The Public Orations of Demosthenes Volume II Part 10

_Ergophilus_ was heavily fined in 362 (see Speech against Aristocrates, -- 104); Cephisodotus in 358 (ibid. -- 167, and Aeschines against Ctesiphon, -- 52); Timomachus went into exile in 360 to escape condemnation (against Aristocrates, -- 115, &c.). Ergocles was perhaps the friend of Thrasybulas (see Lysias, Orations xxviii, xxix), and may have been condemned for his conduct in Thrace, as well as for malversation at Halicarna.s.sus. Dionysius is unknown.

-- 187. _has got beyond_, &c.: an ironical way of saying that he has so much overdone his application to himself of the t.i.tle of (prospective) 'benefactor' of Athens, that another word (e.g. 'deceiver') would be more appropriate. The word [Greek: _psychrhon_] is (at least by Greek literary critics) applied to strong expressions out of place, and here also, probably, of an exaggerated phrase which falls flat. This is perhaps the best interpretation of a very difficult pa.s.sage.

-- 191. For Timagoras, see -- 31 n. Tharrex and Smicythus are unknown.

Adeimantus was one of the generals at Aegospotami, the only Athenian prisoner spared by Lysander, and on that account suspected of treason by the Athenians, and prosecuted by Conon (called 'the elder', to distinguish him from his grandson, who was a contemporary of Demosthenes).

-- 194. guest-friend. The term ([Greek: xenos]) was applied to the relations.h.i.+p (more formal than that of simple friends.h.i.+p) between citizens of different states, who were bound together by ties of hospitality and mutual goodwill.

-- 196. _the Thirty_: i.e. the 'Thirty Tyrants' who ruled Athens (with the support of Sparta) for a few months in 403. See n. on -- 277.

-- 198. Aeschines warmly denies this story. He says that Demosthenes tried to bribe Aristophanes of Olynthus to swear that it was true, and that the woman was his own wife. He adds that the jury, on an appeal from Eubulus, refused to let Demosthenes complete the story.

-- 199. _initiations_: see Speech on Crown, ---- 259 ff., with notes.

-- 200. _played the rogue_. The scholiast says that clerks were sometimes bribed to alter the laws and decrees which they read to the Court; and a magistrates' clerk had doubtless plenty of opportunities for conniving at petty frauds.

-- 204. _should not have been sworn to_. This is out of chronological order as it stands, and emendations have been proposed, but unnecessarily.

-- 209. _would not have him for your representative_: in the question about Athenian rights at Delos. See Introduction to the Speech.

-- 213. _I have no further time, &c_.: lit. 'no one will pour water for me'

into the water-clock, by which all trials were regulated.

-- 221. _consider_, &c. There is an anacoluthon in the Greek, which may be literally translated, 'Consider, if, where I who am absolutely guiltless was afraid of being ruined by them--what ought these men themselves, the actual criminals, to suffer?'

-- 222. _get money out of you_: i.e. to be bought off.

-- 230. _ch.o.r.egus and trierarch_: see Introd. to Speech on Naval Boards, and n. on Philippic I. -- 36.

-- 231. _all was well_ ([Greek: eupenespai]). The reading is almost certainly wrong. Weil rightly demands some word contrasting with [Greek: agnoein] ('did not understand his country') in the corresponding clause.

-- 237. _vase-cases_: i.e. boxes to contain bottles of oil or perfume for toilet use.

-- 245. _the c.o.c.k-pit_. That this is the meaning seems to be proved by the words of Aeschines (against Timarchus, -- 53); otherwise the natural translation would be 'to the bird-market'. c.o.c.ks were no doubt sold in the bird-market; but Aeschines refers directly to c.o.c.k-fighting, not to the purchase of the birds.

-- 246. _hack-writers_: lit. 'speech-writers,' who composed speeches for litigants, and no doubt padded them out with quotations from poets, as well as with rhetorical commonplaces. Demosthenes taunts Aeschines particularly with ransacking unfamiliar plays, instead of those he knew well.

-- 249. _reared up... greatness_: or possibly, 'reared up all these sons of hers.'

_Hero-Physician_. See Speech on the Crown, -- 129 n.

_Round Chamber_, in the Prytaneum or Town Hall (see -- 31 n.).

-- 252. _at the risk of his own life_. He tried to avoid the risk by feigning madness. Salamis was in the hands of the Megareans, and the Athenians had become so weary of their unsuccessful attempts to recover it, that they decreed the penalty of death upon any one who proposed to make a fresh attempt. The verses, however, which are quoted in the text, are probably derived not from the poem which Solon composed for this purpose, but from another of his political poems.

