F. A. Paley, Select Private Orations of Demosthenes

<*>ν τύφῃ τις] From Ar. Vesp. 1079, where Xerxes is described as burning Athens to ‘smoke out’ the citizens as if they were so many hornets, τῷ καπνῷ τύφων ἅπασαν τὴν πόλιν καὶ πυρπολῶν, it would seem that the misdemeanour here mentioned is either sending smoke into a neighbour's pit to retard or annoy his workmen, or stopping up the ventilation so as to cause bad air. In Mid. § 167, we have mention of θυρώματα καὶ ξύλα εἰς τὰ ἔργα τὰ ἀργυρεῖα, which may refer to doors such as might be blocked or fastened up in the mines. Boeckh, who has another reading before him (ἐὰν ὑφάψῃ τις), says “we might either understand the burning of the wood used for supporting the mine, or the setting fire to the ores, for the purpose of undermining the pillars which supported the overlying mass, after they had become infirm.” Publ. Econ. (p. 672 Lewis (2)). But ὑφαψῃ seems due to a conjectural correction of the false reading ὑφῇ iu the Paris MS S. [In a Derbyshire mine iu 1833, a quarrel about the right of working a lode of lead ended in several miners being stifled to death with lighted straw. Annual Register 1834, p. 296. S.]

ὅπλα ἐπιφέρειν can only mean the making an armed attack; and it is likely that ‘claims’ were often made the subject of violent dispute. It cannot refer to the seizure of tools and instruments, as some appear to have thought (see Boeckh, Dissert. p. 667). [Among the customs of the Manor of Crich in Derbyshire is the following: ‘No miner is to bring an unlawful weapon to the mines, and if it chance that a miner (or any other person whosoever) quarrels upon the mine and fights and draws blood upon the mine, he shall pay the sum of three shillings and fourpence before the sun set.’ Bainbridge's Law of Mines and Minerals, p. 569. Binder, Laurion, p. 45, suggests that the provision mentioned in the text was intended to prevent either an armed rising of the slaves employed in the mines, or an armed attack on the workmen. S.]

ἐπικατατέμνειν, like ἐπινέμεσθαι, without much doubt refers to encroaching on the oreground or ‘sett’ of another, μέτρον. A similar word is ἐπικαταλλαγὴ in Theophrast. Char. 30, αἰσχροκερδείας. Xenophon (de Vectig. § 27) contrasts τὰ κατατετμημένα with ἄτμητα μέταλλα, [Hyperid. Euxenip. col. 44, 17 φήναντος Λυσάνδρου τὸ Ἐπικράτους μέταλλον τοῦ Παλληνέως ἐντὸς τῶν μέτρων τετμημένον...οἱ δικασταὶ...ἔγνωσαν ἴδιον εἶναι τὸ μέταλλον, where the boundaries appear to be the limits of the portion unallotted by the state to private individuals. Cf. also Pseudo-Plutarch, vit. Lycurg. ἔκρινε δὲ καὶ Δίφιλον ἐκ τῶν ἀργυρίων μετάλλων τοὺς μεσοκρινεῖς (sc. κίονας, the supporting pillars which also served as boundaries) οἳ ἐβάσταζον τὰ ὑπερκείμενα βάρη ὑφελόντα καὶ ἐξ αὐτῶν πεπλουτηκότα παρὰ τοὺς νόμους καὶ θανάτου ὄντος ἐπιτιμίου ἁλῶναι ἐποίησε, and Bekker's Anecdota, p. 205 ὅρμοι δέ εἰσιν ὥσπερ κίονες τοῦ μετάλλου, οὗτοι δ᾽ ἦσαν καὶ ὅροι τῆς ἑκάστης μερίδος, ἣν ἐμισθώσατο παρὰ τῆς πόλεως, ib. p. 286 ὁμοερκεῖς κίονες: οἱ τῶν μετάλλων κίονες (Boeckh, Publ. Econ. p. 634 Lewis (2)). μέταλλον...στήλην ἔχον repeatedly occurs in C. I. A. ii 781. In some of the ancient mines at Laurium there have been found ‘limit columns of the various allotments, with the names of their proprietors, and the prices paid for each; tools of the workmen, chiefly pickaxes; the niches in which they set their lamps, and the lamps themselves’ (Murray's Greece, ed. 1884, p. 367. Cf. Binder's Laurion, pp. 18—20). In the local customs of Derbyshire various fines are imposed for working out of limits, unlawful filling up of shafts, &c. Bainbridge's Law of Mines, p. 461. S.]

ἃ προεῖντό σοι ‘Which they had lent you on the risk of getting it back.’ See § 14, and also 22.

πρὸς ἅπαντας For all men wish κομίζεσθαι τὰ ἑαυτῶν.