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ἐλλόγιμος: ‘proleptic’; cf. Rep. iv. 425 a ἐννόμους τε καὶ σπουδαίους ἐξ αὐτῶν ἄνδρας αὐξάνεσθαι, viii. 565 c ἕνα τινὰ ἀεὶ δῆμος εἴωθε τρέφειν τε καὶ αὔξειν μέγαν, Meno 93 d τὸν υἱὸν ἱππέα ἐδιδάξατο ἀγαθόν. So freq.ἀκλεής: sc. ἐγένετο from ηὐξήθη.
ἀλλ᾽ οὖν: but however that might be; stronger than δ᾽ οὖν, and often followed by γέ. This is used when previous statements are for the moment left in abeyance, while that which follows is unquestionably certain. Cf. Apol. 34 e ἀλλ᾽ οὖν δεδογμένον γέ ἐστι τὸ Σωκράτη διαφέρειν τινὶ τῶν πολλῶν ἀνθρώπων, Gorg. 496 d ἀλλ᾽ οὖν τό γε πεινῆν αὐτὸ ἀνιαρόν (painful).
τούς: is not repeated, since ἰδιώτας and μηδὲν ἐπαΐοντας relate to the same individuals. Cf. Dem. XIX. 87 (δεῖ) τὸν αἴτιον καὶ παρασκευάσαντα τὴν ἐξουσίαν ταύτην ἐκείνῳ μισεῖν καὶ τιμωρεῖσθαι you ought to hate and to punish the one who is responsible, and who secured this power to that one.
“As, in the supposed case, there would be good and bad flute players, and yet all would be flute players, so now all are upright and virtuous; but because some are more so, those who have less virtue seem to have none. Still, that these last are also really virtuous, would be clear, if they were compared with absolute savages.” So Protagoras wishes to prove his view respecting those who are regarded as unjust and vicious, through what would be indisputably true in the supposed case. This lies in ᾤου κἂν νῦν (also now, in the present case), where the question is not of flute playing, but of virtue. οἴου καὶ νῦν, the reading of the Mss., would be not a proof but merely an exhortation.
καὶ ἀνθρώποις: since, acc. to Protagoras, men must possess virtue, evidently civil and social life, legal institutions and human society, are allied conceptions, and ἐν νόμοις and ἀνθρώποις can be connected as synonymous. He has already in mind, too, the contrast between ἄνθρωποι and the ἄγριοι about to be cited.
Hermann Sauppe. James A. Towle. Commentary on Plato: Protagoras. Ginn & Company. Boston and London. 1889.
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