Ἀρεοπαγιτικός
. [Or. VII.] — As a picture of the older Athenian Democracy this discourse supplements the Panegyricus. The latter describes the external relations of Athens in her great days; the Areopagiticus, the inner life. In this speech Isocrates contrasts the Athenian Democracy as it existed in the middle of the 4th century B.C. with the Democracy of Solon and of Cleisthenes (§ 16). He dwells chiefly on two features of the elder Democracy: — 1. the preference of election (αἵρεσις) to ballot (κλήρωσις) in the appointment of State officers, §§ 22 ff.; 2. the supervision of public morals exercised by the Council of the Areiopagus: §§ 36 — 55. It is owing to the prominence of the latter topic that the speech has been called Ἀρεοπαγιτικός. It is cast in a deliberate form. Isocrates supposes himself to have given notice in writing to the prytanes of an intention to speak ‘On the Safety of Athens’ (περὶ σωτηρίας πρόσοδον ἀπογράψασθαι, §§ 1, 15); and to be now urging in the ecclesia, as absolutely necessary to the welfare of the city, the restoration of censorial power to the Areiopagus (cp. § 84). Like the De Pace (Or. VIII.), this speech was not delivered, or meant for delivery, in the Assembly. The deliberative form was adopted merely for the sake of giving greater life and impressiveness to the pleading. The date is to be inferred from five indications: — (1) There was now peace on the frontiers of Attica (τὰ περὶ τὴν χώραν), and a confident sense of security at Athens, §§ 1 — 3: (2) The Athenians had ‘lost all the cities in Thrace’ (§ 9): (3) had spent more than 1000 talents on mercenaries, ib: (4) had got a bad name in Hellas and incurred the enmity of Persia, § 10: (5) had been forced ‘to save the friends of the Thebans’ and to lose their own allies. The latter half of 355 B.C. is the date to which these indications seem to point. (See Attic Orators, II. 202 f., where the question of the date is examined in detail.) The powers exercised by the Areiopagus before the reforms of Ephialtes were of two kinds, definite and indefinite. The definite powers were: 1. A limited criminal jurisdiction: 2. the supreme direction of religious worship, especially of the cultus of the Eumenides. The indefinite powers were: 1. A general supervision of all magistrates and law-courts: 2. a general guardianship of the laws, with the right of protest (though not of veto) when proposed new laws conflicted with old: 3. a general control of the education of the young: 4. a general censorship of public morals: 5. competence to assume, in emergencies of the State, a dictatorial authority. The definite powers of the Areiopagus were never at any time taken from it. But Ephialtes abolished almost wholly the indefinite powers. It is for the ievival of these — especially of (3) and (4) — that Isocrates is anxious. While it possessed these, the Areiopagus had been the strongest influence, though mainly a negative influence, in the State; it had been able to impress a conservative character upon the whole civic body. Deprived of these, it was merely a criminal court of narrow competence. Its connection with what was most venerable in the old religion, and the high standing of its individual members, still secured to it, indeed, a large measure of respect. Isocrates speaks of the good influence which, even in his own day, wrought on those who became members of the college. But politically the Areiopagus was now powerless. The plea of Isocrates for a restoration of its strength is strikingly illustrated by the protest of Aeschylus against its enfeeblement. It is not on any well-defined function, but rather on those prerogatives which, being vague, were boundless, that orator and poet alike insist: — Here, on the Hill of Ares, Once seat and camp of Amazons who came In anger against Theseus, and defied From their new ramparts his acropolis, And poured blood unto Ares, where is now The hill, the rock of Ares — in this place Awe kin to dread shall hold the citizens From sinning in the darkness or the light, While their own voices do not change the laws. * * * * * * This Court, majestic, incorruptible, Instant in anger, over those who sleep The sleepless watcher of my land I set. Attic Orators, II. 202: 211.§§ 36 — 55.
