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ἐφέστηκεν, sc. τοῖς πράγμασι, ‘he is on the alert,’ ‘he is ever on the spot’; literally the word is used of standing beside a person or thing in readiness to act at a moment's notice: compare the English sailor's ‘stand by.’ ἐπὶ τῇ πόλει, ‘to threaten Athens.’ τούτοις (the Thebans) must be construed with ταὐτά. τὰ παρόντ᾽ ἀγαπήσειν, ‘will embrace the profit of the moment.’ σκαιότητα, in allusion especially to the Thebans, whose stupidity was proverbial. καὶ μετρίως, with σωφρονοῦσι, ‘men endowed even moderately with sober sense.’ συνέβη, a touch of modesty. The allusion is to the proceedings of the envoys despatched to the Peloponnesus in 344 on Demosthenes' advice to counteract the designs of Philip.
Demosthenes: Philippics I, II, III with Introduction and Notes. Gilbert A. Davies, M.A. 1949. Cambridge University Press.
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