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Πανηγυρικός

. [Or. IV.] — The title means, ‘A Discourse for a Public Festival’: in this case, for the Olympic festival of 380 B.C. The duty of Hellenic unity against the barbarian had already been the theme of Gorgias and of Lysias in speeches delivered at Olympia. It is not likely that, like theirs, the oration of Isocrates was recited at the festival by its author. His want of nerve and voice, and much in the composition itself, would probably have deterred him from such an attempt. The discourse may, indeed, have been recited for him; but it is more likely that it was first introduced to the Greek public by copies circulated at Olympia, and sent to cities in which Isocrates had friends among the leading men.

His appeal to Panhellenic patriotism was made at a time when such patriotism was sorely needed. By the Peace of Antalcidas in 387 B.C. Artaxerxes II. had become master of the Asiatic Greeks, and ultimate arbiter in the affairs of western Hellas; the Aegean, no longer protected by an Athenian fleet, was infested by pirates; the party strife which the decarchies had exasperated was everywhere filling the smaller cities with bloodshed; and Sparta, regardless of the autonomy which the Peace had guaranteed to every state, was using these troubles for her own ends. In 385 B.C. the Spartans had destroyed Mantineia; in 383, besieged Olynthus; in 382, seized the Cadmeia; in 380, besieged Phlius.

The Panegyricus falls into two main divisions. In the first (§§ 1 — 132) Isocrates urges that Athens and Sparta, laying aside their jealousies, should assume the joint leadership of Greece. He argues that, if Sparta at present holds the first place, Athens has the better historical claim to it; and that, therefore, a compromise might well be made. In the second part (§§ 133 — 189) he shows the direction in which the forces of Greece, once consolidated, ought to be turned — namely against Persia.

The Panegyricus is the earliest and the most complete expression of its author's ruling political idea — the idea of a Panhellenic War on Persia. This, he believed, would heal Greek discord, liberate the Asiatic Greeks, draft the roving and lawless paupers who infested Greece into new Asiatic settlements, and bring wealth into Greece Proper. (See the Life of Isocr., Attic Orators, II. 20 f.) The tradition that Isocr. spent ten or more years on this discourse (Quint. X. 4: Plut. Mor. 350 E) shows the ancient feeling that it was a masterpiece of careful work. It is, indeed, admirable alike for finished brilliancy of composition and for the lucid power with which a wide range of topics and a multitude of details are marshalled in subordination to the central thought.


Motives for an Invasion of Persia: §§ 160 — 186.

ὥστε μοι δοκεῖ The general and permanent causes of Persian weakness have just been stated: viz. that the country cannot have good soldiers while the mass of the people is an unruly, nerveless and slavish mob, or good generals while the Persians of the upper classes are insolent and abject by turns, with pampered bodies and craven spirits. He now goes on to urge that the present moment is peculiarly favourable for an attack by the united forces of Greece.

παρὼν καιρός, ὃν οὐκ ἀφετέον So Bekker, Baiter and Sauppe with the first hand of the Urbino ms. (Γ). Between καιρός and ὃν οὐκ ἀφετέον the Ambrosian ms. (Ε) and the corrector's hand in the margin of Γ insert οὗ σαφέστερον οὐδέν, i.e. ‘than which nothing could be a clearer summons’. Cp. Dem. Olynth. I. § 2, μὲν οὖν παρὼν καιρός, ἄνδρες Ἀθ., μόνον οὐχὶ λέγει φωνὴν ἀφιεὶς ὅτι τῶν πραγμάτων ὑμῖν ἀντιληπτέον ἐστίν.

τί γὰρ ἂν καὶ βουληθεῖμεν ‘What further advantage could we desire in prospect of a war with Persia, beyond those which are already assured to us?’


ΑἴγυπτοςΚύπρος (1) This revolt of Egypt is not known from other sources, but is noticed again in the Philippus, § 101. From Panegyr. § 140 it appears that Egypt had held out for three years against three of the best Persian generals, and had finally discomfited them. (2) The war between Persia and Evagoras, king of the Cyprian Salamis, seems to have begun in 385 B.C., and to have lasted ten years: at this time a Persian fleet was blockading Salamis, § 134. See Attic Orators, II. 158 and notes.

ΦοινίκηΣυρίαΤύρος Evagoras had ‘ravaged Phoenicia, stormed Tyre, made Cilicia revolt from the Persian king’: Isocr. Evag. (or. IX.) § 62.