γεγενημένας I believe this to be the true reading, and not γιγνομένας (=αἳ ἐγίγνοντο, adopted by Benseler from the Urbino ms.), because the perf. better expresses the feeling of Isocr. that this glorious chapter of Athenian history was closed. The πράξεις are the political and social life of Athens under the Old Democracy, and before the rule of the demagogues. Isocr. would date the latter from the death of Pericles — regarding the administration of Pericles as a transitional period, in which the deterioration, moral and political, was mitigated by the personal qualities of the leader: see esp. De Pace § 126, p. 109, Περικλῆς...λαβὼν τὴν πόλιν χεῖρον μὲν φρονοῦσαν...ἔτι δ᾽ ἀνεκτῶς πολιτευομένην, κ.τ.λ. καλῶς καὶ τὰ πρὸς σφᾶς αὐτοὺς εἶχον, κ.τ.λ. ‘were so happy in their relations to each other [i.e. in their social and private life], and in their administration of the Commonwealth’. Cp. Thuc. II. 37, ἀνεπαχθῶς δὲ τὰ ἴδια προσομιλοῦντες τὰ δημόσια διὰ δέος μάλιστα οὐ παρανομοῦμεν. σαφέστερον For the form cp. note on Panegyr. § 163, ἐρρωμενεστέρως, p. 311.ἐκεῖνοι γὰρ...ἢ παῖδες ὄντες ‘The preceptors of the young Athenian's studies in that age were, indeed, numerous; but it did not follow that, when he entered on man's estate, he was allowed to do as he pleased; rather he was subject to stricter supervision just in the years of his prime than during his boyhood’. Affirmatively, the sentence would be: ἐν μὲν ταῖς παιδείαις πολλοὺς τοὺς ἐπιστ. εἶχον, ἐπειδὴ δὲ...δοκιμασθεῖεν, ἐξῆν, κ.τ.λ. Place the whole in brackets: prefix οὐκ: and we have the negative form. This is due to the Greek love of symmetrical antithesis, and therefore of co-ordinated rather than subordinated clauses. Cp. Archidamus § 54, τότε μέν, κ.τ.λ., note, p. 339. πολλοὺς τοὺς ἐπιστ e.g. παιδαγωγός, παιδοτρίβης (teacher of gymnastics), γραμματοδιδάσκαλος, ἁρμονικός (music-master), etc.; after the age of 17, the ἐπιμεληταὶ τῶν ἐφήβων or σωφρονισταί (=the Spartan παιδονόμοι): Herm. Ant. III. § 34. 6, § 35. 18. εἰς ἄνδρας δοκιμασθ At 18 the ἔφηβος (ἐκ παίδων ἐξελθών) passed his δοκιμασία as such: at 20, his δοκιμασία εἰς ἄνδρας (ἀνὴρ εἶναι δοκιμασθῆναι, εἰς ἄνδρας ἐγγράφεσθαι): Herm. Ant. I. § 121. — ἐν αὐταῖς ταῖς ἀκμαῖς, i.e. just in those years of early manhood when passion is strongest: cp. Antid. § 289, p. 123, ἐν ταύταις...ταῖς ἀκμαῖς ὄντες ὑπερεῖδον τὰς ἡδονὰς ἐν αἷς οἱ πλεῖστοι μάλιστ᾽ αὐτῶν ἐπιθυμοῦσιν. τὴν σωφροσύνην — τῆς εὐκοσμίας ‘sobriety’ — ‘decorum’. Cp. Aeschin. In Ctes. § 2 (in reference to Solon's regulations περὶ ῥητόρων εὐκοσμίας): the oldest citizen was to speak first, σωφρόνως ἐπὶ τὸ βῆμα παρελθὼν ἄνευ θορύβου καὶ ταραχῆς. Dem. F. L. § 251, ἔφη τὸν Σόλωνα ἀνακεῖσθαι τῆς τῶν τότε δημηγορούντων σωφροσύνης παράδειγμα, εἴσω τὴν χεῖρα ἔχοντα ἀναβεβλημένον (with his cloak drawn round him, and his hand within the folds). See Attic Orators, I. 25. ἧς...τοῖς καλῶς γεγονόσι ‘membership of which [ἧς, sc. τῆς ἐξ Ἀρείου πάγου βουλῆς] was possible only for the well-born’. If καλῶς γεγονόσιν is pressed, this is true only of the preSolonian time when the Areiopagus was confined to the Eupatridae: since Solon's reforms opened the archonship to the Pentakosiomedimni, and past archons (unless rejected at their εὐθῦναι on laying down office) ‘went up’ to the Areiopagus. Herm. Ant. I. § 109: Grote III. 162. But no such clear distinction is present to Isocr.'s mind, who is thinking only of the broad contrast between the old aristocratic Republic and the later Democracy. καλῶς γεγονότες cannot be explained as merely=καθαρῶς γεγ., ‘of pure Attic parentage’. συνεδρίων ‘assemblies’ — a general term: cp. Nicocles § 19, p. 75: Antid. § 38, οὔτ᾽ ἐν τοῖς συνεδρίοις (Boulè or Ecclesia) οὔτε περὶ τὰς ἀνακρίσεις (preliminary law proceedings before the archon) οὔτ᾽ ἐπὶ τοῖς δικαστηρίοις οὔτε πρὸς τοῖς διαιτηταῖς.
