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ἐχειροτονεῖτε. The tense is curious; either it ‘implies a retrospect over the whole duration of the war’ (Sandys) or the imperfect of ‘narrative giving place to description,’ as Rutherford expresses it. For the latter, cf. Dem. 19. 25 εἶτα τότ᾽ οὐκ ἔλεγες παραχρῆμα ταῦτ̓ οὐδ̓ ἐδίδασκες ἡμᾶς. Neither seems to me satisfactory, and I suspect that Demosthenes really used the present. Military officers at Athens, unlike most officials, were appointed by election, not by lot. There was one ταξίαρχος (infantry) and one φύλαρχος (cavalry) for each tribe. The supervision of the στρατηγοὶ and (for cavalry) the ἵππαρχοι was in earlier times exercised jointly, but recently separate provinces had been assigned to the several στρατηγοί, so that here we find one only in charge of the war. πέμπουσι, ‘marshal’; the play on words between this and ἐκπέμψητε is obvious enough. ἱεροποιῶν, a board appointed by lot to supervise the quadrennial festivals (except the Panathenaea); see Aristotle, Ἀθ. Πολ. 54. 6. The ἵππαρχοι were in charge of the cavalry who took part in the Panathenaic procession, as shewn on the frieze of the Parthenon. Probably the hoplites who also marched in that procession were similarly under the direction of their own officers. A ceremonial inscription of 340 B.C. associates the generals and taxiarchs with the ἱεροποιοί. τοὺς πηλίνους, sc. ἀνθρώπους or ἀνδρίαντας or, less probably, ταξιάρχους καὶ φυλάρχους; referring to the terra-cotta figurines of which so many have been discovered in recent years. εἰς τὴν ἀγοράν, i.e. in the case of the figures, for sale, in the case of the officers, for mere display on ceremonial occasions, the ἀγορὰ being the principal scene of these pageants.
Demosthenes: Philippics I, II, III with Introduction and Notes. Gilbert A. Davies, M.A. 1949. Cambridge University Press.
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