Λυκίας ‘Of Lycia no Persian has ever become master’. Lycia had been tributary to Persia (Her. III. 90) from the time of its conquest by Harpagus, the general of Cyrus: but the warlike dwellers in the Lycian highlands had not been thoroughly tamed. ἐκράτησε, then,=‘subjugated’ as dist. from ἦρξε ‘(nominally) reigned over’. Cp. Her. II. 1 (Cambyses goes against Egypt) ἄλλους τε παραλαβὼν τῶν ἦρχε (his Asiatic subjects) καὶ δὴ καὶ Ἑλλήνων τῶν ἐπεκράτεε, ‘over whom he had the mastery’.


Ἑκατόμνως Hecatomnus, Greek prince of Caria, had been appointed admiral of the Persian fleet at the beginning of the war with Evagoras, but had afterwards become disaffected, and had secretly supplied Evagoras with money: Diod. XIV. 98. — ἐπίσταθμος: prop. ‘quarter-master’, as supervising σταθμοί, stations or quarters: a term for the military governors (properly subordinate to the σατράπαι) in the Persian provinces: so Panegyr. § 120 the Persian king dictates to Greece, μόνον οὐκ ἐπιστάθμους ἐν ταῖς πόλεσι καθιστάς. A Greek prince tributary to Persia was esp. δυνάστης.

τὴν Ἀσίαν παροικοῦσιν, κ.τ.λ. ‘from Cnidus [in Caria, at the s. w. corner of Asia Minor] to Sinope [on the Euxine] Greek settlements fringe the coast of Asia’ (τῆς Ἀσίας τὴν παραλίαν, Ep. IX. § 8). παρά in the compound here with accus.=‘along’: but παροικεῖν τισιν, to live near or among, Thuc. I. 71, III. 93.

οὓς οὐ δεῖ, κ.τ.λ. ‘and these we need not incite to war, — we have only not to restrain them’ (and they will go to war of their own accord).

ὁρμητηρίων ‘Now, when such bases of operation have been established, and when Asia is encompassed by hostile forces so great, why need we examine the probable issues in minute detail? When they [the Persians] are unable to cope with small fractions of our strength, it is plain what their situation would be, if they were forced to grapple with the whole’. — ὁρμητηρίων: i.e. Egypt, Cyprus, Tyre, Cilicia, and the Greek cities of the coast, — viewed as so many points from which the assailants of Persia will set out (ὅθεν ὁρμήσονται): Polyb. I. 17, εἰς ταύτην (τὴν πόλιν) συνήθροισαν...τὰς δυνάμεις, ὁρμητηρίῳ (headquarters) κρίνοντες χρῆσθαι ταύτῃ τῇ πόλει πρὸς τὸν πόλεμον.


ἐρρωμενεστέρως ‘more vigorously’. Isocr. prefers this form: but cp. (e.g.) ἐρρωμενέστερον, Antid. § 72, Archid. § 101: σαφέστερον, Adv. Sophist. § 16: ἀκριβέστερον, Antid. § 279.

αὐτάς, κ.τ.λ. ‘But if we are the first to occupy them [the cities on the coast], it is likely that the populations of Lydia, Phrygia and the upper [interior] country generally will be at the mercy of those who hold these bases of attack’: ἐντεῦθεν=ἐκ τῶν ἐπὶ θαλάττῃ πόλεων.


ὑστερίσαντες Referring to the subjugation by Persia of the Greek cities on the Ionian seaboard (500 — 495 B.C.). The Greeks of Greece Proper (οἱ πατέρες ἡμῶν, Spartans as well as Athenians) having ‘allowed the barbarians to get the start of them’, and ‘abandoned’ the Ionians to their fate, were afterwards forced to fight, without Asiatic allies, against the whole strength of Persia. Had they gone to Asia soon enough, they might have vanquished in succession (ἐν μέρει) each of the nations that made up the Persian host. — ἐθνῶν: Her. VII. 61 f. enumerates 46 nations or tribes as represented in the land-force of Xerxes.


δέδεικται ‘It has been proved’ (by experience): cp. Archid. § 4, εἰ μὲν γὰρ ἦν δεδειγμένον, ὥστε τοὺς μὲν πρεσβυτέρους περὶ ἁπάντων εἰδέναι τὸ βέλτιστον, κ.τ.λ.