τῶν περὶ τὴν αἵρεσιν, κ.τ.λ. ‘when the safeguards of election and of scrutiny have fallen into neglect’. In § 22 Isocr. had said that the Athenians of yore ᾤκουν τὴν πόλιν, οὐκ ἐξ ἁπάντων τὰς ἀρχὰς κληροῦντες, ἀλλὰ τοὺς βελτίστους καὶ τοὺς ἱκανωτάτους ἐφ᾽ ἕκαστον τῶν ἔργων προκρίνοντες: and goes on to speak of the risk run by τὸ λαγχάνειν and ἡ κλήρωσις (ballot for office). The substitution of ballot (κλήρωσις) for election (αἵρεσις), in the case of the nine archons, prob. dated from Cleisthenes. The στρατηγοί, at least, and the ταμίας (steward of the Treasury) always remained αἱρετοί. As regards most other offices, ballot was prob. substituted for αἵρεσις about 478 B.C. But the term αἵρεσις, in its general sense, included κλήρωσις as well as αἵρεσις in the special sense (χειροτονία): so κυάμοις αἱρεῖσθαι, Lucian Vit. Auct. 6. Here Isocr. is thinking of ballot as a mischievous substitute for χειροτονία: but the word αἵρεσιν prob.=merely ‘mode of selection’. — δοκιμασία, the scrutiny, before the βουλή, of those who had drawn the lot to be archons: including, here, the idea of the εὐθῦναι on retirement also. ἀναβῶσιν Cp. Plut. Pericl. 9, δι᾽ αὐτῶν [τῶν ἀρχῶν] οἱ δοκιμασθέντες ἀνέβαινον εἰς Ἄρειον πάγον (which was ἡ ἄνω βουλή): below, § 46, ἀνῆγον. τῇ φύσει χρῆσθαι ‘to indulge their propensities’. φόβον...ἐν τῷ τόπῳ Cp. Aesch. Eumen. 659, πέτρα πάγος τ᾽ Ἄρειος: ἐν δὲ τῷ σέβας | ἀστῶν φόβος τε ξυγγενὴς τὸ μὴ ἀδικεῖν | σχήσει, κ.τ.λ.
τὴν δὴ τοιαύτην...ἀλλήλων ‘Such then, as I have said [§ 37], was the Council to which they committed the care of good order; a Council which deemed those men ignorant who suppose that the best characters are produced in the communities whose laws are framed with the greatest precision; since (they felt) there was nothing to hinder all Greeks being on the same level, so far as concerns the facility of obtaining written codes from each other’. — τὴν τοιαύτην...ἥ,=οἵα (cp. Lys. or. XIII. § 13, note, p. 263): the omission of βουλήν helping to personify the influence. — ἐνταῦθα,=ἐν τούτοις, anteced. to παρ᾽ οἷς. — κείμενοι,=perf. pass. of τίθημι: cp. ὑπεκκείμενα, Aegin. § 18, p. 158. — ἀγνοεῖν=ἀγνώμονας εἶναι. — οὐδὲν ἂν κωλύειν, oblique either of ἂν ἐκώλυεν (nothing would hinder, whereas something does), or κωλύοι ἄν (would conceivably hinder): better taken as representing the latter.
ἀλλὰ γὰρ...παιδευθῶσιν ‘But in fact (the Council knew) it is not by such things that virtue is promoted, but by the pursuits of daily life; since most men retain the impress of the particular habits in which they have been educated’. παιδευθῶσιν ἄν, vivid for παιδευθεῖεν, in spite of ἐνόμιζεν, on which the whole oblique discourse depends: cp. Goodwin § 74. 1. — ἐπιτηδευμάτων: Thuc. II. 37, τῶν καθ᾽ ἡμέραν ἐπιτ.: cp. Antiph. Tetr. B. β. § 10, note, p. 206. ἐπεὶ τά γε πλήθη...ἀναγκάζ.] ‘For the number and precision of the laws (the Council held) is a sign that the city in which they exist [ταύτην] is ill administered; since it is in the attempt [pres. part.] to erect barriers against crime that such a community [αὐτούς] is compelled to multiply its laws’. πλήθη — ἀκριβείας: for the plur. see Antid. § 283, note, p. 303. — τίθεσθαι, of the legislator who is bound by his laws: τιθέναι, of one who legislates only for others: κεῖσθαι, of the laws themselves. Dobree cp. Tac. III. 27, corruptissima re publica plurimae leges.
