Demosthenes

“ Sec. 36. The choregus paid the expenses of a chorus at the Dionysiac (and certain other) festivals. The gymnasiarchs, or stewards of the games, managed the games and torch-races which formed part of the Panathenaea and many other festivals. The offices were imposed by law upon men who possessed a certain estate, but any one who felt that another could bear the burden better might challenge him either to perform the duty or to exchange property with him. (See Appendix to Goodwin's edition of Demosthenes' Speech against Meidias.) ”

“ The Athenian populace seems always to have been liable to the influence of soothsayers, who professed to utter oracles from the gods, particularly when war was threatening. This was so (e. g.) at the time of the Peloponnesian War (Thucyd. ii. 8, v. 26) , and the soothsayer is delightfully caricatured by Aristophanes in the "Birds" and elsewhere.
Sec. 29. "two hundred ships ... one hundred were Athenian". In the Speech on the Crown, Sec. 238, Demosthenes gives the numbers as 300 and 200. ”

“ On the Chersonese Sec. 9. The argument is, 'if Philip is not committing hostilities so long as he keeps away from Attica, Diopeithes is not doing so, so long as he keeps away from Macedonia, and only operates in Thrace.'
"drive the vessels", &c. See Speech on the Peace, Sec. 25 n.
Sec. 14. "passing the time". i.e. until a convenient season for an attack arrives.
"those who are on the spot". i.e. in Thrace, and who had doubtless sent messages to Athens. Others think that the words mean 'those who are here from Thrace'. ”

“ The reference is particularly to the Arcadian allies of Thebes, but the wider expression perhaps suggests a general policy of a more ambitious kind.
Sec. 22. "you, I think, know". He refers to the older members of the Assembly, who would remember the tyrannical conduct of Sparta during the period of her supremacy (the first quarter of the fourth century B.C.) .
Sec. 27. "pillars". The terms of an alliance were usually recorded upon pillars erected by each State on some site fixed by agreement or custom.
Sec. 28. "in the war". i.e. the 'Sacred War', against the Phocians. ”

“ The sovereignty of the people was exercised to a great extent through the law-courts, the jury being always large enough to be fairly representative of popular opinion, though probably there was generally a rather disproportionate preponderance of poorer men among the jurors, the payment being insufficient to attract others. ”

“ Sec. 24. "rendered Athens weak". The success of Sparta in the Peloponnesian War was rendered possible, to a great extent, by the supply of funds from Persia. In 401 Cyrus made his famous expedition against Artaxerxes II, and Clearchus (with other generals) commanded the Greek troops which assisted him. The death of Cyrus in the battle of Cunaxa in 401 put an end to his rebellion. ”

“ When Ariobarzanes broke out in open revolt, Timotheus could not help him without breaking the first provision; but the Persian occupation tion of Samos was itself a violation of the second, and he was therefore justified in relieving the town. ”

“ Sec. 10, 11. The argument is this: 'If a war with Persia needed a special kind of force, we could not prepare for it without being detected: but as all wars need the same kind of force, our preparations need rouse no suspicion in Persia particularly.'
"acknowledged foes". i.e. probably Thebes, or the revolted allies of Athens, with whom a disadvantageous peace had, perhaps, just been made. It is not, however, impossible that Philip also is in the orator's mind ”

“ The Greek word ( [Greek: spermologos] ) is used primarily of a small bird that pecks up seeds, and hence of a person who picks up petty gossip. (In Acts xvii. 18 it is the word which is applied to St. Paul, and translated 'this babbler'.)
"an old band in the market-place". i.e. a rogue. A clerk would perhaps often be found in the offices about the market-place; or the reference may be to the market-place as a centre of gossip.
"O Earth", &c. Demosthenes quotes from the peroration of Aeschines' speech.
Sec. 129. ”

“ On the Naval Boards Sec. 1. "who praise your forefathers". The advocates of war with Persia had doubtless appealed to the memory of Marathon and Salamis, and the old position of Athens as the champion of Greece against Persia. ”

“ Sec. 17. "ascribed to me", &c. Aeschines was anxious, in view of the existing state of feeling at Athens, to disown his part in connexion with the Peace of Philocrates; while Demosthenes undoubtedly assisted Philocrates in the earlier of the negotiations and discussions which led to the Peace.
"appropriate". 'The recapitulation of the history is not a mere argumentative necessity, but has a moral fitness also; in fact, the whole defence of Demosthenes resolves itself into a proof that he only acted in the spirit of Athenian history' (Simcox) . ”