ἐπιστῶσιν ‘they have come upon us’: cp. Her. IV. 203, ἐπεὶ ἐπὶ τῇ Κυρηναίων πόλι ἐπέστησαν, when the Persian army suddenly appeared before Cyrene: Isocr. Evag. § 58, μικροῦ δεῖν ἔλαθεν αὐτὸν ἐπὶ τὸ βασίλειον ἐπιστάς, before Artaxerxes was aware, Cyrus was almost at his palace gates.

προεξαμαρτόντες...ἐπηνωρθώσαντο ‘Our fathers, after making an error in the first instance’ [by failing to support the Ionians in their revolt], ‘retrieved all these faults when they were confronted with the most urgent perils’ [in the Persian invasions].


ἑκάστων, κ.τ.λ. ‘The Persian king does not rule the peoples of Asia by their consent [ἑκόντων, predicate], but by surrounding himself [ποιησάμενος, causal] with a power which overmatches those peoples taken singly’ [ἑκάστων]: if they unite, and are helped from Greece, they will prevail. — βουληθέντες=εἰ βουληθεῖμεν, Goodwin § 109.


ἐπὶ τῆς νῦν ἡλικίας ‘in the present generation’: strictly, in the time of the men who are now capable of active service. In Antid. § 290, etc., τῆς ἡλικίας=‘youth’, but it is the context which so defines it: here it has the military sense, οἱ ἐν ἡλικίᾳ (Thuc. VIII. 75) being opposed to ἀχρεῖοι. — τῶν συμφορῶν. Men who at this time (380 B.C.) were 40 years old would have known the closing years of the Peloponnesian War, the troubles bred by the Spartan δεκαρχίαι, the Corinthian War, and, generally, that widespread distress and disorder of which Isocr. speaks below (§ 168 f.). See Attic Orators, II. 17.

πολέμους καὶ στάσεις With this picture cp. the following, abridged from Isocr. Epist. IX. §§ 8 — 10 (date, about 356 B.C.): ‘It is strange that no powerful statesman or speaker has yet taken pity on the miserable condition of Hellas. Every part of it is full of war, factions, massacres, woes unnumbered. Most wretched of all are those Greeks on the seaboard of Asia whom by the treaty [of Antalcidas, 387 B.C.] we gave over, not merely to barbarians, but to those of our race who are barbarian in all save speech. These roving desperadoes, under any chance leader, form armies larger and better than those of the settled communities; armies which do trifling damage to Persia, but bring desolation to the Greek cities which they visit: they slay, they banish, they violate, they plunder’. — See Attic Orators, II. 244.


ἐπικουρεῖν ‘to serve as mercenaries’: Thuc. II. 33, ἐπικούρους τινὰς προσεμισθώσατο — like ξένοι, an honourable name for μισθοφόροι.

συγκειμέναις ‘composed’, ‘invented’ by the [tragic] poets. In pure Attic of the classical time κεῖμαι is the perf. passive of τίθημι, τέθειμαι is the perf. middle: e.g. a father τέθειται ὄνομα παιδί, but παιδὶ κεῖται ὄνομα: cp. Shilleto on Thuc. I. 37, who quotes as an exception, belonging to the early decadence, Menand. frag. 65, τῷ μὲν τὸ σῶμα διατεθειμένῳ κακῶς (=διακειμένῳ).

ἐφορῶντες Not, I think, merely ‘gazing upon’, but ‘seeing in their own lifetime’, or ‘with their own eyes’ (and not merely in legends from the past); cp. Xen. Cyr. VIII. 7. 7, τοὺς φίλους ἐπεῖδον δι᾽ ἐμοῦ εὐδαίμονας γενομένους, ‘lived to see their friends made prosperous’. So Il. XXII. 61, κακὰ πόλλ᾽ ἐπιδόντα, | υἷάς τ᾽ ὀλλυμένους, κ.τ.λ.: and other passages quoted by Thompson on Plato Gorg. 473 C, αὐτός τε λωβηθεὶς καὶ τοὺς αὑτοῦ ἐπιδὼν παῖδας (λωβηθέντας).


εὐηθείας ‘simplicity’. — ἀνδρῶν, individuals as opp. to whole countries.

