Καλλίας
Kallias, Callias
Translated by William Hutton15 Oct 2001Vetting: high8 revisions
Translation
The one given the nickname 'Pit-wealthy';1 serving as general against Artaxerxes he secured the boundaries of the treaties [made] under Kimon.2 Launching an invasion in his time, the Lakedaimonians, with Pleistoanax the son of Pausanias as king, ravaged Eleusis and the Thriasian Plain. This was still during the fifty-year period [Pentekontaetia] which began after the battle of Plataiai and ended with the capture of Samos and the beginning of the Kerkyraian incidents.
Kallias the Syracusan3 is rightly and appropriately judged worthy of condemnation, since he was coopted by Agathokles and, having sold away history, the prophetess of truth, for the price of great gifts, never stopped praising his paymaster unjustly. Though no small number of things had been done by him in the way of impieties against the gods and illegalities against men, the historian claims that he exceeded the rest by far in piety and philanthropy. On the whole, though, just as Agathokles took away the goods of the citizens and bestowed what did not belong to him upon the historian contrary to justice, so this amazing historian conferred through his writings every possible virtue on his ruler; but it was an easy matter, I think, in the exchange of favors, for the writer in his adulation not to fall short of the bribery from the royal family.
Kallias the Syracusan3 is rightly and appropriately judged worthy of condemnation, since he was coopted by Agathokles and, having sold away history, the prophetess of truth, for the price of great gifts, never stopped praising his paymaster unjustly. Though no small number of things had been done by him in the way of impieties against the gods and illegalities against men, the historian claims that he exceeded the rest by far in piety and philanthropy. On the whole, though, just as Agathokles took away the goods of the citizens and bestowed what did not belong to him upon the historian contrary to justice, so this amazing historian conferred through his writings every possible virtue on his ruler; but it was an easy matter, I think, in the exchange of favors, for the writer in his adulation not to fall short of the bribery from the royal family.
Greek original · Adler’s text
Καλλίας, ὁ Λακκόπλουτος ἐπικληθείς, στρατηγῶν πρὸς Ἀρταξέρξην τοὺς ἐπὶ Κίμωνος τῶν σπονδῶν ἐβεβαίωσεν ὅρους· καθ' ὃν εἰσβαλόντες Λακεδαιμόνιοι, Πλειστοάνακτος τοῦ Παυσανίου βασιλεύοντος, ἐδῃώσαντο τὴν Ἐλευσῖνα καὶ τὸ Θριάσιον πεδίον, ἔτι τῆς πεντηκονταετίας οὔσης, ἥτις ἤρχετο μετὰ τὴν ἐν Πλαταιαῖς μάχην, ἔληγε δὲ εἰς ἅλωσιν Σάμου καὶ ἀρχὴν τῶν Κερκυραϊκῶν. ὅτι Καλλίας ὁ Συρακούσιος δικαίως καὶ προσηκόντως κατηγορίας ἀξιωθείη· ἀναληφθεὶς γὰρ ὑπὸ Ἀγαθοκλέους καὶ δώρων μεγάλων ἀποδόμενος τὴν προφῆτιν τῆς ἀληθείας ἱστορίαν οὐ διαλέλοιπεν ἀδίκως ἐγκωμιάζων τὸν μισθοδότην. οὐκ ὀλίγων γὰρ αὐτῷ πεπραγμένων πρὸς ἀσεβείας θεῶν καὶ παρανομίας ἀνθρώπων, φησὶν ὁ συγγραφεὺς αὐτὸν εὐσεβείᾳ καὶ φιλανθρωπίᾳ πολὺ τοὺς ἄλλους ὑπερβεβηκέναι. καθόλου δέ, καθάπερ Ἀγαθοκλῆς ἀφαιρούμενος τὰ τῶν πολιτῶν ἐδωρεῖτο τῷ συγγραφεῖ μηδὲν προσήκοντα παρὰ τὸ δίκαιον, οὕτως ὁ θαυμαστὸς ἱστοριογράφος ἐχαρίζετο διὰ τῆς γραφῆς ἅπαντα τὰ ἀγαθὰ τῷ δυνάστῃ. ῥᾴδιον δ' ἦν, οἶμαι, πρὸς ἄμειψιν χάριτος τῷ γραφεῖ τῶν ἐγκωμίων μὴ λειφθῆναι τῆς ἐκ τοῦ βασιλικοῦ γένους δωροδοκίας.
