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

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‘The refutation of your opponent is not a distinct division of the speech; on the contrary, it is part of the proofs to refute the opponent's positions either by contrary proposition or by counter-syllogism’ (i.e. by ἔλεγχος).

Quint. III 9. 5, Tamen nec his assentior, qui detrahunt refutationem, tanquam probationi subiectam, ut Aristoteles, haec enim est quae constituat, illa quae destruat.

‘Now both in public deliberation and in forensic pleading it is necessary, when you are the opening speaker, to state your own proofs first, and then to meet the arguments on the other side, by direct refutation and by pulling them to pieces beforehand.’

For ἀπαντᾶν, comp. Apsines Rhet. περὶ λύσεως c. 7 (Spengel's Rhet. Gr. II 366), δὺ δὲ κατ᾽ αὔξησιν ἀπαντήσῃς κατὰ πηλικότητα ἢ ποσότητα ἢ ἄλλο τι τῶν αὐξητικῶν ἢ κατὰ ἀντιπαράστασιν.

For προδιασύροντα (‘cutting up by anticipation’) comp. Rhet. ad Alex. 18 (19). 13, προδιέσυρε λέγων, ib. § 12, προκατέλαβε...προδιέβαλεν...διασεσύρθαι πρότερον ὑπὸ τούτου, ib. 33 (34). I, προκαταλαμβάνων διασύρεις. Isocr. ἀντίδοσις § 199, διασύρουσι (τὴν παιδείαν) ὡς οὐδὲν ὠφελεῖν δυναμένην (ib. § 300); Dem. Or. 13 § 12, διέσυρε τὰ παρόντα καὶ τοὺς προγόνους ἐπῄνεσε.

‘But if there is much variety in the opposition, you should begin with the points opposed to you’. For πολύχους (manifold, complex, diversified, πολυειδής), comp. de Part. Anim. II 10, 656 a 5, πολυχουστέρα ἰδέα, where it is combined with πολυμορφοτέρα.

On Callistratus, see note on I 7. 13. The reference is probably to the embassy on which Callistratus was sent into the Peloponnesus, shortly before the battle of Mantineia, B.C. 362. ἡ Μεσσηνιακὴ ἐκκλησία can hardly mean anything else than ‘the public assembly of the Messenians’, and not ‘the assembly held (at Athens) respecting the Messenians’, (which last appears to be the view of Sauppe, Or. Att. II 218, note I; A. Schaefer, Dem. und seine Zeit I p. 113, rightly understands it die Volksgemeinde der Messenier). It was on this embassy that Epaminondas, cum in conventum venisset Arcadum petens ut societatem cum Thebanis et Argivis facerent, was confronted by Callistratus, Atheniensium legatus qui eloquentia omnes eo praestabat tempore, who urged them to ally themselves with Athens (Nepos, Epam. 6, quoted by A. Schaefer).

προανελὼν κ.τ.λ.] i.e. It was not until after he had by anticipation got rid of the arguments of his opponents that he stated his own arguments. οὕτω, ‘accordingly’; similarly used after the participle μαχεσάμενον, at the end of the next section.