Arrian\'s \"Ektaxis kat\' Alanon\" transl issue

[Sean Manning]

The Laurentius MS, damaged as it is, should be the source ...

Realistically, few of us have ready access to any medieval manuscript, especially such a prestigious one.

Its surprising how many libraries have put colour photos of their manuscripts online (the Bibliotheque Nationale du France has a wonderful collection which anyone with an internet connection can use). I think the manuscript is Laurentianus Graecus LV 4 at Florence but I don't know if they have put it online. But if one is not a trained paleographer, as you suggest it might be better and easier to use the Teubner and pay close attention to the notes at the bottom of the page.

My Greek is too limited to participate, and I'm more an antique Persian than a Roman, but I'm following this discussion with interest.

[Macedon]

There is at least one German translation done by Christian Heinrich Dörner in 1833.

The book is out of copyright and freely available from Google books. The translation of the "Ektaxis kat' Alanon" begins on page 765.
Lin to Google book

It is a bit difficult to read... I hope I have it right :

wenn sie aber, ihre Pferde herumwerfend, die Flügel würden umreiten wollen, so kann ich nicht gut heißen, die äußersten Spitzen der aus den leichtbewaffneten Schützen bestehenden Flügel auszudehnen, damit nicht der Feind, die Flügel durch die Ausdehnung geschwächt erblickend, dieselben durchbreche und das Fußvolk aufrolle. p.784

YEP! This particular translation indeed says what I proposed and the translator made the two distinct sentences into one. So, it is indeed a matter of whether that interpunct indeed should exist or not.

[Sean Manning]

My Greek is very limited, but I decided to go over the TLG text of this passage to try to understand the problem. The following translations are very rough and probably riddled with errors.

The first three clauses are clear: τάδε μὲν γίνεσθαι, εἰ ἀπὸ τῆς πρώτης προσβολῆς φυγὴ κατάσχοι τοὺς ἐναντίους· εἰ δὲ ἐπιστραφέντες ἐς κύκλους ὑπὲρ τὰ κέρατα παρελαύνειν ἐθέλοιεν "And such would be the situation, if flight seizes the opponents after the first assault, but if having wheeled they want to ride past beyond the wings, ..."

The fourth clause appears to have no finite verb just infinitives: ἀνατείνεσθαι μὲν <ἐς> τὰ ὑπερδεξιώτερα ἔτι τὰ κέρατα αὐτῆς τῆς ψιλῆς τοξείας "to extend the elevated right wings of the light-armed archery"

The fifth clause creates difficulty because it is joined to the fourth with an apo teleia/interpunkt which acts roughly like an English colon or semicolon:
ὡς οὐ δοκιμάζω μήποτε ἀσθενῆ τῇ ἀνατάσει τὰ κέρατα γινόμενα ἰδόντες δι' αὐτῶν ὤσαιντο καὶ διακόψαιεν τὸ πεζικόν. "I don't approve at all, as seeing the wings to have become weak by extension they might push through them and break the infantry.”

It does seem plausible that the apo teleia/interpunct is a mistake, and that δοκιμάζω has the infinitive ἀνατείνεσθαι as its object plus the ὡς clause to explain the lack of approval. Are there any other places in the Ektasis where Arrian uses an infinitive and expects readers to understand "(I would order them) to X"?

[Macedon]

Actually he does... The whole text starts with an infinitive " Ἡγεῖσθαι μὲν τῆς πάσης στρατιᾶς..." Unfortunately, infinitives were sometimes used without finite verbs, when the writer thought that the latter was self-evident. Still, after the provision of the German translation, I am all the more certain that the interpunct should be omitted.

[Sean Manning]

Actually he does... The whole text starts with an infinitive " Ἡγεῖσθαι μὲν τῆς πάσης στρατιᾶς..." Unfortunately, infinitives were sometimes used without finite verbs, when the writer thought that the latter was self-evident.

Well, yes, but the verb is almost always “to be” “to have” or “to say.” If A. is using that construction here, he is being unusually loose. I think that 1.1, which you cited, is a good example: Ἡγεῖσθαι μὲν τῆς πάσης στρατιᾶς τοὺς κατασκόπους ἱππέας ἐπὶ δυοῖν τεταγμένους σὺν τῷ οἰκείῳ ἡγεμόνι. “(Order) the scout cavalry to go before your army in two divisions with their own leader.”

I think that the following sentences (section 31) affect how we understand section 30: ὑπερβαλλόντων δὲ τὰ κέρατα ἑκάτερα ἢ ὁπότερον οὖν, πᾶσα ἤδη ἀνάγκη πλαγίους μὲν αὐτοῖς γίνεσθαι τοὺς ἵππους, πλαγίους δὲ τοὺς κοντούς. ἐνταῦθα δὴ ἐμβαλλόντων ἐς αὐτοὺς οἱ ἱππεῖς, μὴ ἀκοντισμῷ ἔτι ἀλλὰ ταῖς σπάθαις αὐτοῖς συμφερόμενοι, οἳ δὲ τοῖς πελέκεσιν. οἱ δὲ Σκύθαι γυμνοί τε ὄντες καὶ τοὺς ἵππους γυμνοὺς ἔχοντες ***

Here A. seems to be explaining what to do if the Scythians break through the extended wings, until the text breaks off.

One possibility are that δοκιμαζω is a mistake for δοκεω. Sanders van Dorst translates the passage this way, but this is a lectio facilior so an unlikely corruption. Another is that the final clause is a gloss which has crept into the text. This also seems unlikely because the Ektaxis seems more like notes which were preserved by chance than a polished literary work which received generations of scholarly attention.

[Renatus]

I have a very old edition of Arrian's works, published in Amsterdam in 1683. It has the Greek text with a parallel translation in Latin. The interpunct is there and the Latin begins a new sentence at that point. The Latin translation is as follows:

Si vero verterent sese, atque circumire cornua vellent, protendebantur extrema versus cornua leviter armatorum. Quod non probo, ne, quando per extensionem istam rara facta cernant cornua hostes, per ipsa perrumpant, & copias pedestres rescindant.

[Sean Manning]

Interesting. I don't have the Teubner handy, and I don't have the time to read the whole TLG text, so I think I have come to the end of my resources.

I checked a Greek grammar, and it seems that “infinitive is used for the indicative” constructions are more common than I thought. Macedon was right. The apo teleia and the location of hws before the verb do make this complicated: I think one can make a case for both the “I don't think you should do this, because they will break through” and the “do this; I don't think they will break through” readings.