβν φιλιαν ειλομην – you need to capture the force of the particles, especially men de: “. . . that I led Greeks to the barbarians and then [not “next” here] abandoned the Greeks and chose [instead] the friendship of the barbarians.”
εκεινου – “of that man”, “of him”, i.e. of Clearchus. “The soldiers of Clearchus” is equivalent to Clearchus’ own soldiers in this context, where the idea is that not only his [own] soldiers but the rest of the Greek soldiers approved his speech. The τ᾽ . . . και particles, by linking the two groups of soldiers more tightly than a simple και would, reinforces the idea that both groups, not just his own troops, approved his speech.
I think you are also having trouble with “ ὦ ἄνδρες στρατιῶται,”. Do you recognise the case? It’s a formula for example in Lysias on the murder of Eratosthenes you have “ὦ ἄνδρες”, in Plato Apology “ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι” and in Lysias 12 “ ὦ ἄνδρες δικασταί“. This last one has an old fashioned but idiomatic translation in “gentlemen of the jury” but we would not usually translate the apostrophe ὦ. Men of the army seems a bit clunky but the way you have it isn’t quite right. My fellow soldiers might do unless anyone has a better idea?
On a minor general point I don’t think it’s a good idea to edit your posts to take account of comments people make. I spent some time reading one thread where I couldn’t work out how the replies matched what you had written. If for some reason you think it’s a good idea - I don’t - please put in capitals at the head of your post a message saying what you have done. We want to make threads as intelligible for later readers as possible.
Thanks. Yes, I was not sure of how to translate the phrase and the literal was all I could think of, but it seemed awkward.
Noted about editing the posts.