τὰς στοὰς ἐμπιπλ. γραμμάτων ‘to cover the walls of their porticoes with statutes’; Andoc. De Myst. § 85, ἐδοκιμάσθησαν μὲν οὖν οἱ νόμοι, τοὺς δὲ κυρωθέντας ἀνέγραψαν εἰς τὴν στοάν (i.e. the στοὰ βασίλειος in the Agora). The ψήφισμα cited there directs, τοὺς δὲ κυρουμένους τῶν νόμων ἀναγράφειν εἰς τὸν τοῖχον, ἵναπερ πρότερον ἀνεγράφησαν, σκοπεῖν τῷ βουλομένῳ. So here ἀκριβῶς ἀναγεγραμμένους=‘posted up’, ‘promulgated’, in strict terms. καὶ τοῖς ἁπλῶς κειμένοις ‘even those laws which are conceived in simple terms’ — opp. to ἀκριβῶς, i.e. with less attempt to define rigorously a number of special cases. Cp. Lysias In Theomn. § 7, note.
δι᾽ ὧν — ἐξ ὧν διά — ‘by what means’: — ἐξ — ‘on [starting from] what principles’....παρασκευάσουσι, ‘contrive’, often in a bad sense, of intrigue: cp. Lys. In Agor. § 12, p. 79, ἐκείνῳ δικαστήριον παρασκευάσαντες. τὸ δὲ περὶ τὰς τιμωρίας ‘but that to press for retribution is the province of personal resentment’: i.e. the affair of the injured. Cp. Lysias In Eratosth. § 2, πρότερον μὲν γὰρ ἔδει τὴν ἔχθραν τοὺς κατηγοροῦντας ἐπιδεῖξαι, κ.τ.λ., where see note.
ταραχωδέστατα διακ ‘subject to the most unruly passions’: cp. § 37, note on εἰς ἄνδρας δοκιμασθεῖεν. ἐν μόνοις...εἰθισμένους ‘for to such labours only [sc. τοῖς τὰς ἡδονὰς ἔχουσι], they saw, would those be constant, who had received a liberal education and learned to cherish a high spirit’. ἐμμεῖναι ἄν, oblique of ἐμμείνειαν ἄν. — For μεγαλοφρονεῖν we ought perhaps to read μέγα φρονεῖν. Isocr. has μέγα φρονεῖν in seven passages: or. II. § 30: III. §§ 35, 39: IV. §§ 81, 132: IX. § 45: X. § 35: but μεγαλοφρονεῖν only here. The only other place in a classical writer where μεγαλοφρονεῖν has strong ms. authority is Xen. Hellen. VI. 2. § 39, where Cobet would read μέγα φρονοῦντος, and G. Sauppe gives μεγάλα φρονοῦντος. In Plat. Protag. 342 D, and Alcibiades I. 104 C, it is merely an ill-attested variant. In later writers, however (though Pollux III. 114 seems to condemn it altogether), μεγαλοφρονεῖν is not rare: e.g. Plut. Ages. 30, Joseph. Ant. XIX. 7. 3, Aelian Var. Hist. XII. 22. Cp. Cobet N. L. 269, 340, 643, Lobeck Ai. 443.
ἀνωμάλως...ἔχοντας ‘owing to the disparity of their circumstances’: τὰ περὶ τὸν βίον=τὴν οὐσίαν: cp. § 45 βίον ἱκανὸν κεκτημένους. τὰς γεωργίας, κ.τ.λ. Note the six plurals: see Antid. § 283, note. τὰς ἀπορίας μέν, κ.τ.λ. This form of κλῖμαξ (gradatio, ascensus) was specially called ἐπιπλοκή, catena: cp. Dem. F. L. § 179, οὐκ εἶπον μὲν ταῦτα, οὐκ ἔγραψα δέ, οὐδ᾽ ἔγραψα μέν, οὐκ ἐπρέσβευσα δέ, κ.τ.λ. Cic. Pro Rosc. Am. 27. 75, “in urbe luxuries creatur; ex luxuria existat avaritia necesse est; ex avaritia erumpat audacia”, etc. Volkmann, Rhet. Gr. und Römer, p. 403.