ἸταλίαΣικελία Italy. In 389 — 387 B.C. Dionysius I. had reduced successively Caulon, Hipponium and Rhegium in Magna Graecia: Diod. XIV. 106 ff. Sicily. He had surrendered Acragas, Himera, Selīnus, etc., to Carthage, and had brought other towns — as Naxos, Leontini, Messene — under his own power: Diod. XIII. 114.

ἐκδέδονται ‘have been abandoned’ [not ‘restored’ to a lawful possessor, the sense of ἐκδίδωμι in Il. III. 459] — by the Peace of Antalcidas: below, § 175. — τὰ λοιπὰ μέρη: Greece Proper as opp. to (1) Sicily and Magna Graecia, (2) Asiatic Hellas.


τῶν δυναστευόντων ‘the leading statesmen’,=οἱ προεστῶτες ἡμῶν, § 172. With the same meaning he says in Epist. IX. § 8, θαυμάζω δὲ καὶ τῶν ἄλλων τῶν πράττειν λέγειν δυναμένων.

εἰπεῖν...ἐνθυμηθῆναι ‘to expound or [even] to devise’ a remedy: Thuc. VIII. 68 (of Antiphon) κράτιστος ἐνθυμηθῆναι... καὶ γνοίη εἰπεῖν, a master of device and of expression.

ἐχρῆν...ἄξιοι An iambic trimeter. In this and other cases where an accidental verse occurs in prose, it may usually be noticed that the rhythm or division of clauses imposed by the sense would have prevented the metre from being perceived in speaking: thus, here, there is a pause at αὐτούς, and the words εἴπερ ἦσαν ἄξιοι τῆς παρούσης, κ.τ.λ., cohere closely. So in Dem. Olynth. I. § 5 (quoted by Sandys), δῆλον γάρ ἐστι τοῖς Ὀλυνθίοις, ὅτι κ.τ.λ., the metrical effect is destroyed by the coherence of ὅτι with the following words.

εἰσηγεῖσθαι καὶ συμβουλεύειν ‘to introduce and discuss [not necessarily ‘advocate’, though Isocr. implies this] the project of the war with Persia’: ‘the war’, because the project had long been familiar to the Greeks: thus Agesilaus had entertained it, Isocr. Philipp. § 85.

τυχὸν μὲν γάρ, κ.τ.λ. ‘Perchance they would have achieved something; but even if they had been baffled, still the counsels bequeathed by them would have been as oracles for the future’. — τυχόν, acc. abs., Goodwin § 110. 2. — προαπεῖπον, ‘give up’, from weariness or disgust, before they had carried their point: cp. Antid. § 274, ἡγοῦμαι (αὐτοὺς) πρότερον ἀπερεῖν καὶ παύσεσθαι ληροῦντας, πρὶν εὑρεθῆναι, κ.τ.λ. — χρησμούς: so Socr. to his judges, Plat. Apol. 39 C, ἐπιθυμῶ ὑμῖν χρησμῳδῆσαι, κ.τ.λ.


τοῖς τῶν πολιτ. ἐξεστηκόσι ‘who stand apart from public life’. With a similar reference to his own abstention from political life (owing to want of φωνή and τόλμα), he says, Adv. Sophist. § 14, πολλοὶ μὲν τῶν φιλοσοφησάντων ἰδιῶται διετέλεσαν ὄντες, where see note.


οὐ μὴν ἀλλ̓...ἔχθρας] οὐ μὴν [δεῖ σιωπᾶν] ἀλλὰ... δεῖ σκοπεῖν: ‘At the same time [i.e. discouraging as is this apathy on the part of the statesmen, and little as ἰδιῶται may seem entitled to speak] the rest of us are bound to consider’, etc. — ἐρρωμενεστέρως, § 163. — ἔχθρας, ‘discord’ among Greeks.

τὰς περὶ τῆς εἰρήνης συνθ ‘As things are, it is in vain that we make treaties of peace’: not the treaty: cp. Lys. In Erat. § 97, note on τὸν θάνατον.


ἀγαγεῖν...ὁμονοῆσαι Not ἄγειν, ὁμονοεῖν, because the speaker is thinking of the moment from which such a peace is to date, and at which such a concord is to be established: the pres. would have expressed merely the continuance of the conditions. ‘It is impossible that we should cement an enduring peace, or that concord should be established among the Greeks’. — ἐκ τῶν αὐτῶν, masc., τῶν βαρβάρων.


