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[Meaning they] having cut off. "Having intercepted the army in the narrow and difficult ravines, they compelled them to accept disgraceful terms."[1]
And Josephus [writes]: "having pursued the enemy they intercept them in a ravine and kill them all."[2]
And elsewhere: "for the place was pleasing to both sides, to the one because it was where they had intercepted the Romans and released them under the terms of a treaty, [and hence the place served] as a sign of what services had been done."[3]

*)apolabo/ntes: e)napoklei/santes. oi( de\ th\n stratia\n au)lw=si stenoi=s kai\ dusembo/lois a)polabo/ntes e)s diallaga\s e)lqei=n ai)sxra\s h)na/gkasan. kai\ *)iw/shpos: diw/cantes a)polamba/nousi tou\s polemi/ous e)n koi/lw| xwri/w| kai\ pa/ntas ktei/nousi. kai\ au)=qis: to\ ga\r xwri/on a)mfote/rois h)/rese, tw=| me\n o(/ti a)polabo/ntes e)s au)to\ tou\s *(rwmai/ous u(pospo/ndous a)fh=kan, pro\s e)/ndeicin w(=n eu)erge/thnto.

The headword participle is perhaps (though not demonstrably) extracted from the first quotation given.
[1] Adler did not identify the quotation, but suggested that it was transmitted via the Excerpta Constantini Porphyrogeniti. It is now recognized as John of Antioch Fragmenta ex Historia chronica fr. 99 Roberto (170-171); cf. zeta 191. The quotation concerns a pivotal episode of the Second Samnite War (321-304 BCE), when a Roman army under march was trapped within steep gorges and forced to surrender without a fight; cf. Livy History of Rome 9.1-9.2.
[2] Adler queried this attribution, but C. Theodoridis in his Photius edition (vol.II p.LXXXVIII) identifies the passage in question as an approximation of Antiquities of the Jews 5.227.
[3] Cassius Dio 62.23.

William Hutton (Modified translation, set status) on 1 April 2001@12:13:50.
David Whitehead (added notes and keywords; cosmetics) on 21 August 2002@05:07:18.
David Whitehead (augmented notes and keywords; tweaks and cosmetics) on 9 February 2011@08:00:34.
David Whitehead (modified and expanded n.2) on 11 October 2011@06:18:35.
Catharine Roth (coding, expanded note) on 19 February 2012@11:25:58.
David Whitehead (cosmetics) on 3 April 2012@05:43:11.
David Whitehead on 28 August 2015@04:13:58.
Ronald Allen (tweaked translation after discussion with Catharine Roth) on 3 September 2026@11:48:02.
Ronald Allen (expanded n.1, added bibliography and cross-reference) on 4 September 2026@12:12:49.
Ronald Allen (expanded n.1) on 5 September 2026@23:14:20.

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