…καὶ ὅτι τριήρεις ἤκουε περιπλεούσας ἀπ᾽ Ἰωνίας εἰς Κιλικίαν Ταμὼν ἔχοντα τὰς Λακεδαιμονίων καὶ αὐτοῦ Κύρου.
Does the τὰς here fer back to τριήρεις? What exactly is the grammatical role of τὰς in this clause?
[edited] I should add that the reason I’m confused is because τὰς is acc. pl. fem. while Λακεδαιμονίων seems to be gen. pl. so I don’t understand why they’re together here.
I interpret that Tamōs had those (τὰς) [triremes] of the Spartans.
If this text is right—a big if—it doesn’t mean “… he was hearing that triremes were sailing round …,” as initially it seems to be saying, but “… he was hearing that Tamos had triremes sailing round …”. Seems fishy to me. We’ve discussed this before I think.
Either way, τὰς Λακεδαιμονίων καὶ αὐτοῦ Κύρου simply picks up τριήρεις, specifying what triremes he’s talking about.
OK thanks 