Περὶ τοῦ Ἡρῶδου φόνου
Herodes, an Athenian citizen, had settled at Mytilene in 424 B.C., after the revolt and reduction of that town. He was one of the cleruchs among whom its territory was apportioned, but not otherwise wealthy. Having occasion to make a voyage to Aenos on the coast of Thrace, to receive the ransom of some Thracian captives who were in his hands, he sailed from Mytilene with the accused, — a young man whose father, a citizen of Mytilene, lived chiefly at Aenos. Herodes and his companion were driven by a storm to put in at Methymna on the north-west coast of Lesbos; and there, as the weather was wet, exchanged their open vessel for another which was decked. After they had been drinking on board together, Herodes went ashore at night, and was never seen again. The accused, after making every inquiry for him, went on to Aenos in the open vessel; while the decked vessel, into which they had moved at Methymna, returned to Mytilene. On reaching the latter place again, the defendant was charged by the relatives of Herodes with having murdered him at the instigation of Lycînus, an Athenian living at Mytilene, who had been on bad terms with the deceased. They rested their charge principally on three grounds. First, that the sole companion of the missing man must naturally be considered accountable for his disappearance. Secondly, that a slave had confessed under torture to having assisted the defendant in the murder. Thirdly, that on board the vessel which returned from Methymna had been found a letter in which the defendant announced to Lycînus the accomplishment of the murder. It was necessary that the trial should take place at Athens, whither all subject-allies were compelled to bring their criminal causes. The ordinary course would have been to have laid an indictment for murder (γραφὴ φόνου) before the Areiopagus. Instead, however, of doing this the relatives of Herodes laid an information against the accused as a ‘malefactor’ (κακοῦργος). He was accordingly to be tried by an ordinary dikastery under the presidency of the Eleven. ‘Malefactor’, at Athens, ordinarily meant a thief, a housebreaker, a kidnapper, or criminal of the like class; but the term was, of course, applicable to murder, especially if accompanied by robbery. Date about 417 B.C. See Attic Orators, I. 55 ff.1. Narrative: §§ 1 — 30.
ἐβουλόμην Without ἄν, — of that which one wishes were now true, but which is not so: Ar. Ran. 866, “ἐβουλόμην μὲν οὐκ ἐρίζειν ἐνθάδε”, ‘I could have wished that I was not’... Cp. the use of ἔδει, ὤφελον, etc., with infin.: Goodwin § 49. 3. c. τοῦ μέν...τοῦ δέ] τοῦ μέν=τῆς τε συμφορᾶς καὶ τῶν κακῶν, adversity: τοῦ δέ=τῆς δυνάμεως τοῦ λέγειν καὶ τῆς ἐμπειρίας τῶν πραγμάτων, — the power of self-defence.οὗ μὲν γάρ ‘In circumstances where I was forced to suffer personal ill-usage on the charge falsely brought, legal experience did not come to my rescue; and here, when I must save myself by help of the truth, and by a narrative of the facts, I am embarrassed by my incapacity for speaking’. κακοπαθεῖν, because he had been imprisoned, bail being refused: see § 17. ἐνταυθοῖ So § 10, ἐνταυθοῖ πεποιήκασι τὴν κρίσιν, ‘they have brought the trial hither’. Here, too, the idea of motion can be elicited from ὠφέλησεν as=ἐβοήθησεν. In Soph. Phil. 481, ἐμβαλοῦ μ᾽ ...ὅποι | ἥκιστα μέλλω...ἀλγυνεῖν, ὅποι=ἐκεῖσε ὅπου. In Ar. Lys. 526, “ποῖ χρῆν ἀναμεῖναι” = μέχρι τίνος χρόνου; Cp. Pors. on Eur. Hec. 1062.
ἄπιστοι γ. τοῖς ἀλ.] ‘have been disbelieved because they told the truth’: τοῖς ἀληθέσιν, a somewhat harsh instrumental dative, ‘by the truth’,=τῷ τὰ ἀληθῆ λέγειν. — δηλῶσαι αὐτά, to prove, establish their story, which, though really true, seemed improbable. ἐπὶ τοῖς τῶν κατηγ. λόγ.] ‘dependent upon’. αὐτὰ τὰ ἔργα, ‘the actual facts’: ἡ ἀλήθεια τῶν πραγμάτων, ‘the true version’ of the story. Cp. Tetr. Β. β. § 2, ἡ δόξα τῶν πραχθέντων, opposed to ἡ ἀλήθεια.