ἀπαλλάξειν that they would draw away [the youth, τοὺς νεωτέρους]. τὰ γυμνάσια — τὰ κυνηγέσια not here ‘the gymnasiums’, but ‘athletic exercises’: Plat. Laches 181 E, (τὸ ἐν ὅπλοις μάχεσθαι is good for young men) οὐδενὸς γὰρ τῶν γυμνασίων φαυλότερον οὐδ᾽ ἐλάττω πόνον ἔχει, καὶ ἅμα προσήκει ἐλευθέρῳ μάλιστα τοῦτό τε τὸ γυμνάσιον καὶ ἡ ἱππική. — τὰ κυνηγέσια: cp. the taunt of Aeschines against Demosthenes, In Ctes. § 255, τίνες ὑμῶν εἰσιν οἱ βοηθήσοντες τῷ Δημοσθένει; πότερον οἱ συγκυνηγέται ἢ οἱ συγγυμνασταὶ αὐτοῦ ὅτ᾽ ἦν ἐν ἡλικίᾳ; ἀλλὰ μὰ τὸν Δία τὸν Ὀλύμπιον οὐχ ὗς ἀγρίους κυνηγετῶν...διαγεγένηται. ὁρῶντες ‘seeing that by these pursuits [τούτων] some are made excellent men, and others are led to abstain from most vices’. ἀπεχομένους, midd.
οὐδὲ τὸν λοιπὸν χρόνον ‘neither did they neglect the [citizen's] later years’; i.e. they continued to watch over his adult life, as they had already watched over his boyhood and youth (§ 37). κώμας...δήμους ‘taking the city by wards (κῶμαι) and the country by townships, they continued to supervise each man's life’: διελόμενοι not necessarily implying that they were the authors of such a division, but only that they took this division as the basis of their systematic inspection. (Cp. Lys. In Erat. § 7, p. 66, διαλαβόντες τὰς οἰκίας.) — κῶμαι (vici), wards or quarters of the town; at Athens prob. merely local divisions, without any further political significance, Herm. Ant. 1. § 11. 11: the word perh. preserving a reminiscence of the time before the συνοίκισις ascribed to Theseus, Thuc. II. 15. See Arist. Poet. III. 6, ἐν Πελοποννήσῳ [as in Lacedaemon] κώμας τὰς περιοικίδας καλεῖν φασίν, Ἀθηναῖοι δὲ δήμους. — The division into δῆμοι (pagi) was ascribed to Theseus, and was at least much older than Cleisthenes. Plato, Legg. 756 D, has φρατρίας καὶ δήμους καὶ κώμας, where, however, κώμας may be ‘villages’. Isocr. seems to be the only writer who names the city κῶμαι as parallel with the country δῆμοι: cp. Herm. Ant. I. § 111. 4. ἀνῆγον Cp. § 38, ἀναβῶσι, note. ἐνουθέτει — ἠπείλει — ἐκόλαζεν ‘admonished’ (for a first offence): ‘threatened’ (for repeated offences): ‘punished’ (the contumacious). δύο τρόποι ‘for they knew that there are in fact (τυγχάνουσιν) two systems, one of which impels men to wrong-doing, while the other deters them from evil courses’: οἱ καὶ προτρέποντες καὶ παύοντες=which respectively impel or deter. For τὰς ἀδικίας and τῶν πονηριῶν, where the antithesis required opposites, cp. Antiph. De Caed. Her. § 87, note, p. 216.
