Περὶ τοῦ χορευτοῦ
] The speech On the Choreutes relates to the death of Diodotus, a boy who was in training as member of a chorus to be produced at the Thargelia, and who was poisoned by a draught given to him to improve his voice. The accused is the choregus, an Athenian citizen, who discharged that office for his own and another trible, and at whose house the chorus received their lessons. The accuser, Philocrates, brother of the deceased Diodotus, laid an information for poisoning before the Archon Basileus; and, after some delay, the case came before the Areiopagus. It was not contended that the accused had intended to murder the boy, but only that he had ordered to be administered to him the draught which caused his death. According to Athenian law this was, however, a capital offence. The present speech is the second made by the defendant, and the last, therefore, of the trial. Its date may probably be placed about 412 B.C.: see Attic Orators, I. 62. — A short extract is given here as illustrating the greater ease and freedom of Antiphon's later style, which is already beginning to emancipate itself from the stiffness of the αὐστηρὰ ἁρμονία.Narrative: §§ 11 — 15.
εἰς Θαργήλια...Διονυσίοις The second day of the Thargelia was celebrated by a procession and a musical contest (ἀγών) between choruses of boys: Herm. Ant. II. § 60. 21. At the Dionysia the chorus would have been dramatic. οὔτε ζημιώσας κ.τ.λ. ‘Without fining any man [the last resort], without extorting pledges [from the parent who demurred to sending his son], without (even) incurring any dislike’. ἀλλ̓ ὥσπερ ἄν...ἔπεμπον ‘But, just as if the business in hand were most agreeable and advantageous to both parties, I made my demand or request, while the parents sent their sons without compulsion, — indeed, with good will’. The full construction would be: ἀλλ̓ (οὕτω ἐγίγνετο) ὥσπερ ἂν ἐγίγνετο (εἰ ἥδιστα κ.τ.λ. ἐγίγνετο): and the clause οὕτω ἐγίγνετο is represented by ἐγὼ μὲν ἐκέλευον, κ.τ.λ. ᾐτούμην So Bekk. for ms. ἡγούμην, which could mean only ‘I conducted the levy’ (sc. τῆς συλλογῆς). ἐκέλευον = ‘I invited’ (the official invitation being equivalent to a command: cp. Fr. inviter): ᾐτούμην softens this down, ‘or rather, I made a personal request’: corresponding to the gradation of ἑκόντες — βουλόμενοι.πράγματα ‘for I happened to be engaged in cases against Ariston and Philînus, and was anxious to lose no time after the impeachment (εἰσήγγειλα) in making a due and formal statement to the Council and to the Athenian public’. Philînus and two other persons had been charged by the speaker with embezzling public monies, as appears from §§ 21, 55. Antiphon wrote a speech κατὰ Φιλίνου (Attic Orators, I. 63 note). εἴ τι δέοι τῷ χορῷ Cp. Eur. Suppl. 594, ἓν δεῖ μόνον μοι. Usually δεῖ μοί τινος, more rarely δεῖ μέ τινος.
συλλέγειν ‘to conduct the levy and act as steward of the tribe on each occasion’, — ἑκάστοτε, whenever it was called upon to contribute a chorus to a public festival. The ἐπιμεληταὶ τῶν φυλῶν were responsible to the Archon for the appointment of the choregi: cp. Dem. In Mid. § 13. Herm. Ant. I. § 149. 8. By τὴν φυλὴν συλλέγειν below is meant to levy (such a contribution) in the tribe. συλλογεῖς, at Athens, were esp. those who called in property confiscated to the State: Herm. Ant. I. § 151. 4.
εἴ τι ψεύδομαι προφάσεως ἕνεκα ‘If any part of this statement is false, or made for effect’. τοῦ ὁρκωτοῦ The officer of the court who tenders the oath. See De Caed. Her. § 12.
ταῦτα σφόδρα λέγω ‘insist upon this point’=περὶ τούτων ἰσχυρίζομαι. Reiske inserts οὕτω before σφόδρα. πλήν γε τῆς τύχης lit., ‘putting Fortune out of the question’: i.e. ‘unless Fortune so ordain it’, (viz. that I should bring another person into peril).