οὐχ ἅπερ...ἀκροᾶσθαι Our idiom requires, οὐχ ἅπερ οἱ πολλοὶ αἰτοῦνται, ἀκροᾶσθαι αὐτῶν. Cp. Plat. Gorg. 522 A, πεινῆν καὶ διψῆν ἀναγκάζων, οὐχ ὥσπερ ἐγὼ πολλὰ καὶ ἡδέα καὶ παντοδαπὰ εὐώχουν ὑμᾶς: i.e. οὐχ ὥσπερ ἐγὼ ἐποίουν, εὐωχῶν.
τάδε δέ Note δέ, where (after οὐχ ἅπερ, κ.τ.λ.) later prose would usu. have ἀλλά: cp. Thuc. IV. 86, οὐκ ἐπὶ κακῷ, ἐπ᾽ ἐλευθερώσει δέ. Soph. Ant. 84, προμηνύσῃς γε μηδενὶ...|... κρυφῆ δὲ κεῦθε. So οὐδέ=ἀλλ᾽ οὐ, Il. XXIV. 25. ἀληθείᾳ...εἰρῆσθαι ‘that it has the force of truth, not of rhetorical art’. The proposed insertion of εὖ before εἰρῆσθαι seems to weaken the sense. ἀληθείᾳ, δεινότητι, instrumental dat., like τοῖς ἀληθέσιν in § 3: by means of, in the strength of.
καί πού τι καὶ ἐξαμ The first καί=‘also’: i.e. as he is in peril, so will he be nervous: the second καί=‘e'en’, ‘actually’, belonging to ἐξαμαρτεῖν: που=‘I suppose’, rather than ‘at some point’. The very fact that a man's life is at stake makes it almost certain that he will commit some indiscretion.
διαπράσσωνται...ὀρθουμένους ‘But when they are seeking (present) to effect some object without risks, they are more successful (as speakers)’. Cp. Soph. Ant. 675, τῶν δ᾽ ὀρθουμένων, ‘of the prosperous’. ἐν τῷ ὑμετ. δικ.] ‘A part of your duty no less than of my right’: i.e. compatible with the ἡλιαστικὸς ὅρκος taken by the dikasts.
οὐ τῷ φεύγειν ἄν ‘Not on the chance of eluding the judgment of the Athenian people’. τῷ φεύγειν is a dat. expressing the motive as a circumstance of the action, like εὐνοίᾳ ἔπραξα, I acted with (or from) good will: as we might say, ‘I do not urge this by way of possibly escaping’. φεύγειν ἄν, the oblique of φεύγοιμι ἄν, not of ἔφευγον ἄν. — τὸ πλῆθος τὸ ὑμέτερον, the judges as representing τὸν δῆμον τὸν Ἀθηναῖον: a regular mode of respectful address: so Andoc. Myst. § 135, τὸ πλῆθος τῶν Ἀθηναίων. κἂν ἀνωμότοις κ.τ.λ. ‘I would commit my life to your decision even if you were bound by no oath, and were to decide on no basis of law’: καὶ μὴ κατὰ νόμον μηδένα with διαψηφίσασθαι. — ἕνεκά γε τοῦ πιστεύειν, ‘so far as concerns’, etc. παρανομία ‘illegal conduct’, often also in a general sense of anti-republican licence; οὐ δημοτικὴ παρανομία (of Alcibiades) Thuc. VI. 28.
κακοῦργος On the strength of the information (ἔνδειξις κακουργίας) laid against him, he was arrested by the Eleven (ἀπαγωγήν, § 9: ἀπήχθην, § 85). The same summary procedure (instead of the ordinary γραφὴ φόνου) was taken against the murderers of Phrynichus in 411 B.C. (Lycurg. In Leocr. § 12) and against Agoratus (Lys. In Agorat. § 85). The speaker here seems to have been treated harshly, but not, as he alleges, illegally.
