We here premise, that we shall not presume to offer our own translation to the extract we propose to make from Thucydides. From the many that have been made, we have selected that of the Rev. Dr. William Smith, of the cathedral of Chester, England, and concerning whom it may be proper to say a word. He translated Longinus with great accuracy and beauty. The Weekly Miscellany of Dec. 8th, 1739, says of this translation, “It justly deserves the notice and thanks of the public.” Father Phillips says, 1756, “A late English translation of the Greek critic, by Mr. Smith, is a credit to the author, and reflects lustre on Longinus himself.” Laudits of this work will fill a volume. In 1753 he translated Thucydides, and was directly created a doctor of divinity,—and we find in his epitaph now in the cathedral of Chester, “as a scholar his reputation is perpetuated by his valuable publications, particularly his correct and eloquent translations of Longinus, Thucydides, and Xenophon.” We have been thus minute that it may be known with what spirit we prepare this work.
The Peloponnesian War, by Thucydides.
Book i. chap. 8. Οἵ τε ἥσσους ὑπέμενον τὴν τῶν κρεισσόνων δουλείαν.
“And the great, who had all needful supplies at hand, reduced less powerful cities into their own subjection.”
At that age of the world, when one city was conquered by another, all were reduced to slavery, unless by the especial favour of the conqueror. In this instance it would have been more literal to our present idiom to have used the term slavery, instead of subjection; because now there has grown up a wide distinction between the mere subjugating and enslaving.
Chap. 16. Κῦρος καὶ ἡ Περσικὴ βασιλεια, Κροῖσον καθελοῦσα, καὶ ὅσα ἐντὸς Ἅλυος ποταμοῦ πρὸς θάλασσαν, ἐπεστράτευσε, καὶ τὰς ἐν τῇ ἠπείρω πόλεις ἐδούλωσε.
“For Cyrus, after he had completed the conquest of Crœsus, and all the country which lieth between the river Halys and the sea, invaded them, and enslaved their towns upon the continent.”
Chap. 18. Δεκάτω δὲ ἔτει μετ’ αὐτην αὖθις ὁ βάρβαρος τῷ μεγάλω στόλῳ ἐπὶ τὴν Ἑλλάδα δουλωσόμενος ἦλθε.
“And in the tenth year after that, the barbarian, with a vast armament, invaded Greece in order to enslave it.”
Chap. 34. Οὐ γὰρ ἐπὶ τῷ δοῦλοι, ἀλλ’ ἐπὶ τῷ ὅμοιοι τοῖς λειπομένοις εἶναι, ἐκπέμπονται.