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καὶ μὴν οὐδέ, κ.τ.λ. ‘Nor again [καὶ μήν=further] shall we distress the cities by levying soldiers on them, — a burden which at present, in their warfare with each other, they find most oppressive’. οὐ λυπής. καταλέγ., not, ‘we shall abstain from vexing by a levy’, but, ‘we shall levy without vexing’; since all will prefer the service to staying at home (μένειν, i.e. οἴκοι,=ὑπομένειν). The disinclination of citizens for ordinary military service, and the consequent demand for mercenaries (ἐπίκουροι, § 168), was a growing symptom of the decay in Greek political life: see Attic Orators, II. 17. — Cp. Thuc. VI. 43, οἱ ἐκ τοῦ καταλόγου, those on the roll for service: οἱ ἔξω τοῦ καταλόγου,=emeriti, Xen. H. II. 3. 51. ἢ νέος ἢ παλαιός Doubtless the poetical παλαιός is to be explained by a reminiscence of the familiar Homeric formula, ἢ νέος ἠὲ παλαιός, Il. XIV. 108: νέοι ἠδὲ παλαιοί, Od. I. 395, etc.
Selections from the Attic Orators. Sir Richard C. Jebb. London. Macmillan. 1888.
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