φασὶ δὲ αὖ They argue that the general term κακουργία includes τὸ ἀποκτείνειν as well as τὸ ἱεροσυλεῖν, etc.: he admits this, but argues that these greater κακουργήματα should be tried under the laws special to each. The emendation φασὶ δὲ αὐτό γε τὸ ἀποκτείνειν, with ὥσπερ inserted before καὶ τὸ ἱεροσυλεῖν, is needless, and suggests a contrast, which has no point here, between accidental homicide and deliberate murder. ἐν τῇ ἀγορᾷ The prosecutor in a case of φόνος gave the accused formal notice (πρόρρησις) to keep away from all public places: see below § 88. Several law-courts were situated in the market-place: Lys. or. 19, § 55, “ἐγγὺς οἰκῶν τῆς ἀγορᾶς οὔτε πρὸς δικαστηρίῳ οὔτε πρὸς βουλευτηρίῳ ὤφθην οὐδεπώποτε”. (though I live near)
ἅπαντα τὰ δικαστήρια viz. (1) the Areiopagus, (2) τὸ ἐπὶ Παλλαδίῳ, for accidental homicide, (3) τὸ ἐν Φρεαττοῖ, when a man already banished for an accidental homicide is tried anew for murder, (4) τὸ ἐπὶ Δελφινίῳ, for homicide where justification is pleaded, (5) τὸ ἐπὶ Πρυτανείῳ, when an inanimate object had caused death. In the last four courts the ἐφέται judged. Cp. Hermann Antiq. I. § 104. τοῦτο δὲ δέον σε The apodosis would probably have been ἀνώμοτος μέν...κατηγορεῖς, at the beginning of § 12: but owing to the length of the sentence the construction is interrupted, and § 12 begins with ἃ (instead of ταῦτα) σὺ παρελθών.
ἀνώμοτος μέν The usual προωμοσία can scarcely have been dispensed with in cases of ἀπαγωγή. The expression is rhetorical: ‘you have not taken the solemn oath of the Areiopagus’. ἁπτομένους τῶν σφαγίων ‘with hand laid upon the sacrifice’. Dem. In Aristocr. § 67, πρῶτον μὲν διομεῖται κατ᾽ ἐξωλείας αὑτοῦ καὶ γένους καὶ οἰκίας...στὰς ἐπὶ τῶν τομίων καπροῦ καὶ κριοῦ καὶ ταύρου, καὶ τούτων ἐσφαγμένων ὑφ̓ ὧν δεῖ καὶ ἐν αἷς ἡμέραις καθήκει.
<τοῦτο μὲν>...τοῦτο δ᾽] ‘in the first place’...‘in the next place’. The accuser says that the accused would have fled, if he had not been arrested. The accused replies that he would have had no motive for secret flight. He could have left Attica openly, either (1) before the proceedings began, in which case judgment would have gone by default: or (2) after the proceedings had begun, and when he had made his first speech in court, — in which case he would have accepted the penalty of exile. ἴσον ἦν μοι ‘It was as good for me’ not to come: ‘I might as well not have come’. Blass inserts εἶναι after ὀφλεῖν, rendering aequum erat licere mihi: but the sense is, ‘I might as well have incurred judgment by default’. τὴν προτέραν sc. ἀπολογίαν: his first speech, in reply to the first speech of the accuser. In a trial which ran its full course, the accuser and the accused would each speak a second time. Dem. In Aristocr. § 69, τὸν πρότερον δ᾽ ἔξεστιν εἰπόντα λόγον μεταστῆναι. This voluntary withdrawal is expressed in Tetr. Γ. δ. § 1 by ὑπαπέστη.
ἀρχαιοτάτοις Isocr. Panegyr. § 40, οἱ γὰρ ἐν ἀρχῇ περὶ τῶν φονικῶν ἐγκαλέσαντες...ἐν τοῖς νόμοις τοῖς ἡμετέροις τὰς κρίσεις ἐποιήσαντο περὶ αὐτῶν. ἢ οὔ] οὔ, and not μή, in the second clause, because there is an emphasis on the fact that he does not state the case correctly. He seeks to lead you into an abstract speculation (εἰ καλῶς κεῖνται ἢ μή): you must draw a practical conclusion. Cp. Soph. Ai. 7, ὅπως ἴδῃς | εἴτ᾽ ἔνδον εἴτ᾽ οὐκ ἔνδον.
οὐδεὶς πώποτε Grote (v. 498) is with those who deny that Ephialtes took away the jurisdiction of the Areiopagus in homicide. In Lys. or. I. De Caed. Erat. § 30, ᾧ καὶ πάτριόν ἐστι καὶ ἐφ᾽ ὑμῶν ἀποδέδοται τοῦ φόνου τὰς δίκας δικάζειν, ἀποδέδοται is not ‘it has been given back’, but ‘it is assigned’. καὶ ταῦτα παρελθών Cp. § 12 ἃ σὺ παρελθών, § 11 σὺ δὲ τοῦτο μὲν παρελθών, κ.τ.λ. Better here, then, ‘and having disregarded these ordinances’: rather than: ‘and, what is more, you have come forward’, etc.
