previous next

1. πότερον αὐτὴν ἐχρῆν... ἀναιρεῖν; should she...have helped Philip to gain his dominion over the Greeks, and (so) have set at naught the glorious and just deeds of our ancestors? Here, and in μὴ ποιεῖν and περιιδεῖν (also depending on ἐχρῆν), in προσῆκε ποιεῖν and ἔδει λέγειν γράφειν in § 66.2, 4, in ἐχρῆν ποιεῖν in § 69.6, and φανῆναι ἐχρῆν in § 71.10—12, we have simply the ordinary use of the infinitive depending on a past verb expressing duty or propriety, with none of the idiomatic force by which (for example) ἔδει σε ἐλθεῖν often means you ought to have gone (but did not go). These expressions are all repetitions or enlargements of τί προσῆκον ἦν in § 62.4, which obviously asks only what was it right for Athens to do? with no implied idea that she did or did not do the right thing. So in § 63.1 the question is simply was it her duty to help Philip etc.?

2. τὸ φρόνημα καὶ τὴν ἀξίαν, her spirit and her dignity.

3. ἐν...τάξει implies a descent to their level and serving in their ranks. The Thessalians helped Philip in the Amphissian war; the Dolopians are probably mentioned only to disparage the Thessalians further.

7. συμβησόμενα εἰ μηδεὶς κωλύσει: cf. Aesch. III. 90, δ̔̀ πρόδηλον ἦν ἐσόμενον εἰ μὴ κωλύσετε. In both we might have the future optative.

8. ταῦτα περιιδεῖν γιγνόμενα, to allow these acts to go on; περιιδεῖν γενόμενα would be to allow them to happen (M.T. 148 and 903.6).

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide References (6 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (6):
    • Demosthenes, On the Crown, 62
    • Demosthenes, On the Crown, 63
    • Demosthenes, On the Crown, 66
    • Demosthenes, On the Crown, 69
    • Demosthenes, On the Crown, 71
    • William Watson Goodwin, Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of the Greek Verb, 148
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: