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§§ 26, 27. Thus we have been robbed of our property in our own city, as if forsooth these Phaselites had the right of reprisal on Athenians! For it is robbery not to pay debts. There was no dispute about facts, no ambiguity in the terms of the bond. It is simply roguery on their part. When both the contracting parties have made a written agreement, there is an end of it; it only remains for them to act up to the letter of the contract. συλῶν] σύλας διδόναι is ‘to grant permission to make reprisals,’ corresponding to the modern practice of granting ‘letters of marque.’ Cf. § 13. Harpocr. (in v. σύλας) cites the sentence σεσυλήμεθα—ἀλλότρια, omitting τούτων before and ὄντων after Φασηλιτῶν, ὥσπερ before δεδομένων and βίᾳ after ἀναιροῦνται (sic). He refers the passage to the De Corona, by an evident mistake. Cf. Lysias 30 § 22 “ὁρῶν —Βοιωτοὺς σύλας ποιουμένους.” οὐδ᾽ ἀκήκοα i.e. much less have I witnessed. διαπεπραγμένοι Observe the medial use of the perfect passive corresponding to the aorist διεπράξαντο. Similarly εἰσπέπρακται in § 44.
Select Private Orations of Demosthenes, Part I. F. A. Paley, M.A., LL.D., and J. E. Sandys, Litt. D. 1898. Cambridge University Press.
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