Betacode
*kalli/as, o( *lakko/ploutos e)piklhqei/s, strathgw=n pro\s *)artace/rchn tou\s e)pi\ *ki/mwnos tw=n spondw=n e)bebai/wsen o(/rous: kaq' o(\n ei)sbalo/ntes *lakedaimo/nioi, *pleistoa/naktos tou= *pausani/ou basileu/ontos, e)dh|w/santo th\n *)eleusi=na kai\ to\ *qria/sion pedi/on, e)/ti th=s penthkontaeti/as ou)/shs, h(/tis h)/rxeto meta\ th\n e)n *plataiai=s ma/xhn, e)/lhge de\ ei)s a(/lwsin *sa/mou kai\ a)rxh\n tw=n *kerkurai+kw=n. o(/ti *kalli/as o( *surakou/sios dikai/ws kai\ proshko/ntws kathgori/as a)ciwqei/h: a)nalhfqei\s ga\r u(po\ *)agaqokle/ous kai\ dw/rwn mega/lwn a)podo/menos th\n profh=tin th=s a)lhqei/as i(stori/an ou) diale/loipen a)di/kws e)gkwmia/zwn to\n misqodo/thn. ou)k o)li/gwn ga\r au)tw=| pepragme/nwn pro\s a)sebei/as qew=n kai\ paranomi/as a)nqrw/pwn, fhsi\n o( suggrafeu\s au)to\n eu)sebei/a| kai\ filanqrwpi/a| polu\ tou\s a)/llous u(perbebhke/nai. kaqo/lou de/, kaqa/per *)agaqoklh=s a)fairou/menos ta\ tw=n politw=n e)dwrei=to tw=| suggrafei= mhde\n prosh/konta para\ to\ di/kaion, ou(/tws o( qaumasto\s i(storiogra/fos e)xari/zeto dia\ th=s grafh=s a(/panta ta\ a)gaqa\ tw=| duna/sth|. r(a/|dion d' h)=n, oi)=mai, pro\s a)/meiyin xa/ritos tw=| grafei= tw=n e)gkwmi/wn mh\ leifqh=nai th=s e)k tou= basilikou= ge/nous dwrodoki/as.
Notes (3)
- 1For Kallias "Pit-wealthy" cf. lambda 58 and generally J.K. Davies, Athenian Propertied Families 600-300 BC (Oxford 1971) 258-62. The nickname reflected the extent to which his colossal wealth came from the profits of (silver-)mining. ↩
- 2(Adler notes, but does not adopt, the emendation in the Suda editio princeps of
o(/rous 'boundaries' too(/rkous 'oaths' here.) Despite the terminology used here, Kallias is not known to have served as a general. Rather, he was a diplomatic envoy and negotiator on at least three occasions between the mid-460s and the mid 440s BCE. ↩ - 3This second paragraph = Diodorus Siculus 21.17.4, writing on Sicily in the early C3 BCE. This Kallias, an historian, is FGrH 564; see also L. Pearson, The Greek Historians of the West (Atlanta GA 1987) 227-8 and index s.v. ↩
Linked from2 entries
- κ215Καλλίας πτερορρυεῖKallias is moultingKallias is a butt of comedy for having lost all his money. For, as [someone] well-bred, he is being plucked by blackmail/sykophancy. The females are plucking out his feathers. For he became a poor man when he had spent…
- λ58ΛακκόπλουτονPit-rich, Pit-wealthyThus they used to call Callias the Athenian for this reason: Xerxes, defeated in the sea-battle at Salamis, fled from Athens, but one of the Persians was stationed on Callias’ [property] and deposited his baggage there…
Neighbouring entries
Revision history8 revisions · last 22 Mar 2019
- removed duplication — Catharine Roth
- expanded n.2 — David Whitehead
- more keywords; cosmetics — David Whitehead
- augmented n.2 — David Whitehead
- another keyword — David Whitehead
- Various changes in para. 2. Replacing 'all good things' by 'every possible virtue'. Virtues including piety and philanthropy are clearly intended in the context. Plato spoke of the agatha of the psyche. — Tony Natoli
- more keywords; cosmetics — David Whitehead
- added notes — David Whitehead
- Translated — William Hutton