R. J. Cholmeley, M.A., The Idylls of Theocritus

[45] σὑκινοι ἄνδρες, 'useless fellows.' The fig-tree was useless for timber, Hor. Sat. i. 8. 1 'inutile lignum.'

ἀπώλετο χο̣̣τος ὁ μίσθος, 'that hire is a dead loss'; Theophrast. Char. ix. καὶ φίλῳ δὲ ἔρανον κελεύσαντι εἰσενεγκεῖν εἰπεῖν ὅτι οὐκ ἂν δοίη, ὕστερον ἥκειν φέρων, καὶ λέγειν ὅτι ἀπόλλυσι καὶ τοῦτο τὸ ἀργύριον.

εἴποι. The optative in final sentence in primary sequence becomes very common in Alexandrian and later writers, especially Lucian (Madvig, Adv. i. 682); Ap. Rhod. i. 660, 1005, 490 εἰ δ᾽ ἄγε δὴ…δῶρα πόρωμεν ἵν᾽…ἔκτοθι πύργων μίμνοιεν: cf. Theocr. xxiv. 100.