James Adam, The Republic of Plato

πολλὰς κτλ.: ‘with quantities of alien fat about him’ (viel fremdes Fleisch an sich habend, Schneider), ‘cumbered with much fat.’ παχεῖς ‘bloated’ was, it may be remembered, a nickname for oligarchs: see Gilbert Gr. Staatsalt. II p. 275 note 2 and Neil's edition of Ar. Knights App. II p. 209. ἀλλοτρίας is ‘not his own,’ i.e. no real part of him, and hence useless, superfluous. As Graser points out (Spec. advers. in serm. Pl. p. 91), it is Homer's γναθμοῖσιν ἀλλοτρίοισι (Od. XX 347) which is the source of this and other kindred uses of ἀλλότριος, e.g. Thuc. I 70. 6 and Isocr. Faneg. 86. Hermann thinks the meaning is that he has grown fat at the expense of others, like the drone. This explanation is less pointed, and the drone represents not the rich oligarch, but the πτωχός (555 E). With the feeling of this passage cf. Plut. Apoph. Reg. et Imp. 192 D τοῖς πολυσάρκοις ἐπολέμει (Ἐπαμεινώνδας) καί τινα τοιοῦτον ἀπήλασε τῆς στρατιᾶς, εἰπὼν ὅτι μόλις αὐτοῦ σκέπουσι τὴν γαστέρα ἀσπίδες τρεῖς ἢ τέσσαρες.

ἄνδρες -- οὐδέν. ‘We have them at our mercy: for they're good for nothing.’ ἄνδρες ἡμέτεροι is virtually an exhortation to rise in revolt: hence παραγγέλλειν. The omission of the article heightens the dramatic effect: cf. X 617 D. ἡμέτεροι has a colloquial ring (‘they are ours’). A kindred meaning, but without any colloquial touch, appears in Xen. Cyr. II 3. 2 (quoted by Schneider Addit. p. 65) ἢν μὲν ἡμεῖς νικῶμεν—δῆλον ὅτι οἵ τε πολέμιοι ἡμέτεροι καὶ τὰ τῶν πολεμίων ἀγαθὰ πάντα: cf. also VII 5. 73. This interpretation, which Schneider finally suggested, has the support of A, II and other MSS. Baiter's ἄνδρες ἡμέτεροι εἰσὶ παρ᾽ οὐδέν has found considerable favour, and gives a fair sense, but παρ᾽ οὐδέν (for which see Jebb on Soph. Ant. 466) appears to me unpleasantly weak. ἄνδρες ἡμέτεροι εἰσὶν οὐδέν (q and others) is intrinsically better (cf. 562 D), and may be right, but the intrusion of γάρ in the best MSS remains a difficulty, and παραγγέλλειν (as in Baiter's reading) is shorn perhaps of its full force. It is on the whole easier, I think, to understand ἡμέτεροι as I do than to explain the insertion of γάρ in our two oldest and best MSS.