ὡς καὶ τοῖς τότε δικασταῖς, κ.τ.λ. ‘as if, in fact, you meant to dispute the previous verdict’. οἱ τότε δικασταί are the judges who are now trying the case, but who, at the time denoted by ἀπιστήσων, will be ‘the former judges’, whose verdict he will then seek to upset. It seems unnecessary to conjecture τοῖσδε τοῖς or τοῖς ἐνθάδε. μηδὲ πλέον...μηδ᾽ ‘even if I am acquitted (so far from being finally saved) I am not even benefited’.
ἔτι δὲ μάλ᾽ ἐδέθην ‘Moreover, I was actually imprisoned’. μάλα is not=‘rigorously’, but merely gives a certain colloquial emphasis, ‘I can assure you’. ἐγγυητὰς τρεῖς Dem. In Timocr. § 144 (from the oath of the βουλευταί), οὐδὲ δήσω Ἀθηναίων οὐδένα ὃς ἂν ἐγγυητὰς τρεῖς καθιστῇ τὸ αὐτὸ τέλος τελοῦντας (i.e. three ἱππεῖς if he were a ἱππεύς, etc.). The only exception was when the accused was charged with προδοσία τῆς πόλεως or κατάλυσις τοῦ δήμου: and the object, Demosth. says, was to prevent malicious collusion among the ῥήτορες in the βουλή. οἱ ἐπιμεληταὶ τῶν κ.=οἱ ἕνδεκα, by whom the arrest on the ἔνδειξις κακουργίας was made. Herm. Antiq. I. § 139. 13. ἐμοὶ μόνῳ ἐπέλιπε ‘failed in my case only’. The simple dat. gives this sense without the addition of ἐπ̓ proposed by Reiske. Baiter, needlessly, ἐνέλιπε.
τούς τε φίλους Cp. Dem. In Timocr. § 145, ἵνα μὴ διὰ τὸ δεδέσθαι χεῖρον ἀναγκάζοιντο ἀγωνίζεσθαι ἢ κεἰ παντάπασιν ἀπαράσκευοι εἶεν: where χεῖρον, ‘at greater disadyantage’, means that the disgrace of their imprisonment would estrange their supporters.
πολλοῖς ἐλασσωθείς, κ.τ.λ. ‘placed at a disadvantage in respect to many points of your law and of justice’: because he had been accused as a κακοῦργος, and bail had been refused. Cp. ἐλασσούμενοι, ‘suffering a disadvantage’, ‘exacting less than our due’, Thuc. I. 77: Dem. De Cor. § 3, πολλὰ μὲν οὖν ἔγωγ᾽ ἐλαττοῦμαι κατὰ τουτονὶ τὸν ἀγῶνα Αἰσχίνου. — ἐλασσωθεὶς is Dobree's correction (supported by N) of the vulgate σωθεὶς ἄν, which could only mean, ‘when I might (justly) be acquitted’, ‘though entitled to acquittal’,=ὅτε σωθείην ἂν (εἰ τῶν δικαίων τύχοιμι). Cp. Xen. Mem. IV. 4. 4, ῥᾳδίως ἂν ἀφεθείς [=ὅτε ἀφείθη ἂν]...προείλετο ἀποθανεῖν. But, though grammatically possible, σωθεὶς ἄν ill suits the context.
Αἶνον a town on the coast of Thrace, on the promontory S.E. of the lake Stentoris at the mouth of the Hebrus: about 100 miles N. of Lesbos. It is named by Thuc. VII. 57 as one of three Aeolic places (Methymna and Tenedos being the others) which helped Athens against Sicily. Θρᾳξίν Her. v. 6 says of the Thracians, πωλεῦσι τὰ τέκνα ἐπ᾽ ἐξαγωγῇ (as slaves). Θρᾷττα, a Thracian δούλη, Theoph. Char. XXVIII.
