CHAPTER LXIV
πόλιν...παρεχόμενος—
παρέχεσθαι means to put forward as one's own, or on one's own part. Hence, applied to an envoy, it means either to represent, or to offer the alliance of the city from which the speaker comes. The former view seems to give the better sense in the present passage and in ch. 85, 24,
πόλιν ἀξιόχρεων παρεχομένους: while the latter agrees better with such expressions as
iii. 36,
ἔστιν ἃ παρεχόμενον, ‘making certain offers’.
ἐπιών τῳ—‘more likely to be an assailant than to have to defend myself’; sing. because the speaker identifies himself with the state which he represents.
προειδόμενος...αὐτός—a correction adopted by all editors for the manuscript reading
προειδομένους...αὐτούς, ‘
ἐγὼ μὲν...ἀξιῶ is clearly opposed to
τοὺς ἄλλους δικαιῶ ταὐτό μοι ποιῆσαι, and distinguishes what Hermocrates thinks should be done by others from what he was prepared to do himself’ (Arnold). The augmented participle
προειδόμενος is abnormal and open to question; on the other hand there seems to be no authority here for the regular form
προἰδόμενος. In Dem. fals. leg. 413,
προἰδόμενος is now read, but in Aesch. Timarch. 23, 71,
προειδόμενος is still retained: see Veitch's Greek Verbs.
προειδόμενος αὐτῶν—‘taking thought beforehand for these things’, i.e. for the interests which he has been urging: cf. note on
αὐτό, ch. 18, 5. The gen. is to be explained like
φυλασσομένους τῶν νεῶν, ch. 11, 19: elsewhere we have the accusative construction, with the sense of foreseeing.
μωρίᾳ φιλονεικῶν—‘in a foolish spirit of contentiousness’:
v. 43,
φρονήματι φιλονεικῶν.
ὅσον εἰκὸς ἡσσᾶσθαι—‘to make all reasonable concessions’: cf. ch. 19, 22.
ὑφ᾽ ὑμῶν αὐτῶν—the manuscript reading, retained by most editors, to be taken with
παθεῖν. Arnold however approves of Dobree's correction
ἀφ᾽ ὑμῶν, connecting it with
ποιῆσαι. τοῦτο παθεῖν—sc.
ἡσσᾶσθαι, which implies either to yield to friends or to be worsted by enemies.
τὸ δὲ ξύμπαν—‘while we are all neighbours and joint possessors of one island home’. In this clause the speaker passes from the individual ties of race to the universal bond of a common country. The accusatives correspond to the construction with
οὐδὲν αἰσχρόν with which the sentence begins. Instead of
δέ Krüger reads
γε and Classen
τε, but neither correction is an improvement. This is not the place for a resumptive
τε, and
δέ is required to mark the opposition between the particular and the general obligations to mutual concession.
καὶ περιρρύτου—‘and that an island’; a further reason for union.
περίρρυτος is rare in prose:
Hdt. iv. 42,
Λιβύη δηλοῖ ἑωυτὴν ἐοῦσα περίρρυτος. ὄνομα ἕν—cf.
ii. 37,
ὄνομα... δημοκρατία κέκληται:
i. 122,
τὸ ἐναντίον ὄνομα ἀφροσύνη μετωνόμασται.
δυοῖν ἀγαθοῖν—‘there are two blessings of which we shall not rob Sicily’.
οὐ στερήσομεν is practically equivalent to a single expression: cf. ch. 106, 10:
Eur. Or. 1151,
ἑνὸς γὰρ οὐ σφαλέντες ἕξομεν κλέος.
