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οὔτε τῆς βασάνου κύριος ἐγιγνόμην i.e. I did not acquire control of the ‘question,’—authority over the examination. οὔτε καλῶς ἔχειν sc. ἡγούμην, ‘it was unsuitable, I thought, for myself to decide as to the answers of the slaves.’ τὴν ἀρχὴν sc. τοὺς ἕνδεκα, as appears by comparing § 23 μετὰ (τῆς βουλῆς) ἢ μετὰ τῶν ἕνδεκα. Reiske wrongly renders: illum Archontem ad cuius tribunal haec causa pertineret, aut de- lectos a senatu. Frequently it is the context alone that decides whether ἡ ἀρχὴ or even οἱ ἄρχοντες refers to the Archons or to some other public functionaries. Thus in Or. 22 (Androt.) § 26, τοῖς ἄρχουσιν έφήγου refers to the Eleven, and in Lysias, Or. κατὰ τῶν σιτοπωλῶν §§ 5— 10 οἱ ἄρχοντες is several times used of the five σιτοφύλακες in the Peiraeus. On τη<*>ν ἀπχὴν for ‘the authorities,’ abstract for concrete, see note on Or. 45 § 58. γράφεσθαι ‘to have the answers written down,’ or ‘to take down the answers.’ Plato Theaet. 143 A, ἐγραψάμην ὑπομνήματα, ‘I wrote me down some memoranda.’ This sense of the middle must not be confounded with the technical meaning ‘to indict.’ κατασημηναμένους ‘having sealed up the testimony extorted.’ The documents were put into an ἐχῖνος or ‘casket,’ which was sealed up and afterwards produced in court and there opened. Or. 54 § 17 σημανθῆναι τοὺς ἐχίνους. βασάνους, as is proved by the subsequent clause, ‘whatever the slaves said,’ is here used, not of the torture itself, but of the extorted evidence. Harpocr. βάσανος: Ἀντιφῶν: λίθος οὔτω καλεῖται, ἧ τὸ χρυσίον παρατριβόμενον δοκιμάζεται. Ὑπερείδης δ᾽ ἐν τῷ κατ᾽ Ἀντίου τὰ ἐν ταῖς βασάνοις εἰρημένα ὑπὸ τῶν βασανιζομἐνων καὶ ἀναγραφέντα βασάνους ὠνόμασε. (Anaximenes) rhet. XVI. 1 βάσανός ἐστι μὲν ὁμολογία παρὰ συνειδότος, ἄκοντος δέ. παρέχειν κ τ.λ. ‘to produce in court’ the evidence obtained by torture. The torture itself, it appears, did not take place in court (see note on Or. 45 § 16). ἵν᾽ εψηφίσασθε For ι<*>´να ‘in which case,’ cf. Or. 36 § 47. ἐκ τούτων should be taken with ἐψηφίσασθε and not with ἀκούσαντες, cf. Or. 45 § 2 ἐξ ὦν (ἀκούσαντες). γνώσεσθε.
Select Private Orations of Demosthenes, Part II. J. E. Sandys, Litt. D., and F. A. Paley, M.A., LL.D. 1910. Cambridge University Press.
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