William Watson Goodwin, Commentary on Demosthenes: On the Crown

2. καὶ μεγάλα, even serious.

3. ἀγωνίζομαι, like ἀγών, used of contests of all kinds, here of a lawsuit. See the pun on the two meanings of ἀγωνίσασθαι περὶ θανάτου in IV. 47.

4. διαμαρτεῖν, to forfeit: cf. ἀπο- στερεῖσθαι, § 5.4, and the following words.

5. μὴ ἑλεῖν τὴν γραφὴν, not to gain his case: cf. Ὀλύμπια νικᾶν, Thuc. I. 126; ψήφισμα νικᾷ, Aesch. III. 68; πολλὰς...γραφὰς διώξας οὐδεμίαν εἷλεν, Ant. 2, A.α, 5. A victorious defendant is said γραφὴν (δίκην) ἀποφυγεῖν, a defeated defendant γραφὴν (δίκην) ὀφλεῖν.—ἀλλ̓ ἐμοὶ μὲν: a familiar ἀποσιώπησις, often quoted by the rhetoricians. What is plainly meant would sound unpleasant (δυσχερές) and suggest disaster in the opening of his speech. See Quint. IX. 2, 54, who quotes “quos ego— sed motos praestat componere fluctus,” Aen. I. 135.

7. ἐκ περιουσίας, at an advantage, lit. from an abundance, like a rich man who stakes little compared with his wealth. In Luke xxi. 4, the rich cast into the treasury “of their abundance” or “superfluity,” ἐκ τοῦ περισσεύοντος αὐτοῖς.

8. ἕτερον δ̓ (sc. ἐλάττωμα) corre- sponds to ἓν μὲν in 3, and keeps up the construction of πολλὰ ἐλαττοῦμαι in 1.—ὃ...ὑπάρχει, which is a natural disposition of the whole human race: πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις suggests the subject of ἀκούειν and ἄχθεσθαι, which explain ἕτερον.