“ But it was a common practice to accuse an opponent of anti-democratic sentiments, and of trying to get the better of the people by illegitimate means (cf. Speech on Embassy, Sec. 314, &c.) .
Sec. 35. Cf. Speech on Naval Boards, Sec. 41.
The First Philippic Sec. 3. "the war with Sparta". Probably the Boeotian War (378-371 B.C.) , when Athens supported Thebes against Sparta.
"in defence of the right". The attempt of the Spartans to conquer Boeotia was a violation of the Peace of Antalcidas (see n. on Speech for Rhodians, Sec. 6) . ”

“ In 352, when Philip had been repulsed by Onomarchus, Diophantus proposed that public thanksgivings should be held (see Introd. to First Philippic) .
"of Callisthenes". in 346, after the Phocians had surrendered to Philip.
"the sacrifice to Heracles". perhaps one of the two festivals which were respectively held at Marathon and at Cynosarges.
Sec. 99. "constitutional". lit. 'an excuse for a citizen,' under a constitution by which no one was compelled to enter public life, and any one who did so without the requisite capacity had to take the responsibility for his errors.
Sec. 103. "impeached". ”

“ The temple of the Great Mother (Cybele) , which was the Athenian record-office.
"the name of Aeschines". i.e. its removal from the list of ambassadors.
Sec. 131. "in their interest". If the words are not corrupt, the meaning is probably 'in the interest of Philip and the Thebans'; or possibly, 'in reference to these matters.'
Sec. 136. "as his informant". The text is possibly corrupt, though as it stands it might perhaps bear the meaning given, if [Greek: hyparchei] were understood with [Greek: autos] . Others (with or without emendation) take the sense to be 'to manage his business ... ”

“ 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.)
Sec. 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. ”

“ Sec. 122. "declined on oath". An elected official could refuse to serve, if he took an oath that there was some good reason (such as illness) for excusing him.
Sec. 126. "though not elected". Aeschines (on the Embassy, Sec. 94) replies that in fact the commission was renewed at a second meeting of the Assembly, and that he was then well enough to go and was elected. (That there was a second election of ambassadors is confirmed by Demosthenes' own statement in Sec. 172 of the present speech, that he himself was twice elected and twice refused to serve.) ”

“ It had been conventional for over a century to apply this adjective to the Boeotians, and therefore to the Thebans. For a more favourable view, see W. Rhys Roberts, "Ancient Boeotians", chap. i.
Sec. 16. "Oropus". See Speech for Megalopolitans, Sec. ii n.
Sec. 18. "Argives, &c". See Speech for Megalopolitans throughout (with Introd.) .
"those whom they have exiled". especially the refugees from Orchomenus and Coroneia. See vol. i, p. 124.
"Phocian fugitives". The Amphictyonic Council had recently declared that these had been guilty of sacrilege, and might be seized wherever they might be. ”

“ Sec. 5. "the mysteries". These were celebrated from the 14th to the 27th of Boedromion (late in September) .
"Charidemus", of Oreus in Euboea, was a mercenary leader who had served many masters at different times--Athens, Olynthus, Cotys, and Cersobleptes--and had played most of them false at some time or other. ”

“ Sec. 21. "debt due to the god". i.e. the value of the Temple-treasure of Delphi, which the Phocians had plundered.
Sec. 30. "for however contemptible", &c. The argument seems to be this. 'You must not say that a man like Aeschines could not have brought about such vast results. Athens may employ inferior men, but any one who represents Athens has to deal with great affairs, and so his acts may have great consequences. ”

“ Sec. 10. "a Legislative Commission". i.e. a Special Commission on the model of the regular Commission which was appointed annually from the jurors for the year (if the Assembly so decreed) , and before which those who wished to make or to oppose changes in the laws appeared, the proceedings taking the form of a prosecution and defence of the laws in question. The Assembly itself did not legislate, though it passed decrees, which had to be consistent with the existing laws. ”

“ The [Greek: kai] in the phrase [Greek: rh".ta kai aporr".ta] (or [Greek: arr".ta] ) cannot be taken disjunctively here, when it is always conjunctive in this phrase elsewhere, the whole phrase being virtually equivalent to 'everything whatever'.
Sec. 5. "how he treated", &c. The scholiast says that Philip killed the traitors at Amphipolis first, saying that if they had not been faithful to their own countrymen, they were not likely to be faithful to himself ”

