J. E. Sandys, Select Private Orations of Demosthenes

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ἀλλὰ νὴ Δία used, as often, like at enim, to introduce emphatically an anticipated rejoinder on the part of the opponents. ‘Oh but, good heavens! they are not such characters as I make them out.’ The phrase may be seen in its fullest form in Or. 20 § 3 ἀλλὰ νὴ Δι᾽ ἐκεῖνο ἂν ἴσως εἴποι πρὸς ταῦτα.

§§ 34—37. Many of you know the characters of the witnesses for the defence,—men who, in the daytime, affect an austerity which is very inconsistent with their conduct when they meet together. They will unscrupulously contradict the evidence on our side; but you will remember that I rely on medical witnesses, whereas my opponents have no independent testimony, and, but for themselves, could get no evidence at all against me. People who break into houses, and assault persons in the streets, would surely have no scruple about putting down false evidence on a paltry piece of paper.

Ἀρχεβιάδην This worthy, who has already been mentioned among the witnesses in §§ 7 and 31, and must not be confounded with the still less known Ἀρχεβιάδης ὀ Ααμπτρεύς (Or. 52 § 3), was evidently quite a ‘character,’ judging from Plutarch's description of him as ‘a man of sour countenance who always wore a coarse cloak and had grown a prodigious beard.’ Phocion x init, ἦν δέ τις Ἀρχεβιάδης ἐπικαλούμενος Λακωνιστής, πώγωνά τε καθειμένος ὑπερφυῆ μεγέθει καὶ τρίβωνα φορῶν ἀεὶ καὶ σκυθρωπάζων: τοῦτον ἐν βουλῇ θορυβούμενος ὁ Φωκίων ἐπεκαλεῖτο τῷ λόγῳ μάρτυν ἅμα καὶ βοηθόν. ὡς δὲ ἀναστὰς ἐκεῖνος ἃ πρὸς χά- ριν ἦν τοῖς Ἀθηναίοις συνεβούλευεν, ἁψἀμενος αὐτοῦ τῶν γενείων “ὦ Ἀρχεβιάδη” εἶπε “τί οὖν οὐκ ἀπεκείρω;” It will be observed that Plutarch's anecdote contains several points of coincidence with the passage before us.

τὸν ἐπιπόλιον ‘the grey-headed man yonder’ (present in court). Aristot. de gen. anim. v 5 § 3 ἐπιπολιοῦνται αἱ τρίχες ‘the hair grows grizzled.’ [ἐπιπόλιος is perhaps much the same as the Homeric μεσαιπόλιος, Il. XIII 361, whether the sense is ‘grey on the top,’ or ‘half grey,’ ‘grizzled.’ P.]

μεθ᾽ ἡμέραν κ.τ.λ. Or. 45 § 80.

ἐσκυθρωπάκασι i.e. ‘assume a sour expression and a frowning brow.’ Cf. Or. 45 § 68.

λακωνίζειν φασὶ i.e. ‘pretend to imitate the Laconians.’ Plato, Protag. 342 B οἱ μὲν (sc. ἐν ταῖς πόλεσι λακωνίζοντες） ὦτά τε κατάγνυνται (i.e. get their ears battered in boxing) μιμούμενοι αὐτοὺς, καὶ ἱμάντας περιειλίττονται καὶ φιλογυμναστοῦσι καὶ βραχείας ἀναβολὰς φοροῦσιν, ὡς δὴ τούτοις κρατοῦντας τῶν Ἑλλήνων τοὐς Αακεδαιμονίους. Ar. Aves 1281 ἐλακωνομάνουν ἅπαντες ἄνθρωποι τότε | ἐκόμων, ἐπείνων, ἐρρύπων, ἐσωκράτουν, | ἐσκυταλιοφόρουν (v. Becker's Charicles p. 63 with n. 8).

τρίβωνας Sometimes mentioned as characteristic of Laconians. Plutarch, Nicias 19 τοὺς Σικελιώτας...σκώπτοντας εἰς τὸν τρίβωνα καὶ τἠν κόμην (of Gylippus the Spartan general)...ἐν τῇ βακτηρίᾳ καὶ τῷ τρίβωνι τὸ σύμβολον καὶ τὸ ἀξίωμα τῆς Σπάρτης καθορῶντες Athenaeus XII 50, p. 535 (quoting the historian Douris) Παυσανίας ὁ τῶν Σπαρτιατῶν βασιλεὺς, καταθέμενος τὸν πάτριον τρίβωνα, τὴν Περσικὴν ἐνεδύετο στολήν. [At the same time, the regular dress of the old Athenian dicast or ecclesiast was the τρίβων and the βακτηρία, both often mentioned in Aristoph., e.g. Vesp. 33. P.]

ἁπλᾶς ὑποδέδενται ‘wear single-soled shoes,’ sc. ἐμβάδας. Harpocration ἁπλᾶς: Δημ. κατὰ Κόνωνος. Καλλίστρατός φησι τὰ μονόπελμα τῶν ὑποδημάτων οὕτω καλεῖσθαι. Στράττις Λημνομέδᾳ ‘ὑποδήματα σαυτῷ πρίασθαι τῶν ἁπλῶν.’ Bekker, Anecd. 205 ἁπλαῖ: ὑποδήματος εἶδος Λακωνικοῦ κ.τ.λ. They had only one thickness of sole and were apparently more like slippers than shoes. (Becker, Charicles, p. 449.) There was also a more elaborate kind of shoes known as Αακωνικαί (Ar. Vesp. 1158). For the general drift of the sentence cf. Isaeus Or. 5 § 11 ὀνειδίζει καὶ ἐγκαλεῖ αὐτῷ ὅτι ἐμβάδας καὶ τρίβωνα φορεῖ, ὥσπερ ἀδικούμενός τι εἰ ἐμβάδας Κηφισόδοτος φορεῖ, ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ ἀδικῶν ὄτι ἀφελόμενος αὐτὸν τἀ ὄντα πένητα πεποίηκεν (with Wyse's note).

συλλεγῶσι sc. νυκτὸς, contrasted with μεθ᾽ ἡμέραν μέν.

κακῶν καὶ αἰσχρῶν ‘wickedness and indecency.’