καὶ τὰς ἑταιρ...προάγει ‘which dissolves friendships [cp. ἑταιρίας λιμήν, Soph. Ai. 683] and draws kinsmen on to quarrels’. προάγειν of leading onward in an evil path; cp. Theogn. 396, πενίην, (just as here, ἀπορία,) τ᾽ ἀνδρῶν προάγει θυμὸν ἐς ἀμπλακίην [where παράγει is a doubtful v. l.]: Dem. In Androt. § 78, εἰς τοῦτο προήχθητ᾽ εὐηθείας καὶ ῥᾳθυμίας.

τὸν ἐνθένδε πόλεμον...διοριοῦμεν ‘transfer the war from Greece to Asia’: Plat. Legg. 873 E, τὸ δ᾽ ὀφλὸν [vulg. ὄφλον] ἔξω τῶν ὅρων τῆς χώρας ἀποκτείναντας διορίσαι, ‘the animal which is adjudged guilty (of causing death) they shall slay and cast beyond the borders’: Eur. Helen. 394, στράτευμα κώπῃ διορίσαι, ‘to carry a host from its own land in ships’,= πορθμεῦσαι or διαπεραιῶσαι.

τῶν κινδύνων τῶν πρὸς ἡμᾶς αὐτούς ‘the ordeals of intestine warfare’ (between Greek cities).

καταχρήσασθαι ‘to utilise them’: κατά meaning here, not ‘wastefully, perversely’ (abuti), but ‘to the full’ (cp. ‘to use up’): so Panegyr. § 9, τὸ δ᾽ ἐν καιρῷ ταύταις [sc. ταῖς πράξεσιν, these historical examples] καταχρήσασθαι...τῶν εὖ φρονούντων ἴδιόν ἐστιν.


ἀλλὰ γάρ, κ.τ.λ. ‘But perhaps it will be said that the Convention [of Antalcidas] is a reason for pausing, instead of making haste and accelerating the expedition’. For ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ (ἄξιόν ἐστιν), instead of μή, cp. Lys. Pro Mantith. § 18, καίτοι χρὴ...σκοπεῖν, ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ, εἴ τις τολμᾷ,...μισεῖν. The terms of the Peace of Antalcidas (387 B.C.) were as follows (Xen. Hellen. V. I. 31): — ‘King Artaxerxes thinks it just that the cities in Asia, and the islands of Clazomenae and Cyprus, shall belong to him. He thinks it just also to leave all the other Hellenic cities autonomous, both small and great — except Lemnos, Imbros and Scyros, which are to belong to Athens, as they did originally. Should any parties refuse to accept this peace, I will make war upon them, along with those who are of the same mind, by land as well as sea, with ships and with money’. Grote IX. 534.

ἠλευθερωμέναι...ἐκδεδομέναι The liberated cities are those in Greece Proper, or belonging to the Aegean coasts and islands, which Athens or Sparta might otherwise have claimed as tributaries: those abandoned to the barbarians are the Hellenic cities of the Asiatic seaboard, with Clazomenae and Cyprus.


δὲ πάντων...ἐστίν ‘Most absurd of all, those stipulations of the Treaty which we actually observe are the very worst. The articles which grant independence to the islands and the Greek cities of Europe have long ago been violated, and are dead letters in the record’. τῶν γεγραμμένων: cp. Andoc. De Pace § 35, γράμματα τὰ γεγραμμένα, the letter of the terms (of peace): ib. § 34 στῆλαι σταθήσονται, note. — λέλυται: meaning that Sparta had been levying tribute on the Aegean islands (τοὺς νησιώτας δασμολογεῖν, § 132), and helping Amyntas II. of Macedon against Olynthus, besides devastating Mantineia, besieging Phlius, and seizing the Theban Cadmeia (§ 126). — For the constr., δὲ πάντων [sc. ἐστὶ] καταγελαστότατον [τοῦτ᾽ ἐστίν], ὅτι, cp. Plat. Apol. 18 C, δὲ πάντων ἀλογώτατον, ὅτι οὐδὲ τὰ ὀνόματα οἷόν τε αὐτῶν εἰδέναι. So Isocr. Panegyr. § 128, δὲ πάντων δεινότατον, ὅταν: Plataic. § 45, δὲ πάντων δεινότατον, εἰ: De Pace § 53, δὲ πάντων σχετλιώτατον: οὓς γάρ, κ.τ.λ. For other examples see Madvig, Syntax § 197.

