E. M. Cope, Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle

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ἔτι δὲ πράττεται κ.τ.λ.] Transl. in Introd. p. 199. πράττεται ‘are transacted’. On συναλλάγματα, ‘the ordinary dealings’ of men with one another, especially in trade and exchange of commodities, see note on I 1.9.

καὶ τὰ ἑκούσια] ‘all voluntary transactions’, in general, is added because συναλλάγματα may include τὰ ἀκούσια, frauds, crimes, offences, which may arise in men's dealings with one another: Eth. Nic. v 5 sub fin., 1131 a 2, τῶν μὲν γὰρ συναλλαγμάτων τὰ μὲν ἑκούσιά ἐστι τὰ δ᾽ ἀκούσια: ἑκούσια μὲν τὰ τοιάδε, οἷον πρᾶσις, ὠνή, δανεισμός, ἐγγύη, χρῆσις, παρακαταθήκη, μίσθωσις: ἑκούσια δὲ λέγεται, ὅτι ἡ ἀρχὴ τῶν συναλλαγμάτων τούτων ἑκούσιος, τῶν δ̓ ἑκουσίων τὰ μὲν λαθραῖα, οἷον κλοπή, μοιχεία, φαρμακεία, προαγωγεία, δουλαπατία, ψευδομαρτυρία, τὰ δὲ βίαια, οἷον αἰκία, δεσμός, θάνατος, ἁρπαγή, πήρωσις, κακηγορία, προπηλακισμός.

χρεία] ‘usus’ as χρῆσθαι ‘uti’, ‘intercourse’, the use that men make of one another.

ἐπιπολῆς ἰδεῖν ἔστιν] This phrase occurs again, Rhet. II 16. 1, and Hist. Anim. IX 38. 2, ἡ μὲν οὖν μυρμήκων ἐργασία πᾶσίν ἐστιν ἐπιπολῆς ἰδεῖν. In Rhet. II 23. 30, τὸ ἐπιπολῆς εἶναι expresses ‘superficiality’. It seems to be said of things that ‘lie on the surface, things prominent and conspicuous, so as to be seen by every one’, ὥστε τινὰ or πάντας ἰδεῖν αὐτά. This explanation is confirmed by the substitution of εὐθεώρητα, to express the same notion, in § 25 infra (so Victorius). If this be so, the verb should be written ἐστιν, and not ἔστιν (for ἔξεστιν) as in Bekker's text.

ἐπιπολῆς] is the genitive of a substantive ἐπιπολή ‘a surface’, only used by later and non-Attic writers; ‘veteribus illis...ἐπιπολῆς adverbii vicem fuit, Herod. I 187, Arist. Plut. 1207, Eccles. 1108, Thucyd. VI 96, et compluries Xenophon. Neque eius substantivi alius tum casus in usu fuit’. Lobeck ad Phryn. p. 126—7. It is an adverb of place or position, after the analogy of Ἀθηνῶν ‘at Athens’, λαιας χειρός (Aesch. P. V. 720) ‘on the left hand’, &c.; see Matth. Gr. Gr. § 377: (this seems to be omitted in Jelf's Grammar, though there are articles on the ‘genitive of position’; §§ 524—528, which however is illustrated only by the genitive of relative position, not that which expresses place itself. The genitive, it is to be presumed, is in both cases partitive, denoting a point in space;) it is also after the analogy of the local adverbs, οὗ, ὅπου, ὁμοῦ, οὐδαμοῦ, ποῦ and πού, ἀγχου, τηλοῦ, πανταχοῦ. ἐπιπολή itself not being in use, the substantive ‘surface, superficies’ is formed by the addition of the definite article, as Plat. Phileb. 46 D, (ὁπόταν) τὸ...ἐπιπολῆς μόνον διαχέῃ. Ar. περὶ ἐνυπνίων 2. 8, τὸ ἐπιπολῆς τοῦ ἐνοπτροῦ, ‘the surface of the mirror’. Its derivatives ἐπιπολαῖος and ἐπιπολάζειν (to be on the surface), have three different senses all arising from the properties attributable to things on the surface; either (1) ‘popular’, ‘prevalent’, ‘fashionable’, ‘current’, like things that come to the top, come uppermost, and so ‘prevail’ over the rest, as δόξαι μάλιστα ἐπιπολάζουσαι, Arist. Eth. N. I 2, 1096 a 30, ἐπιπολάζοντος τοῦ γελοίου, ib. IV. 14, 1128 a 13, Hist. Anim. IV 1. 26, τὸ μάλιστα ἐπιπόλαζον ‘the most abundant kind’, VI 37. 2, de Gen. Anim. I 20. 11, οὐ μὴν ἐπιπολάζουσί γε αἱ καθάρσεις ὥσπερ ἀνθρώποις: or (2) (if indeed there be any difference between this and the preceding) ‘conspicuous’, ‘prominent’, compared with such as are deep down, or buried, out of sight; Rhet. bis, Hist. Anim. quoted above on ἐπιπολῆς: and (3) ‘superficial’, opposed to βαθύς; either literally, de Insomn. (περὶ ἐνυπνίων) 2. 12, οὐχ ὁμοίως εἰσδύεται ἡ κηλὶς ἀλλ᾽ ἐπιπολαιότερον, or metaph., as Rhet. III 11. 10, ἀληθὲς καὶ μὴ ἐπιπόλαιον. II 23. 30, above referred to. III 10. 4, τὰ ἐπιπόλαια τῶν ἐνθυμημάτων, followed by the explanation, ἐπιπόλαια γὰρ λέγομεν τὰ παντὶ δῆλα, καὶ α<*> μηδὲν δεῖ ζητῆσαι, is doubtful; for an enthymeme may be too easy to follow and therefore unacceptable, either because it is intellectually ‘superficial’ (this I think is the more probable meaning, because more applicable to an intellectual process) or because it is ‘prominent and conspicuous’, saute aux yeux, and therefore is δῆλον πᾶσιν, Top. A 1, 100 b 27. Similarly in Pol. III 3, 1276 a 19, ἡ μὲν οὖν ἐπιπολαιοτάτη τῆς ἀπορίας ζήτησις (the most obvious and apparent, the clearest and plainest) περὶ τὸν τόπον καὶ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἐστίν, and again, ib. c. 12, 1282 b 30, ἢ τοῦτο ἐπιπόλαιον τὸ ψεῦδος; (evident on the surface). In these two last instances the literal sense of the word is uppermost.