ἡ...πρόφασις the (real) occasion: cp. Thuc. I. 23, τὴν ἀληθεστάτην πρόφασιν. But below § 26 ἡ πρόφασις is the (false) pretext. πρόφασις is a cause alleged — truly or untruly. τῆς Μηθυμναίας Μηθύμνη (Molivo) on N.W. coast of Lesbos. Thuc. III. 2, Λέσβος πλὴν Μηθύμνης ἀπέστη. The land of Methymna was not confiscated by Athens after the revolt (III. 50): and in VII. 57 its people are φόρῳ οὐχ ὑπήκοοι — an exemption shared in 415 B.C. only by Chios (VI. 85). [τὸν Ἡρώδην A manifest gloss, which a comma after αὐτὸν fails to make tolerable. πεποιημένος Cp. Tetr. Β. β. § 8, τετιμωρημένος.
ἐγίγνετο ‘This, too, followed (imperf.) of necessity’: but ἐγένετο, ‘took place’, — of the same thing viewed, not as a consequence, but as an independent occurrence at a given moment in past time. ταῦτ᾽ ‘all this’: the μετέκβασις and its circumstances.
ἢ καὶ ὑπ᾽ ἐμοῦ The καί is redundant, and can be expressed only if we say ‘by me on my part’: but the Greek love of balanced contrast borrows it from the form, ἐζητεῖτο οὐ μόνον ὑπὸ τῶν ἄλλων ἀλλὰ καὶ ὑπ᾽ ἐμοῦ. So Soph. El. 1146, O. C. 53, Ant. 927. εἴς τε τὴν Μιτ The τε after εἰς corresponds with the καί before ἄλλου (‘both — and’, i.e. ‘not only — but’): the clause καὶ τ. ἐ. γ. ἐπέμπετο explains ἐγὼ αἴτιος ἦν π.: ‘Not only was I the cause of a messenger being sent, — that is, it was on my suggestion that it was proposed to send him (imperf.), — but’ etc.
ἔπεμπον ‘offered to send’. Aeschin. In Ctes. § 83, Ἁλόννησον ἐδίδου: ὁ δὲ ἀπηγόρευε μὴ λαμβάνειν: so ἔπειθον. πλοῦς...ἐγίγνετο ‘The weather favoured our voyage’: Thuc. I. 137, μηδένα ἐκβῆναι ἐκ τῆς νεὼς μέχρι πλοῦς γένηται.
ἐπεδήμουν ‘was still in the country’ — i.e. in Lesbos, before he had sailed for the coast of Thrace. Reiske wrongly, ‘Athenis adhuc versabar’ — supposing the speaker to have gone there from Aenos, before returning to Lesbos.
ἐν μὲν τῇ γῇ The μέν is taken up by ὅπως δ᾽ ἠφανίσθη: he had certainly been killed on land, they said, but how the body had disappeared, they could not tell. ἂν ἐδύνατο The imperf. with ἄν might mean either (1) he would not now be able [as in fact he is]: or (2) he would not, at the supposed past time, have been able: the imperf. differing here from the aor. in expressing the man's state, and not merely his ability for a certain act at a certain moment. ‘He probably would not have been in a condition to control his own movements’.
ὀπτήρ A poet. word, used by Xen. in this sense, Cyr. IV. 6. 17. κᾆτ᾽ ἐγώ ‘Nevertheless, I concede [I will take for granted] the assertion of the prosecutors, — παρεχόμενος, although I bring witnesses’, etc. εἶτα,=after all that I have proved: cp. Plat. Prot. 327 C.
μὴ ὁμολογοῦσιν ἀποθανεῖν Franke would write ὁμολ. μὴ ἀποθ., but the unusual order arises from the eager stress on the negative. Thuc. VI. 18, οὐ μόνον ἐπιόντα τις ἀμύνεται, ἀλλὰ καὶ μὴ ὅπως ἔπεισι προκαταλαμβάνει, i.e. ὅπως μὴ ἔπεισι.
τι αἷμα is a certain correction of the vulg. τὸ αἷμα. For the position of τι cp. Dem. Phil. III. § 47, ἔστι τοίνυν τις εὐηθὴς λόγος: Soph. Ai. 468, καὶ δρῶν τι χρηστόν. οὐκ ἐνεχώρει ‘But when they found that this theory was inadmissible’. ἀποτραπόμενοι...συλλαβόντες ἐβας.] The second part. belongs more closely to the verb: cp. Plat. Phaed. p. 70A, (ἡ ψυχὴ) διασκεδασθεῖσα οἴχηται διαπτομένη.
φλαῦρον ‘compromising’.