ἐκδέδωκε, κ.τ.λ. Cp. ἐκδέδονται, § 169, note. — ταῦτα δὲ κατὰ χώραν μένει: ‘these articles, on the other hand [δέ in apodosis], remain undisturbed’. — προστάγματα: ‘dictates’ (of the Persian king): see the terms, § 175, note.


τῶν πρεσβευσάντων ταύτην τὴν εἰρήνην ‘those who negotiated this peace’: cp. Andoc. De Pace § 29, ἡμῖν ἐπρέσβευσεν Ἐπίλυκος, κ.τ.λ., note. The reference is to the diplomatic agents of Sparta generally, but esp. to Antalcidas, by whom, with the help of the satrap Teiribazus, the terms of the treaty were virtually settled. Grote IX. 531.

ἐχρῆν...περὶ αὐτῶν ‘Whether it was their view (1) that each State should retain its own territory, or (2) that each should have dominion also over all that it acquired by conquest, or (3) that each of us should keep these possessions which we happened to hold on the eve of the peace, — they were bound to define some one of these views, — to apply their principle impartially, — and on this basis to frame the terms of the treaty’ (περὶ αὐτῶν, neut., about the interests thus involved). Isocr. means: The Peace of Antalcidas is based on no intelligible principle. If (1) had been adopted, Persia would not have got the Greek cities of Asia: if (2), autonomy would not have been guaranteed to the Greek cities of Europe: if (3), Athens and Sparta would not have had to renounce dependencies which they claimed. Observe that τῶν δοριαλώτων refers, not to all that each State had from time to time acquired, but to all that it might hereafter acquire.


ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ ἐκείνων After ὥσπερ we should expect μή (=ὥσπερ εἰ ἐπολεμήσαμεν, ἀλλὰ μὴ εἶχον): but the emphasis on the negative fact warrants οὐ. Cp. Lys. In Eratosth. § 36, note on οὐκ ἄρα χρή.


ἐκείνως εἰπών ‘by the following illustration’.

τήν τε περὶ ἡμᾶς ἀτιμ. γεγεν.] δηλώσω τὴν ἀτιμίαν γεγενημένην could mean only, ‘I will show that the dishonour has happened’, γεγεν. being a predicate. But δηλώσω τὴν περὶ ἡμᾶς ἀτιμίαν γεγενημένην can mean, ‘I will show the dishonour that has been done to us’, because περὶ ἡμᾶς is really a part of the adjective; and when this part has been put in its right place between τὴν and ἀτιμίαν, the supplementary γεγενημένην can be allowed to wait. Cp. Thuc. VII. 23, αἱ πρὸ τοῦ στόματος νῆες ναυμαχοῦσαι, ‘the ships fighting before the mouth of the harbour’: here, the complete adjective is πρὸ τοῦ στόματος ναυμαχοῦσαι, and it is enough that the first part of it, πρὸ τοῦ στόματος, should stand between the article and the subst. So id. I. 11 τοῦ νῦν περὶ αὐτῶν διὰ τοὺς ποιητὰς λόγου κατεσχηκότος: VII. 36 τῇ πρότερον ἀμαθίᾳ τῶν κυβερνητῶν δοκούσῃ εἶναι.

τῆς γὰρ γῆς...ποιούμενος ‘Whereas the whole earth beneath the firmament is divided into two parts, “Asia” and “Europe”, the great King has under this Treaty taken one-half, — as if he were dividing the territory with Zeus, and not making his compact with men’. That is, the Persian king has taken all Asia, as if he were a god who would not yield up more than half of the whole earth even to Zeus himself. Isocr. prob. began with the thought of Artaxerxes being on earth what Zeus is in heaven, and then passed to this image of him as one who, in partitioning the earth, would consider himself the equal of Zeus. On νέμεσθαι πρός, cp. Lys. Mantith. § 10, p. 42. — κόσμος, the starry firmament,= περὶ τὴν γῆν κόσμος, Arist. Meteor. I. 2. — δίχα τετμ.: cp. Soph. Tr. 100, δισσαὶ ἤπειροι.


