William Watson Goodwin, Commentary on Demosthenes: On the Crown

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1. ἦν...λῃτουργεῖν, i.e. they might perform the service (of the trierarchy) in bodies of sixteen: this is probably stated as an extreme case under the old law, in contrast with an equally extreme case of a man with two whole triremes to support under the new law. A συντέλεια of sixteen implies a change from 60 in the size of the symmory: see note on § 103.4.

3. αὐτοῖς μὲν, themselves (ipsis), opposed to τοὺς δ̓ ἀπόρους.—μικρὰ καὶ οὐδὲν: see note on § 102.5.

4. ἐπιτρίβουσιν, distressing (grind- ing).

5. τὸ γιγνόμενον τιθέναι, to pay their quota (what fell to each): cf. τιθέναι τὰς εἰσφοράς, XXII. 42.—κατὰ τὴν οὐσίαν, according to his property: κατὰ τὸ τίμημα, according to his valuation, would be more strictly accurate, as the τίμημα, or taxable property, in different classes bore a differing proportion to the οὐσία.

6. δυοῖν...συντελής: it was a possible case that a man who had been assessed (as supposed above) for only one-sixteenth part of the expense of one ship might be compelled to pay for two whole ships under the new law. τριήραρχος suggests τριήροιν and τριήρους with δυοῖν and μιᾶς.

8. συντελεῖς, partners in a συντέ- λεια: sixteen trierarchs of a single ship, of whom perhaps no one even saw the ship, were absurd!

10. ἐδίδοσαν, offered: cf. διδόναι as imperfect in § 103.5.