The Public Orations of Demosthenes Volume II Part 14

-- 176. _philippize_. The word was coined during the wars with Philip, on the a.n.a.logy of 'medize'--the term used of the action of the traitors who supported the invading Persians (Medes) early in the fifth century.

-- 177. _to Eleusis_, which was on the most convenient (though not the shortest) route for an army marching to Thebes.

-- 180. _Battalus_: a nickname given to Demosthenes by his nurse on account of the impediment in his speech from which he suffered in early days, or of his general delicacy. Aeschines had tried to fix an obscene interpretation upon it.

_Creon_. See Speech on the Emba.s.sy, -- 247.

_at Collytus_: i.e. at the Rural Dionysia held in that deme.

-- 189. _any one_: lit. 'any one who chooses,' i.e. to call him to account.

The expression ([Greek: ho boulomenos]) is apparently half technical, as applied to a self-appointed prosecutor. (Cf. Aristophanes, _Plutus_ 908 and 918.)

-- 194. _the general_: i.e. at Chaeroneia.

-- 195. _Philip employed_. Most editors say '_Aeschines_ employed'. But this would require [Greek: outos] not [Greek: ekeinos], and -- 218 also supports the interpretation here given.

-- 198. _treasured up_, &c. The suggestion seems to be that Aeschines foresaw the disasters, but concealed his knowledge, 'storing them up' in order to make a reputation out of them later.

-- 204. _to leave their land_, &c.: i.e. at the time of Xerxes' invasion in 480, when the Athenians abandoned the city and trusted to the 'wooden walls' of their s.h.i.+ps.

-- 208. On this magnificent pa.s.sage, see the treatise _On the Sublime_, chaps, xvi, xvii.

-- 209. _poring pedant_: lit. 'one who stoops over writings'. Here used perhaps with reference to Aeschines' having 'worked up' allusions to the past for the purpose of his Speech, while he remained blind to the great issues of the present. Many editors think that the reference is to his earlier occupation as a schoolmaster or a clerk; but this is perhaps less suitable to the context.

-- 210. _staff...ticket_. The colour of the staff indicated the court in which the juror was to sit; the ticket was exchanged for his pay at the end of the day.

-- 214. _a very deluge_. He is thinking, no doubt, of the disaster at Chaeroneia and the destruction of Thebes.

-- 215. _while their infantry_, &c. The Theban forces when prepared for action would naturally camp outside the walls (see Olynth. I, -- 27, where Demosthenes similarly thinks of the Athenian army encamping outside Athens). But although they were thus encamped outside, and had left their wives and children unguarded within, they allowed the Athenian soldiers to enter the city freely.

-- 216. _the river_: probably the Cephisus. Both battles are otherwise unknown. If one of them was in winter, it must have taken place not long after the capture of Elateia, and several months before the battle of Chaeroneia.

-- 219. _somewhere to lay the blame_: or possibly, 'some opportunity of recovering himself,' or 'some place of retreat'. But the interpretation given (which is that of Harpocration) is supported by the use of [Greek: anenenkein] in -- 224.

-- 227. _counters all disappear_. The calculation was made by taking away, for each item of debt or expenditure, so many counters from the total representing the sum originally possessed. When the frame (or _abacus_) containing the counters was left clear, it meant that there was no surplus. (The right reading, however, may be [Greek: an kathair_osin], 'if the counters are decisive,' or [Greek: han kathair_osin], 'whatever the counters prove, you concede.')

-- 231. _cancel them out_ ([Greek: antanelein]): strictly, to strike each out of the account in view of something on the opposite side (i.e. in view of the alternative which you would have proposed).

-- 234. _collected in advance_: i.e. Athens had been antic.i.p.ating her income.

-- 238. _if you refer_, &c. Aeschines had accused Demosthenes of saddling Athens with two-thirds of the expense of the war, and Thebes with only one-third.

_three hundred_, &c. See Speech on Naval Boards, -- 29 n.

-- 243. _customary offerings_, made at the tomb on the third and ninth days after the death.

-- 249. _Philocrates_: not Philocrates of Hagnus, the proposer of the Peace of 346, but an Eleusinian. For Diondas, see -- 222. The others are unknown.

-- 251. _Cephalus_. Cf. -- 219. He was an orator and statesman of the early part of the fourth century. (The best account of him is in Beloch, _Attische Politik_, p. 117.)

-- 258. _the attendants' room_. The 'attendants' are those who escorted the boys to and from school--generally slaves.

-- 259. _the books_, &c. Cf. -- 129 and notes. The books probably contained the formulae of initiation, or the hymns which were chanted by some Dionysiac societies. The service described here is probably that of the combined wors.h.i.+p of Dionysus-Sabazios and the Great Mother (Cybele).

