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λοιδορούμενον is certainly middle, not passive, as Ast imagined: cf. VI 500 B. ἐν δικαστηρίοις. The opposition between ἴδιαι and δημόσιαι δίκαι (cf. Laws 957 A) is not to the point here, as Vermehren remarks (Plat. Stud. p. 107), but we should not, with that critic, expunge ἐν δικαστηρίοις. The expression ἰδίᾳ ἐν δικαστηρίοις refers to ἴδιαι δίκαι: and δημοσίᾳ to other public gatherings, as e.g. the assembly: cf. Theaet. 174 C ὅταν ἐν δικαστηρίοις ἤ που ἄλλοθι ἀναγκασθῇ κτλ. ῥᾳθύμως κτλ.: ‘indifferent to everything of the sort’: cf. Xen. Mem. II 9. 1, Theaet. 173 C, D and (for the vague use of τὰ τοιαῦτα) VII 536 A. αἰσθάνηται is usually explained as by anacoluthon for αἰσθανομένης: but no parallels have been cited, nor are the anacolutha by which Engelhardt (Anac. Pl. Spec. III p. 42) illustrates the sentence in any degree comparable. The sense compels us to regard the subject of αἰσθάνηται as the mother, but grammatically it can only, as with ἀκούῃ, be the son. I formerly placed αἰσθάνηται after ἀχθομένης τε: Richards excises it altogether. Neither solution is perfectly satisfactory; and it is possible that the sentence by some accident or other was imperfectly revised by Plato. The grammatical structure of this chapter from ἐνίοτε πατρός down to ἐπαινουμένους (550 A) is considerably freer than is usual even with Plato, and there are other passages in Book VIII which seem to stand in need of revision: cf. 558 A note Nothing is easier than to ‘emend’ them all in accordance with our grammatical rules, but such emendations involve so great a departure from the MSS that they lack every element of probability, and as it is possible that the fault is Plato's, it is safer for us to adhere to the MSS. Nearly all the greatest writers occasionally offend against the rules by which we seek to bind them. See the excellent remarks of Longinus on the subject of correctness versus fire in composition (περὶ ὕψους 33—36). ἄνανδρος -- καὶ λίαν ἀνειμένος rings poetical. The rhythm may be intentional, to suit ὑμνεῖν: or Plato may have taken the words from a tragedian. Such a line as ἄνανδρός ἐστι καὶ λίαν ἀνειμένος might well have been applied by Zethus to Amphion in Euripides' Antiope, which was in effect a comparison between the πρακτικός and the θεωρητικὸς βίος: see Gorg. 485 E ff. and Eur. Frag. 187 Dind. Cf. also VI 494 D note
The Republic of Plato. James Adam. 1902. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
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