William Watson Goodwin, Commentary on Demosthenes: On the Crown

3. τῶν αὐτῶν βουλευμάτων, (men) of the same purposes: this genitive of quality is as rare in Greek as it is common in Latin. See Aesch. III. 168, θεωρήσατ᾽ αὐτὸν, μὴ ὁποτέρου τοῦ λόγου ἀλλ̓ ὁποτέρου τοῦ βίου ἐστίν, and Thuc. III. 45.29, ἁπλῶς τε ἀδύνατον καὶ πολλῆς εὐηθείας.

5. ἀλάστορες, accursed wretches (applied to Philip in XIX. 305); properly victims of divine vengeance, as in Soph. Aj. 374, μεθῆκα τοὺς ἀλάστορας. ἀλάστωρ also means a divine avenger, as in Aeschyl. Pers. 354, φανεὶς ἀλάστωρ ἢ κακὸς δαίμων. See note on ἀλιτήριος, § 159.3.

6. ἠκρωτηριασμένοι, who have out- raged (lit. mutilated): see Harpocr., ἀντὶ τοῦ λελυμας μένοι ˙ οἱ γὰρ λυμαινόμενοί τισιν εἰώθασι περικόπτειν αὐτῶν τὰ ἄκρα. In Aeschyl. Cho. 439 and Soph. El. 445 there is the same idea in ἐμασχαλίσθη, μασχαλίζω being to mutilate a dead body by cutting off the extremities (τὰ ἄκρα) and putting them under the armpits (μασχάλαι). Perhaps such strong metaphors as this suggested to Aeschines the absurd expressions which he pretends to quote from Demosthenes in III. 166, ἀμπελουργοῦσί τινες τὴν πόλιν, ἀνατετ μήκασί τινες τὰ κλήματα τὰ τοῦ δήμου, and others.—τὴν ἐλευθερίαν προπεπωκότες: for the successive steps by which προπίνω comes to mean recklessly sacrifice, see Liddell and Scott. An intermediate meaning, present a cup (or other gift) after drinking one's health, is seen in XIX. 139, πίνων καὶ φιλανθρωπευόμενος πρὸς αὐτοὺς ὁ Φίλιππος ἄλλα τε δὴ πολλὰ, ...καὶ τελευτῶν ἐκπώματ᾽ ἀργυρᾶ καὶ χρυσᾶ προὔπινεν αὐτοῖς, i.e. in drinking their health, he gave them these various gifts. See also Pind. Ol. VII. 1—6, φιάλαν ὡς εἴ τις... δωρήσεται νεανίᾳ γαμβρῷ προπίνων, οἴκοθεν οἴκαδε, and the Schol. on V. 5, προπίνειν ἐστὶ κυρίως τὸ ἅμα τῷ κράματι τὸ ἀγγεῖον χαρίζεσθαι... καὶ Δημοσθένης τοὺς προδιδόντας τὰς πατρίδας τοῖς ἐχθροῖς προπίνειν ἔφη.

8. τῇ γαστρὶ μετροῦντες: see note on § 48.6 (on Τιμόλας). See Cic. Nat. Deor. I. 40 (113), quod dubitet omnia quae ad beatam vitam pertineant ventre metiri.

11. ὅροι καὶ κανόνες, bounds and rules, i.e. they applied these as tests to whatever was presented to them as a public good.—ἀνατετροφότες, having overturned (i.e. reversed) these tests.

THE EPILOGUE, §§ 297—323. In these sections we have the four characteristics of the ἐπίλογος, as Aristotle gives them (Rhet. III. 19, 1): arguments which will dispose the hearers favourably to the speaker and unfavourably to his opponent, amplification and depreciation, excitement of emotions, and recapitulation. He begins by claiming the credit of keeping Athens free from the notorious conspiracy against Grecian liberty just mentioned; and he charges Aeschines with failing in all the characteristics of a patriotic citizen which his own course exemplifies (§§ 297—300). He recapitulates some of his chief services in providing Athens with means of defence, and asks what similar claims Aeschines has to the public gratitude (§§ 301—313). He objects to being compared with the great men of former times, though he declares that he can bear such a comparison far better than his opponent (§§ 314—323).