παῤ οἷς μὲν γὰρ...τὰς κακοηθείας The infins. δια- φθείρεσθαι...γίγνεσθαι depend on ἠπίσταντο: cp. §§ 40 — 42 (depending on ἐνομίζεν § 39). — Observe the double μέν in the protasis (παρ᾽ οἷς μέν, παρὰ τούτοις μέν) balanced by the double δέ in the apodosis (ὅπου δὲ...ἐνταῦθα δέ). Cp. De Pace § 55, οἷς μὲν γὰρ...συμβούλοις χρώμεθα, τούτους μὲν οὐκ ἀξιοῦμεν χειροτονεῖν,...οἷς δ᾽ οὐδεὶς ἂν συμβουλεύσαιτο, τούτους δ᾽...ἐκπέμπομεν. ἐξιτήλους γίγνεσθαι ‘malignant tendencies gradually disappear’. So Philipp. § 60, ὤστε μηδέπω νῦν ἐξιτήλους εἶναι τὰς συμφορὰς τὰς δι᾽ ἐκεῖνον τὸν πόλεμον (the Peloponnesian) ἐν ταῖς πόλεσιν ἐγγεγενημένας, ‘have not even yet been effaced’. Cp. Xen. Oec. 10. 3, εἰ...πορφυρίδας ἐξιτήλους φαίην ἀληθινὰς εἶναι, ‘if I were to say that sham [quickly fading] purples were real’. τοσούτου...ἔδεον...λανθάνειν Cp. Philipp. § 100, τοσούτου δεῖ...ἄρχειν, note. τοὺς ἐπιδόξους ἁμαρτήσεσθαι not, ‘those who were meditating an offence’, but, ‘those on whose part an offence was apprehended’. For this use, cp. Isocr. Epist. IV. § 6, τῶν ἐπιδόξων διαφθαρήσεσθαι πραγμάτων, ‘the affairs which seemed likely to be ruined’. So or. XX. § 12, τοὺς ἐπιδόξους γενήσεσθαι πονηρούς. In Archidamus § 8, ἐπίδοξος ὢν τυχεῖν τῆς τιμῆς ταύτης, the sense is, ‘being heir presumptive to this dignity’ (the Spartan kingship).
σκιραφείοις, κ.τ.λ. ‘gambling-houses’: cp. Antid. § 287, note. — ἐν ταῖς αὐλητρίσιν, might=simply ‘among’, but prob.=‘in their part of the town’,=ἐν τοῖς αὐλητριδίοις (Athen. XII. 532). Cp. Κεραμεῖς as the name of a district or deme, Plat. Prot. 315 D. ἐν οἷς ἐτάχθησαν ‘were constant to the pursuits to which they had been appointed’ (by the paternal authority of the Areiopagus): cp. above § 44, οὕτως ἑκάστοις προσέταττον. Each man was given his τάξις, his place in the ordered life of the city. σωφροσύνης ‘sobriety’ (of demeanour): see on τὴν σωφροσύνην, § 37.
ἐν καπηλείῳ ‘in a tavern’. κάπηλος ὁ μετάβολος [read μεταβολεύς, huckster] καὶ οἰνοπώλης, Etym. M. 490. Athen. p. 566 F, Ὑπερείδης ἐν τῷ κατὰ Πατροκλέους τοὺς Ἀρειοπαγίτας φησὶν ἀριστήσαντά τινα: ἐν καπηλείῳ κωλῦσαι ἀνιέναι εἰς Ἄρειον πάγον. Cp. Plato, Legg. 918 D, πάντα τὰ περὶ τὴν καπηλείαν καὶ ἐμπορίαν καὶ πανδοκείαν (inn-keeping) γένη διαβέβληταί τε καὶ ἐν αἰσχροῖς γέγονεν ὀνείδεσιν. βωμολοχεύεσθαι ‘buffoonery’: cp. Antid. § 284, τοὺς μέν γε βωμολοχευομένους καὶ σκώπτειν καὶ μιμεῖσθαι δυναμένους εὐφυεῖς καλοῦσιν, and note, p. 304. εὐτραπέλους ‘And indeed [δέ, ‘again’, — to say nothing of positive βωμολόχοι] the proficients in repartee and jest who are now called wits were then thought warnings’: εὐφυεῖς — δυστυχεῖς, a παρονομασία (cp. Panegyr. § 186, φήμην...μνήμην, note, p. 318). Arist. Eth. II. 7. § 13, περὶ δὲ τὸ ἡδὺ τὸ μὲν ἐν παιδιᾷ (playfulness) ὁ μὲν μέσος εὐτράπελος:...ἡ δ᾽ ὑπερβολὴ βωμολοχία...ὁ δ᾽ ἐλλείπων ἀγροῖκός τις. Eth. IV. 8. § 10, ὁ μέσος...εἴτ᾽ ἐπιδέξιος εἴτ᾽ εὐτράπελος [οἷον εὔτροπος, ib. § 3: his mark is τὸ ἐμμελῶς παίζειν] λέγεται: ὁ δὲ βωμολόχος ἥττων ἐστὶ τοῦ γελοίου, the buffoon cannot resist the temptation to raise a laugh (even when the joke is coarse, or will give pain): he differs from the εἴρων, again, in jesting, not for his own amusement, but for that of others (Rhet. III. 18). On the sense of εὐτραπελία in Antid. § 296, see note.