_dressing_, &c. The candidate for initiation was clothed in a fawn-skin, and was 'purified' by being smeared with clay (while sitting down, with head covered) and rubbed clean with bran, and after the initiation was supposed to enter upon a new and higher life. It is possible that the veiling and disguising with clay originally signified a death to the old life, such as is the ruling idea in many initiations of a primitive type.

(Cf. Aristophanes, travesty of an initiation-ceremony in the _Clouds_ 256.)

-- 260. _fennel and white poplar_. These were credited with magical and protective properties.

_Euoe, Saboe_: the cry to Sabazios. One is tempted to render it by 'Glory!

Hallelujah!' In fact, the Dionysiac 'thiasoi', or some of them, had many features, good as well as bad, in common with the Salvation Army. The cry 'Euoe, Saboe' is of Thracian origin; 'Hyes Attes' is Phrygian. The serpents, the ivy, and the winnowing-fan figured in more than one variety of Dionysiac service. It is not certain that for 'ivy-bearer' ([Greek: kittophorhos]) we should not read 'chest-bearer' ([Greek: kistophoros]) used with reference to the receptacle containing sacred objects, of which we hear elsewhere in connexion with similar rites.

-- 261. _fellow-paris.h.i.+oners_; lit. 'members of your deme'. Each deme kept the register of citizens belonging to it. Enrolment was possible at the age of 18 years, and had to be confirmed by the Council. (See Aristotle, _Const.i.tution of Athens_, chap. xiii.)

-- 262. _collecting figs_, &c. Two interpretations are possible: (1) that the spectators in derision threw fruit--probably not of the best--at Aeschines on the stage, and he gathered it up, as a fruiterer collects fruit from various growers, and lived on it; or (2) that while he was a strolling player, Aeschines used to rob orchards. Of these (1) seems by far the better in the context.

-- 267. _I leave the abysm_, &c. The opening of Euripides' _Hecuba_. The line next quoted is unknown. 'Evil in evil wise' ([Greek: kakon kak_os]) is found in a line of Lynceus, a fourth-century tragedian.

-- 282. _denied this intimacy with him_: or possibly (with the scholiast), 'declined this office.'

-- 284. _the tambourine-player_. Such instruments were used in orgiastic rites.

-- 285. Hegemon and Pythocles were members of the Macedonian party, who were put to death in 317 by order of the a.s.sembly. (See Speech on Emba.s.sy, ---- 215, 314.)

-- 287. _same libation_: i.e. the same banquet. The libation preceded the drinking. To 'go beneath the same roof' with a polluted person was supposed to involve contamination.

_in the revel_. Cf. Speech on the Emba.s.sy, -- 128. The reference, however, is here more particularly to Philip's revels after the battle of Chaeroneia, in which, Demosthenes suggests, the Athenian envoys took part.

-- 289. The genuineness of the epitaph is doubtful. Line 2 is singularly untrue. The text is almost certainly corrupt in places (e.g. ll. 3 and 10).

_their lives_, &c. As the text stands, [Greek: aret_es] and [Greek: deimatos] must be governed by [Greek: brab_e,], 'made Hades the judge of their valour or their cowardice.' But this leaves [Greek: ouk esa_osan psuchas] as a quasiparenthesis, very difficult to accept in so simple and at the same time so finished a form of composition as the epigram. There are many emendations.

_'Tis G.o.d's_, &c. The line, [Greek: m_eden hamartein esti the_on kai panta katorhthoun], is taken from Simonides' epitaph on the heroes of Marathon.

The sense of the couplet is plain from -- 290; but [Greek: en biot_e] in l.

10 is possibly corrupt.

-- 300. _the confederacy_, i.e. Athens, Thebes, and their allies at Chaeroneia.

-- 301. _our neighbours_, especially Megara and Corinth.

-- 308. _the inactivity which you_, &c.: i.e. abstention from taking a prominent part in public life.

-- 309. _opening of ports_: i.e. to Athenian commerce.

-- 311. _What pecuniary a.s.sistance_, &c. Demosthenes is thinking of his own services in ransoming prisoners, &c. Some editors translate, 'What public financial aid have you ever given to rich or poor?' i.e. 'When have you ever dispensed State funds in such a way as to benefit any one?' It is impossible to decide with certainty between the two alternatives; but the meanings of [Greek: politik_e] ('citizen-like', 'such as one would expect from a good fellow-citizen') and [Greek: koin_e], which I a.s.sume, seem to be supported by ---- 13 and 268 respectively.

-- 312. _leaders of the Naval Boards_. See Introd. to Speech on Naval Boards.