James Adam, The Republic of Plato

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τότ̓ ἤδη -- οὐχ ἑκόντες. Isocrates makes a similar complaint (Antid. 318): οὐ τοὺς μὲν ἐνδοξοτάτους τῶν πολιτῶν καὶ μάλιστα δυναμένους ποιῆσαί τι τὴν πόλιν ἀγαθόν, ὀλιγαρχίαν ὀνειδίζοντες καὶ λακωνισμόν, οὐ πρότερον ἐπαύσαντο (sc. οἱ πατέρες ἡμῶν) πρὶν ἠνάγκασαν ὁμοίους γενέσθαι ταῖς αἰτίαις ταῖς λεγομέναις περὶ αὐτῶν; Cf. also Arist. Pol. E 5. 1304^{b} 21 ff. Observe how Plato now begins to insist on the inevitable necessity which dogs the footsteps of political decay: see on 566 A and 567 C.

εἰσαγγελίαι: ‘impeachments,’ as e.g. for κατάλυσις τοῦ δήμου. On eisangelia in Attic legal procedure see Hager Dict. Ant. s.v. and Meier u. Schömann Att. Proc. I pp. 312—335.

ἀγῶνες περὶ ἀλλήλων: ‘trials of one another’ (Jowett): lit. ‘trials about one another,’ i.e. trials in which the individuals chiefly concerned, viz. the defendants, belong to one or other of the two parties in the State. ἀλλήλων by itself would be better suited to the words εἰσαγγελίαι καὶ κρίσεις, but ἀγῶνες ἀλλήλων is too harsh an expression, and that, I think, is why Plato writes ἀγῶνες περὶ ἀλλήλων. This explanation is in my opinion better than to translate “Processe um Leben und Tod” (Schneider: cf. ἀγῶνας—περὶ σφέων αὐτῶν Hdt. VIII 102). Some may think that ἀλλήλους should replace ἀλλήλων: but περί with the accusative would not express a close enough connexion in this passage.

οὐκοῦν κτλ. So in Ar. Knights 1127 Demos says βούλομαι τρέφειν ἕνα προστάτην. The προστάτης τοῦ δήμου in Athens was simply, “the leading demagogue, who acted as guardian and representative of the demos, as the ordinary προστάτης did of the metoecs” (Whibley Pol. Part. in Ath. p. 51). He was not a magistrate, although his position was recognised and much sought after. Pericles was certainly προστάτης, and, among his successors, apparently Cleon and others. For the authorities see Whibley l.c. and Gilbert Beiträge etc. pp. 78 ff. For ἕνα τινά Cobet substitutes ἕνα γέ τινα, without sufficient reason: cf. VI 494 D note To my mind the emphasis on ἕνα is much stronger without γε: and Plato clearly intends to emphasise that word, for it is by the rise of a single champion that tyranny is caused.