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[*] 185. But in DEM. xvi. 5 we find the optative in an indirect quotation: οὐ γὰρ ἐκεῖνό γ᾽ ἂν εἴποιμεν, ὡς ἀνταλλάξασθαι βουλοίμεθ᾽ ἀντιπάλους Λακεδαιμονίους ἀντὶ Θηβαίων. There are no other readings, and we must call it an exceptional case of assimilation (we could not say this, that we wished, etc.) unless we emend it either by reading βουλόμεθα (as proposed by Madvig, Bemerk. p. 21) or by inserting ἄν. In PLAT. Rep. 515 D, we find in the best MSS. τί ἂν οἴει αὐτὸν εἰπεῖν, εἴ τις αὐτῷ λέγοι ὅτι τότε μὲν ἑώρα φλυαρίας, νῦν δὲ ὀρθότερα βλέποι; what do you think he would say, if any one should tell him that all that time he had been seeing foolish phantoms, but that now he saw more correctly? (Some MSS. read βλέπει.) In Il. v. 85, Τυδείδην οὐκ ἂν γνοίης ποτέροισι μετείη, the optative represents μέτεστιν in the direct question; but οὐκ ἂν γνοίης here refers to the past, meaning you would not have known (442).
Macmillan. London, Melbourne, Toronto. 1889. reprint edition:. St. Martin's Press. New York. 1965.
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