2. Peroration: §§ 81 — 96.
τεκμηρίων...σημείοις Arist.'s distinction between the conclusive τεκμήριον and the fallible σημεῖον is not clearly drawn by earlier writers, though τεκμήριον often=‘a proof’. Antiphon, frag. XXIII. 2 (Sauppe), τὰ παρῳχημένα σημείοις πιστῶσαι τὰ δὲ μέλλοντα τεκμηρίοις, — where σημεῖα=indications furnished by facts, τεκμήρια=grounds of conjecture: and so Andoc. De Pace § 2, περὶ τῶν μελλόντων. Here, however, τεκμήρια are rather positive proofs: σημεῖα, signs. τοὺς κινδύνους ‘their appointed dangers’.μὴ καθαροί sc. ὄντες. Xen. Cyr. III. 1. 16, τί χρήσαιτ᾽ ἄν τις ἰσχυρῷ ἢ ἀνδρείῳ, μὴ σώφρονι; συνεισβάντες Xen. Cyr. VIII. 1. 25, ὥσπερ οἱ πλεῖν αἱρούμενοι μετὰ τῶν εὐσεβῶν μᾶλλον ἢ μετὰ τῶν ἠσεβηκέναι τι δοκούντων. Cp. Aesch. Theb. 597 — 600: Hor. Carm. III. 2. 26: Eur. El. 1354. διακωλύοντες...μὴ γίγνεσθαι Xen. Anab. II. 3. 3, θυομένῳ ἰέναι ἐπὶ βασιλέα οὐκ ἐγίγνετο τὰ ἱερά, opp. to καλὰ ἡμῖν τὰ ἱερὰ ἦν. The pollution incurred by the slaying of the Persian heralds hindered the sacrifices at Sparta from being favourable until the μῆνις of Talthybius had been appeased, Her. VII. 134.
τεκμήρια...τῆς αἰτίας, ὅτι, κ.τ.λ. ‘evidence concerning the charge (against me), showing that these men are accusing me falsely’.
οἶμαι δὲ καὶ ὑμῶν Dobree's emendation, δέομαι δὲ καὶ ὑμῶν, is the simplest, but gives less point than οἶμαι δὲ καὶ <πρὸς> ὑμῶν <εἶναι> ἀποψ. καθ᾽ οὓς μὲν ἀπήχθην ‘I am not liable to the laws under which I was arrested, while as to the acts with which I am charged, I can still be brought to trial in the legal form’. He was arrested for κακουργία: if that means φόνος, he can still be tried for it by a γραφὴ φόνου: if it means anything else, he is innocent. εἰ δὲ δύο ἐξ ἑνός ‘If two trials have been made out of one, the fault is not mine, but that of the accusers. When, however, my worst enemies have left me the chance of a second trial, surely you, the impartial awarders of justice, will never pronounce on the present issue a premature verdict of murder’. In εἰ γεγένησθον, πεποιήκασιν he assumes that he will be acquitted now, and tried again. For the form of the sentence, οὐ δή που, κ.τ.λ., cp. Plat. Gorg. 512A, λογίζεται οὖν ὅτι οὐκ, εἰ μέν τις, κ.τ.λ.
δότε τι καὶ τῷ χρόνῳ ‘Leave some scope for that other witness — Time’. Cp. Hor. Sat. II. 2. 94, Das aliquid famae. ἠξίουν μέν ‘I should certainly desire, judges, that in such cases [of alleged murder] the sentence (τὴν δίκην) should be in accordance with the laws, [i.e. that death should be inflicted if deserved,] but that the investigation should, in every possible instance, be regulated by justice’ (τὸ δίκαιον). Sauppe inserts τούτους (sc. τοὺς νόμους) before τὸ δίκαιον, thus weakening, I think, the antithesis between ‘the laws’ as the standard of punishment, and ‘justice’ as the canon of inquiry. — ἠξίουν like ἐβουλόμην, § 1, note.
χρῆσθαι τῇ δίκῃ ‘abide by the sentence’. οὔτε τὴν δίκην, κ.τ.λ. ‘No one would dare, through confidence in his own innocence, to contravene the sentence when once pronounced, or, if conscious of his guilt, to rebel against the law’. For a true antithesis, the italicised phrases should express opposite notions: but they are, in fact, merely different forms of the same notion. Cp. note on Lysias Pro Mantitheo, § 13 (p. 60) ἡγουμένους...νομίζοντας. ἀνάγκη δὲ...ὁ τιμωρήσων ‘A man must yield, not only to the actual truth (αὐτοῦ τοῦ ἀληθοῦς), but also to a verdict which contravenes the truth, — especially if there be no one to support his cause’.