“ Greek: "tim".ma".) . The war-tax and the trierarchic burdens were assessed on a valuation of the contributor's property. Upon this valuation of his taxable capital he paid the percentage required. (The old view that he was taxed not upon his capital, as valued, but upon a fraction of it varying with his wealth, rests upon an interpretation of passages in the Speeches against Aphobus, which is open to grave question.) ”

“ But he was given the citizenship in 357 for the part which he had taken in effecting the cession of the Chersonese to Athens, and was a favourite with the people. He was sent on the occasion here referred to with ten ships, for which he was to find mercenary soldiers.
Sec. 6. "with might ... power". A quotation, probably from the text of the treaty of alliance between Athens and Olynthus.
Sec. 8. "funds of the Phocians are exhausted". The Phocian leader Phalaecus had been using the temple-treasures of Delphi, but they were now exhausted. ”

“ The Byzantines drove the Athenian corn-ships into their own harbour. The victims were relieved of their money or their corn.
"shadow at Delphi". i.e. the empty privilege (as Demosthenes here chooses to represent it) of membership of the Amphictyonic League and Council, now claimed by Philip.
The Second Philippic Sec. 1. "sympathetic". i.e. towards other Greek states, desirous of securing independence.
Sec. 2. "Alexander", &c. Alexander of Macedon was sent by Mardonius, the Persian commander, to offer Athens alliance with Persia on favourable terms. ”

“ Sec. 290. "Hegesilaus" was one of the generals sent to Euboea to help Plutarchus; cf. Speech on the Peace, Sec. 5 n. He was accused of abetting Plutarchus in the deception which he practised upon Athens. For Thrasybulus, cf. Sec. 277.
"the primary question". i.e. of the guilt or innocence of the defendant. If he was pronounced guilty, the question of sentence (or damages) had to be argued and decided separately.
Sec. 295. "claim to be". cf. n. on Sec. 259.
"churning the butter" ( [Greek: etyrheue] ) : i.e. concocting the plot. (For the metaphor cf. Aristophanes, "Knights" 479.)
Sec. 299. ”

“ The sentence which follows favours (3) , but perhaps (2) is best. The petty interests of the city would include (from the point of view assumed by Aeschines) the abstention from showing civility to the enemy's envoys. The two-obol (threepenny) seats were the cheapest.
Sec. 30. "three whole months". In fact the ambassadors were only absent from Athens about ten weeks altogether.
"equally well". The reading ( [Greek: homoios] ) is probably wrong; but if it is right, this must be the meaning.
Sec. 32. "as you did before", in 352. See Introd. to First Philippic.
Sec. 36. "decree of Callisthenes". ”

“ Sec. 11. "malingerers". The scholiast says that the choregi were persuaded to choose persons as members of their choruses, in order to enable them to escape military service, choreutae being legally exempted. Other exemptions also existed.
Sec. 12. "persons who proposed them". This can only refer to Eubulus and his party.
Sec. 20. "Corinthians and Megareans". ”

“ Sec. 51. Aeschines states that Philip's invitation was declined because it was suggested that Philip would keep the soldiers sent as hostages.
Sec. 65. "on our way to Delphi". Demosthenes had been one of the Athenian representatives at the meeting of the Amphictyonic Council at Delphi this year.
"gave its vote", &c. After the battle of Aegospotami at the end of the Peloponnesian War, the representative of Thebes proposed to the Spartans and their allies that Athens should be destroyed and its inhabitants sold into slavery. ”

“ Sec. 20. "all that they themselves had toiled for". i.e. the conquest of the Phocians in the Sacred War.
Sec. 22. "some persons". i.e. Aeschines and others who tried to excuse Philip's treatment of the Phocians to the Athenian people.
Sec. 23. "admission ... Delphi". The Phocians had formerly contrived their exclusion from the Amphictyonic meeting and from the temple and oracle of Delphi. The Council now restored them, and excluded the Phocians.
Sec. 24. "refuse to submit". reading [Greek: (".ud) otioun upomeinai".] ”

“ The sense of the couplet is plain from Sec. 290; but [Greek: en biot".] in l. 10 is possibly corrupt.
Sec. 300. "the confederacy", i.e. Athens, Thebes, and their allies at Chaeroneia.
Sec. 301. "our neighbours", especially Megara and Corinth.
Sec. 308. "the inactivity which you", &c.: i.e. abstention from taking a prominent part in public life.
Sec. 309. "opening of ports". i.e. to Athenian commerce.
Sec. 311. "What pecuniary assistance", &c. Demosthenes is thinking of his own services in ransoming prisoners, &c. ”