καταστάσει ‘this state of things’ (not in a political sense, ‘constitution’). τοῖς ὀλίγῳ πρὸ ἡμῶν alluding to the reforms of Ephialtes about a century before (459 B.C.), by which the powers of the Areiopagus were restricted: see introd.
ἧς ἐπιστατούσης ‘while that Council exercised a censorship’ — referring to its general moral supervision: cp. Aesch. Eum. 659, εὑδόντων ὕπερ | ἐγρηγορὸς φρούρημα. δικῶν...ἐγκλημάτων...εἰσφορῶν (private) law-suits — (criminal) indictments (ἐγκλήματα comprehending γραφαί and εἰσαγγελίαι) — special war-taxes: the first two being parallel with πενίας, the third with πολέμων.
παρὰ δὲ τῶν Cp. Panegyr. § 82, τοῖς μὲν γὰρ οὐχ ὕπεισι πράξεις, πρὸς δὲ τοὺς οὐκ εἰδὶν ἁρμόττοντες λόγοι. Bernhardy, Synt. p. 310, truly remarks that this use is peculiar to Isocr. among the orators, though not rare among other Attic prose-writers. — εἰ πάσχοιεν: they would say, ἀγαπῶμεν ἐὰν μηδὲν πάσχωμεν. τοιγάρτοι ‘Accordingly’: the notion is, ‘And so, sure enough’ — as might have been expected from these precautions. κατασκευάς ‘establishments’. Thuc. II. 65, καλὰ κτήματα κατὰ τὴν χώραν οἰκοδομίαις τε καὶ πολυτελέσι κατασκευαῖς ἀπολωλεκότες. So Pericles speaks of the country-houses and lands as κηπίον καὶ ἐγκαλλώπισμα πλούτου, ib. 62. Demosthenes touches on the same topic in Olynth. III. § 25 f., ἰδίᾳ δ᾽ οὕτω σώφρονες ἦσαν καὶ σφόδρα ἐν τῷ τῆς πολιτείας ἤθει μένοντες, so constant to a republican simplicity, that the house of Aristeides or of Miltiades is (ἐστίν, implying that it is still pointed out) no grander, σεμνοτέρα, than the house of the ordinary citizen.
τὰς θεωρίας ‘spectacles’ — including sacred processions (πομπαί), dramatic or musical contests (ἀγῶνες) at the festivals, etc. Cp. Panegyr. § 45, (ἡ πόλις, Athens) θεάματα πλεῖστα καὶ κάλλιστα κέκτηται, τὰ μὲν ταῖς δαπάναις ὑπερβάλλοντα, τὰ δὲ κατὰ τὰς τέχνας εὐδοκιμοῦντα. For θεωρία, cp. ib. § 44, πάντες ἐπὶ τὴν σφετέραν θεωρίαν ἥκουσι, (knowing) that all come to see them (the athletes). So, too, or. XIX. § 10, οὔτε θυσίαν οὔτε θεωρίαν (spectacle) οὔτ᾽ ἄλλην ἑορτὴν οὐδεμίαν χωρὶς ἀλλήλων ἤγομεν. On the other hand, in or. XVI. § 34, τὴν θεωρίαν has the technical sense, a sacred mission (to a festival). χορηγίας ‘rivalries in the equipment of choruses’ (for the festivals). Lysias speaks of two such χορηγίαι together costing about £200 (or. XIX. § 42), and of another which cost about £120 (or. XXI. § 161). The ἀνελεύθερος, or mean man, is apt, νικήσας τραγωδοῖς ταινίαν ξυλίνην ἀναθεῖναι τῷ Διονύσῳ (a wooden scroll instead of a tripod); Theophr. XXII. (=XXV. in my ed., where see note p. 251). — ἀλαζονειῶν, ‘forms of pretentiousness’. ἐξ ὧνπερ, κ.τ.λ. ‘It is by these tests [the every-day circum stances of the average citizen] that we must distinguish a solid prosperity from a social system of vulgar display’: φορτικῶς — the profuse ostentation on great occasions, combined with sordid meanness and misery in daily life.
