J. Adam, A. M. Adam, Commentary on Plato, Protagoras
J. Adam & A. M. Adam, Ed.

23. ἄνω κάτω: see on 356Dabove.

26. ἐξελθεῖν—ἐπὶ. There is a slight hint of military metaphor: ‘fare forth against virtue also to see what she is’, ‘also attack the question what is virtue’: cf. Rep. II. 374A ὃ (στρατόπεδον) ἐξελθὸν—διαμαχεῖται τοῖς ἐπιοῦσιν: cf. the similar use of ἰέναι ἐπί in Rep. v. 473C ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸ δή, ἧν δ᾽ ἐγώ, εἶμι ὃ τῷ μεγίστῳ προσεικάζομεν κύματι. Here ἐξ- is appropriate, because the first campaign is as it were ended (ταῦτα διεξελθόντας): it is moreover natural to retain it, on account of the tendency noted on 311A A later hand in T has ἐλθεῖν, but the MSS. reading is unobjectionable, nor is there any need to read διελθεῖν or διεξελθεῖν τὴν ἀρετήν as Kroschel suggests. For the sentiment cf. Meno, 100B τὸ δὲ σαφὲς περὶ αὐτοῦ εἰσόμεθα τότε, ὅταν πρὶν ᾥτινι τρόπῳ τοῖς ἀνθπώροις ραπαγίγνεται ἀπετή, ρπότεπον ἐριχειπήσωμεν αὐτὸ καθ᾽ αὑτὸ ζητεῖν τί ποτ᾽ ἕστιν ἀρετή.

27. ἐπισκέψασθαι περὶ αὐτοῦ: Siebeck (in the treatise cited on p. 203) here and in 361Eεἰσαῦθις—διέξιμεν finds a promise of the Meno and the Gorgias.

28. μἡ πολλάκις: ne forte, as often in Plato. What often happens may happen in a future case: so Lucretius uses ‘saepe’ for ‘ut saepe fit’.