Gilbert A. Davies, Commentary on Demosthenes: Philippics I, II, III

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§ 17-19 Philip is really forced to side with our enemies. For (a) his great object is empire, and you are therefore his obvious rivals, and (b) he has already had to incur your enmity in the pursuit of his aim (17). Knowing that you are aware of his designs and must therefore detest him, he is eager to strike before you can strike him (18). Hence his restless activity and his friendly attitude towards such Greeks as he considers will seek their own advantage and fail to foresee his ultimate purposes. Yet these purposes are easy to guess. let me repeat to you the warmng which I gave to the Messenians and Argives (19).

τρόπον τινά, ‘in a way.’ Philip is driven to this policy, but not in the sense of ἐβιάσθη in § 14.

τούτου, ‘in this ambition,’ with ἀνταγωνιστάς. Notice the asyndeton in enumerating the points of the calculation.

οἷς, object of ἔχει, attracted into the case of its antecedent τούτοις.

ἂν belongs to the infinitive, as in § 16. There is some ambiguity here: προεῖτο may be either optative or indicative of the aorist or pluperfect indicative. There is no ground for taking the last view, but each of the others is fairly reasonable. If προεῖτο is indicative, ἂν...μένειν represents ἂν...ἔμενον of the recta—‘if I had abandoned A. and P. (at the time of the peace) I could not now so much as remain at home in security.’ If optative (see on § 8) ἂν...μένειν represents ἂν...μένοιμι—‘if I were to abandon A. and P., I should not, etc.’ I prefer the last view on the ground that the whole passage is concerned with Philip's present situation, in view of present possibilities. (Notice the somewhat emphatic νῦν γε δὴ at the beginning of this section, and the present tenses which surround our passage.) For the same reason I accept Cobet's ἡγεῖται for the MS. reading ἡγεῖτο (S) or ἡγοῖτο. If ἡγεῖτο is retained it must mean ‘he thought’ at the time of the Peace; in that case the προεῖτο must be taken as optative, and μένειν as representing μένοιμι.