ὅταν ἴδῃ...οὐ βούλομαι λέγειν ‘When he sees many citizens drawing lots in person outside the law-courts for a doubtful chance of daily bread, while their dignity prompts them to feed any Greeks who will row their ships for them, — leading the dance in gold-spangled raiment, and passing the winter in garments which I decline to describe’. — ἐν οἷς οὐ βούλομαι λέγειν (αὐτοὺς χειμάζειν): the simple οἷς would have been by attract. for ἅ. κληρουμένους casting lots in the morning for employment as dicasts during the day: περὶ τῶν ἀναγκαίων, because on this depended the fee, τριώβολον. — εἴθ᾽ ἕξουσιν εἴτε μή, (casting lots, to see) whether they are to have τὰ ἀναγκαῖα or not. — Every year 600 members of each φυλή were chosen ἡλιασταί by lot, thus constituting a body of 6000, of whom 1000 formed a reserve. The other 5000 were divided into 10 sections of 500 each. On the morning of each day when the courts sat, lots were cast to determine which court should be assigned, for that day, to each section. In some cases only part of one section was employed; in others, two or more sections sat together, — the number of dicasts in a court ranging from 200 to 1500 or even 2000. The courts were assigned by lots to the dicasts (τῶν δικαστηρίων ἐπικεκληρωμένων, Dem. Adv. Pantaen. § 39). Each dicast received a ticket (σύμβολον — not πινάκιον, which denoted the tablet given to each of the 6000 heliasts of the year), and a staff, βακτηρία, of the colour which distinguished the court in which he was to sit (ὁμόχροος τῷ δικαστηρίῳ, schol. Ar. Vesp. 1110). On presenting his ticket, he received his day's fee from the κωλακρέται. All who ‘drew lots before the law-courts’ were already heliasts. The only uncertainty was as to whether they should be employed on that particular day. And this is the very point of the passage. The dicast's fee, wretched as it was, had actually become the main-stay of citizens who were living from hand to mouth. Cp. Isocr. De Pace § 130, p. 109, τοὺς ἀπὸ τῶν δικαστηρίων ζῶντας: and Antid. § 152, where he says that he should have been ashamed ‘if, having enough of his own to live on, he should stand in the way of those who were compelled to live by the law-courts (ἐντεῦθεν) and to receive the dole of the state’. Hence the power of the συκοφάνται, — the men who got up law-suits to enrich themselves and to make work for this hungry mob. ἀξιοῦντας in contrast with αὐτούς: the citizens, who themselves have to struggle for bread, are too proud to row their own ships. In the early years of the Peloponnesian War Athens employed ξένοι ναυβάται (Thuc. I. 121), but the commanders (κυβερνῆται) and the hoplites on board (ἐπιβάται) were usu. citizens. When the soldiers were also the rowers (as in a rare emergency) they were called αὐτερέται (Thuc. III. 18). The Pentakosiomedimni and Hippeis rarely served even as ἐπιβάται (cp. ib. 16). Isocr. is not complaining of the citizens for not serving as rowers: he merely notes the contrast between their penury and their sense of dignity. χορεύοντας — χειμάζοντας A παρονομασία, like εὐφυεῖς — δυστυχεῖς, § 49. Antiphanes, the poet of the Middle Comedy (flor. about 380 — 330 B.C.), was exactly contemporary with Isocr.; and, in the passage quoted by Athenaeus III. 62, he thus describes the uncertainties of human life — ὅστις ἄνθρωπος δὲ φὺς ἀσφαλές τι κτῆμ᾽ ὑπάρχειν τῷ βίῳ λογίζεται πλεῖστον ἡμάρτηκεν. ἢ γὰρ εἰσφορά τις ἥρπακε τἄνδοθεν πάντ᾽: ἢ δίκῃ τις περιπεσὼν ἀπώλετο: ἢ στρατηγήσας προσῶφλεν: ἢ χορηγὸς αἱρεθείς, ἱμάτια χρυσᾶ παρασχὼν τῷ χορῷ ῥάκος φορεῖ.
τοῖς ἐπιτηδ. καὶ ταῖς αὐτῶν ἐπιμελείαις ‘by their pursuits’ [the intellectual or physical exercises mentioned in § 45, as distinguished from the agricultural or commercial labours assigned to the poorer] ‘and by the careful watch kept over them’: αὐτῶν, τῶν νεωτέρων, not τῶν ἐπιτηδευμάτων: the v. l. αὑτῶν would mean ‘the care exercised by themselves’ (the Areopagites). τοὺς δὲ πρεσβυτέρους...ταῖς τιμαῖς Isocr. tacitly refers to a time when the archons and other officers were chosen by χειροτονία, not by κλήρωσις, since selection by lot destroyed the prerogative of age: see § 38, τῶν περὶ τὴν αἵρεσιν, κ.τ.λ.
