William Watson Goodwin, Commentary on Demosthenes: On the Crown

3. κἂν διαρραγῶσι: see § 21.9.

4. ἐπιτειχισμὸν, i.e. Byzantium, as a point from which to threaten Athens: see note on § 71.2.

5. σίτῳ ἐπεισάκτῳ: the same words are found in XX. 31, where it is said that the grain from the Euxine was about half of the whole amount imported by Athens. See Sandys's notes on XX. 31—33. The thin soil of Attica (τὸ λεπτόγεων, Thuc. 1. 2) could not supply grain enough for the population, even in the best seasons, and the fruitful shores of the Euxine were the most important sources of supply. Hence it would have been fatal to Athens to have the Hellespont and the Bosporus in hostile hands (cf. §§ 241, 301). Boeckh estimates the grain annually consumed in Attica at about 3,400,000 μέδιμνοι (5,100,000 bushels), of which only 2,400,000 μέδιμνοι could be raised at home. See the story of Xerxes in Hdt. VII. 147.

7. παρελθὼν ἐπὶ Θρᾴκης: this probably refers to the advance of Philip to the siege of Perinthus in 340, when he protected his fleet in its passage through the Hellespont by marching an army through the Chersonese. The appeal to Byzantium, as an ally, to help him in his coming war with Athens was perhaps sent from Perinthus, which he besieged unsuccessfully before he attacked Byzantium. See Hist. §§ 54, 55.—Βυζαντίους: with both ἠξίου and ἐπολιόρκει (12).—συμμάχους: after Byzantium left the Athenian alliance in the Social war, she became an ally of Philip (XV. 3, IX. 35). But now she had been brought into friendship and alliance with Athens by the skilful diplomacy of Demosthenes before Philip's appeal to her for help (Hist. §§ 51, 53).

9. οὐκ ἤθελον οὐδ᾽ ἔφασαν, re- fused and denied.

11. χάρακα, here a palisade, gen- erally a pale or pole: see Harpocr. χάρακα: Δημοσθένης τὸ χαράκωμα ὃ περιεβάλλοντό τινες στρατοπέδῳ ἐπὶ σωτηρίᾳ.

12. μηχανήματ᾽ ἐπιστήσας: cf. IX. 17, 50. The siege of Byzantium marks an epoch in engines of war.