§§ 18 — 27.
καὶ περὶ μὲν τῶν παλαιῶν...ἔχειν ‘The whole story of the past would be long to tell: when, however, Pasinus seized Paros, they [Thrasylochus and his brother Sopolis] happened to have the greater part of their property deposited there for safety in the hands of my Parian friends, as we believed that island to be more secure than any other’.
τῶν παλαιῶν: the early relations between the speaker and Thrasylochus, who had been friends from boyhood (§ 10). —
Πάρον: in 410 B.C. the oligarchy set up by Peisander during the rule of the Four Hundred was deposed by Theramenes, who established a democracy in its place (Grote VIII. 159). The oligarchy was doubtless restored in Paros, as elsewhere, after the final defeat of Athens in 405 B.C. From § 36 of this speech it is clear that the speaker belonged to the oligarchic party, and therefore that the exiles before whom he fled were democratic. The democratic revolution, led by the otherwise unknown Pasīnus, may have been encouraged by the blow dealt to Sparta — and at the same time to oligarchy throughout Hellas — by the victory of Conon at Cnidus in the autumn of 394 B.C. —
ὑπεκκείμενα, perf. pass. of
ὑπεκτίθημι: cp.
Thuc. I. 89,
διεκομίζοντο εὐθὺς ὅθεν ὑπεξέθεντο [from Salamis, etc.]
παῖδας καὶ γυναῖκας καὶ τὴν περιοῦσαν κατασκευήν: VIII. 31,
ὅσα ὑπεξέκειτο αὐτόθι τῶν Κλαζομενίων. — ἀσφαλῶς ἔχειν: i.e. Paros was most likely to resist an attack (showing that this was a time of general trouble) — as it had baffled Miltiades in 490 B.C.,
Her. VI. 132 f.
ἐξεκόμισ᾽ αὐτοῖς ‘conveyed their money for them out of Paros’ [back to the neighbouring island of Siphnos — a distance of about 20 miles].