διωμοσίαι — τόμια — προρρήσεις Oaths taken by the parties to a trial — the sacrifices on which they swear [see § 12] — the notices to the accused [§ 10]. For πρόρρησις see Plat. Legg. 873 A, προρρήσεις — τὰς περὶ τοῦ τῶν νομίμων εἴργεσθαι. [Dem.] In Neaer. § 9, προεῖπεν αὐτῷ ἐπὶ Παλλαδίῳ φόνου. ἢ [καὶ] ἐπὶ τοῖς ἄλλ.] Cp. § 23. If the sentence were negative (οὐ διαφέροντα, κ.τ.λ.), καί might stand: as it is, we must surely omit it.
οὐκ ἴσον ἐστί ‘It is less serious that the prosecutor should accuse wrongly than that you, the judges, should decide wrongly’. οὐκ ἔχει τέλος ‘achieves no result: the result depends (ἐν) on you and on the trial’.
διομοσαμένους ‘when they have first taken the usual oath’ (made in γραφαὶ φόνου), and not merely the ordinary διωμοσία of parties to a law-suit. Cp. § 12. κἀκεῖ in the other trial also. χρῆσθαι sc. ἐμοί: ‘to do what you please with me’.
μεταγνοὺς γάρ sc. τις: cp. Hes. Op. 12, τὴν μέν κεν ἐπαινήσειε νοήσας. Cobet's ἄν τις τὸ γεγονὸς ἐπανορθώσαιτο is more ingenious than probable. ἤδη δέ τισιν Alluding to the debate (427 B.C.) in the Athenian ecclesia on the fate of Mytilene, when Cleon's proposal of a massacre was first carried and afterwards rescinded — about ten years before the probable date of this speech. — καὶ μετεμέλησεν, ‘have actually repented’.
παραχρῆμα i.e. while the purpose is still clearly present to his mind. From another point of view, an interval between the planning and the execution might be urged as heightening the deliberate character of the act: but here the contrast is merely between ἑκούσιον and ἀκούσιον. τὴν ἴσην γε δύναμιν ἔχει, ὅστις=ἴσον δύναται, εἴτε τις...εἴτε. Cp. Thuc. VI. 14, νόμιζε τὸ καλῶς ἄρξαι τοῦτ᾽ εἶναι, ὃς ἂν τὴν πατρίδα ὠφελήσῃ.
νῦν δὲ πιστεύων The parenthesis beginning at ἐν γὰρ τῷ τοιούτῳ interrupts the constr., which is resumed by ἐγὼ δ᾽ ἐμαυτῷ, κ.τ.λ., ἥκω εἰς ὑμᾶς. Cp. §§ 11, 12. συνειδότι...ξυνειδέναι The mss. of Antiphon fluctuate between σύν and ξύν: the latter recurs in § 78 of this speech, ξυμβόλων, and in § 87, ξυνειδώς. τὴν τιμωρίαν...ταύτην ‘that this had come upon her as the punishment’. Cp. Lys. In Agor. § 30, ἡ δὲ ἀρχὴ αὕτη... ἐγένετο, ‘this became the beginning’. The pronoun, which might have been neuter (τοῦτο), is assimilated to the gender of the noun. See my n. on Soph. O. C. 88. In this construction the definite article is not usually added to the noun, but is, of course, quite admissible. It is unwarrantable, therefore, to delete τὴν here.
τοῦτο μὲν γάρ ‘For on the one hand, if you listen to me’ — the correl. clause, τοῦτο δέ, τοῦ τούτοις, being compressed into τοῦ δὲ τούτοις. This is better than to understand, ‘if you listen to me in this matter’. γνωρισταί, κ.τ.λ. ‘On the present occasion, then, take a survey of the case; on the next, sit in judgment on the witnesses; form now an opinion, but defer a decision, on the facts’. Cp. Thuc. VI. 87, μήθ᾽ ὡς δικασταὶ...τῶν ἡμῖν ποιουμένων, μήθ᾽ ὡς σωφρονισταί. See introductory note on Antiphon's style.
οὔτε...παρείς ‘with due regard to your conscience as well as to my own right’: cp. § 7.