-- 255. _with a cap on your head_. Plutarch (Solon 82 c) says that 'Solon burst into the market-place suddenly, with a cap on his head'. The cap was intended to suggest that he had just returned from Salamis, since it was the custom to wear a cap only when on a journey, or in case of illness (of. Plato, _Republic_, iii. 406_d_). There may possibly be an allusion also to Aeschines' own alleged sickness (-- 136 above), but this is very doubtful. The words more probably mean, 'however closely you copy Solon'

(as you copied his att.i.tude in speaking), 'when you run about declaiming against me.'

-- 257. _accepted the challenge_. At the examination before the Board of Auditors (Logistae) the question was almost certainly put, whether any one present wished to challenge the report of the amba.s.sador under examination.

-- 259. _claim_ ([Greek: axioumenoi]): or, 'are thought worthy'; but the first sense is much better in the parallel pa.s.sage in -- 295, and this 'middle' use seems to be sufficiently attested, though the active voice is used in the same sense in -- 338.

-- 260. _paramount position_: i.e. among the tribes of North Greece (Magnetes, Perrhaebi, &c.).

-- 264. _concluded the war, &c_. In 383 B.C. In fact, however, they only obtained peace by joining the Spartan alliance.

-- 271. _Arthmius_: see Philippic III. -- 42 (and note).

-- 273. _Callias_, in 444 B.C. Cf. Speech for the Rhodians, -- 29. The Chelidonian Islands lay off the south coast of Lycia, the Cyanean rocks at the northern mouth of the Bosporus.

-- 277. _Epicrates_ was sent as amba.s.sador to Persia early in the fourth century, and received large presents. According to Plutarch he escaped condemnation; but he may have been tried more than once. The comic poets make fun of his long beard.

_who brought the people back from the Peiraeus_. Thrasybulus occupied the Peiraeus in 403, secured the expulsion of the Thirty Tyrants from Athens, and restored the democracy.

-- 278. _the decree_: i.e. the decree by which Epicrates and his colleagues were condemned.

-- 279. _for this is the splendid thing_: cf. -- 120 n.

-- 280. _exiled_ and _punished_. We should perhaps (with Weil) read [Greek: _e] ('or') for [Greek: kai] ('and').

_descendant of Harmodius_: i.e. Proxenus, who had been only recently condemned, and is therefore not named.

-- 281. _another priestess_. According to the scholiast, the reference is to Ninus, a priestess of Sabazios, who was prosecuted by Menecles for making love-potions for young men. The connexion of this offence with the meetings of the initiated is left to be understood.

-- 282. _the burden undertaken_. Such burdens as the duties of ch.o.r.egus, trierarch, &c., might be voluntarily undertaken, as they were by Demosthenes (see n. on Philippic I. -- 36).

-- 287. _Cyrebion_, or 'Light-as-Chaff', was the nickname of Epicrates, Aeschines' brother-in-law (not the Epicrates of -- 277). _as a reveller_, no doubt in some Dionysiac revel, in which it was not considered decent to take part without a mask. (The original purpose of masks, however, was not to conceal one's ident.i.ty from motives of shame, though Demosthenes suggests it as a motive here.)

_were water flowing upstream_. A half-proverbial expression implying that the world was being turned upside-down, when such a person could prosecute for such offences.

-- 290. _Hegesilaus_ was one of the generals sent to Euboea to help Plutarchus; cf. Speech on the Peace, -- 5 n. He was accused of abetting Plutarchus in the deception which he practised upon Athens. For Thrasybulus, cf. -- 277.

_the primary question_: i.e. of the guilt or innocence of the defendant.

If he was p.r.o.nounced guilty, the question of sentence (or damages) had to be argued and decided separately.

-- 295. _claim to be_: cf. n. on -- 259.

_churning the b.u.t.ter_ ([Greek: etyrheue]): i.e. concocting the plot. (For the metaphor cf. Aristophanes, _Knights_ 479.)

-- 299. _Zeus and Dione_. These names show that the oracles referred to were probably given at Dodona.

-- 303. _oath of the young soldiers_. When the young Athenian came of age, he received a s.h.i.+eld and spear in the temple of Aglaurus, and swore to defend his country and to uphold its const.i.tution (cf. Lycurgus, _Against Leocrates_, -- 76).

-- 314. _keeping step with Pythocles_, who was a tall man, while Aeschines was short.

-- 326. _Drymus and Panactum_ were on the border between Boeotia and Attica. Nothing else is known of the expedition.

-- 332. _Chares_. See nn. on Philippic I. ---- 24, 46; Olynthiac II. -- 28, and Introductions.