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οὐκ ἀποδίδωσι] Supply τὰ χρήματα (the deposit, or something else which the opponent is unjustly withholding), which is added in three MSS, apparently from a marginal gloss. The case is: you refuse to tender the oath to the adverse party because it is of no use; he is so little embarrassed by scruples of conscience that he will take the oath and keep the money, so that you gain nothing by your motion. τούς δε ‘but the judges, you think, if he do not swear, will decide against him’. Another reason, or topic, for refusing to tender the oath is, that ‘this form of risk’, the risk that one runs by leaving the matter to, by throwing oneself upon, the judges (ὁ κίνδυνος οὗτος ὁ ἐν τοῖς δικασταῖς), is to be preferred (κρείττων), viz. to the risk incurred of losing your suit by tendering oath to the adversary, who will probably perjure himself: you therefore refer your case to the decision of the judges, because you can trust them, but not the other.
Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle. Edward Meredith Cope. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1877.
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