τοῖς κοινοῖς τῶν ἱερ ‘The national temples’ (at Olympia, Delphi, etc.), not merely the ‘public’ temples of each State. Cp. Panathenaicus § 107, τὰς τοιαύτας συνθήκας (of Antalcidas) αὐτοί τ᾽ ἐν τοῖς ἱεροῖς τοῖς σφετέροις ἀνέγραψαν καὶ τοὺς συμμάχους ἠνάγκασαν. — στήλαις: Thuc. v. 47, τὰς δὲ ξυνθήκας ἀναγράψαι ἐν στήλῃ λιθίνῃ Ἀθηναίους μὲν ἐν πόλει (the Acropolis), Ἀργείους δὲ ἐν ἀγορᾷ ἐν τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος τῷ ἱερῷ, Μαντινέας δὲ ἐν τοῦ Διὸς τῷ ἱερῷ ἐν τῇ ἀγορᾷ: καταθέντων δὲ καὶ Ὀλυμπίασι στήλην χαλκῆν.

μιᾶς τύχης ‘a single success’: Antidosis § 128, εἴ τις ἐν μιᾷ τύχῃ (alluding to Aegospotami) τηλικοῦτόν τι κατώρθωσεν ὥσπερ Λύσανδρος. Cp. ἐπὶ ῥοπῆς μιᾶς ὄντες, Thuc. v. 103.

καθ᾽ ὅλης τῆς ‘but these pillars stand as witnesses on the whole war against all Greece’.


τοὺς...περὶ τὰ Τρωϊκὰ γεν.] ‘those who were en gaged in the Trojan war’. If the meaning were, ‘those who lived in the time of the Trojan war’, we should rather expect κατὰ τὰ Τρωϊκά.


εὐχῆς ἄξια ‘all for which men would pray’: not merely ‘desirable’ things, but such things as might satisfy the highest aspirations. So again in Isocr. Philipp. § 19. Cp. Arist.'s ὑποτίθεσθαι κατ᾽ εὐχήν, to suppose the best imaginable case; κατ᾽ εὐχὴν πολιτεία, the ideal polity, Polit. II. 6.

θεωρίᾳ...στρατείᾳ ‘like a sacred embassy rather than a hostile expedition’, — i.e. encountering no resistance, but received with joyous welcome and homage in its stately progress. The image suggested by θεωρία is the more appropriate, since the Hellenic gods are conceived as making common cause against those barbarians who had destroyed their shrines when Ionia was conquered: see § 155, οἳ καὶ τὰ τῶν θεῶν ἕδη καὶ τοὺς νεὼς συλᾶν ἐν τῷ προτέρῳ πολέμῳ καὶ κατακάειν ἐτόλμησαν.


— § 184. φέρε γάρ...ἐνθυμουμένους] ‘Let us see: who are fitting objects of hostility for those who desire no aggrandisement, but have a view to justice in the abstract?... And who are proper objects for the envy of those who, though not devoid of courage, exercise that quality under the restraint of prudence?...And against whom should those men march who are at once loyal to their duty and mindful of their interest?’ i.e. The arms of Greece ought to be turned against Persia, (1) if we consider abstract justice — because Persia has wronged Greece: (2) if we desire a field of enterprise agreeable at once to our valour and to our discretion — because Persia is rich and weak: (3) if we think both of duty and of interest — for the above reasons combined. The phrase τοὺς μὴ παντάπασιν ἀνάνδρως διακειμένους ἀλλὰ μετρίως τούτῳ τῷ πράγματι χρωμένους is a circumlocution for ‘men in whom courage is subordinate to prudence’. The φθόνος felt by such men — however timid — will find in Asia a field of plunder both ample and safe.


καὶ μὴν οὐδέ, κ.τ.λ. ‘Nor again [καὶ μήν=further] shall we distress the cities by levying soldiers on them, — a burden which at present, in their warfare with each other, they find most oppressive’. οὐ λυπής. καταλέγ., not, ‘we shall abstain from vexing by a levy’, but, ‘we shall levy without vexing’; since all will prefer the service to staying at home (μένειν, i.e. οἴκοι,=ὑπομένειν). The disinclination of citizens for ordinary military service, and the consequent demand for mercenaries (ἐπίκουροι, § 168), was a growing symptom of the decay in Greek political life: see Attic Orators, II. 17. — Cp. Thuc. VI. 43, οἱ ἐκ τοῦ καταλόγου, those on the roll for service: οἱ ἔξω τοῦ καταλόγου,=emeriti, Xen. H. II. 3. 51.

νέος παλαιός Doubtless the poetical παλαιός is to be explained by a reminiscence of the familiar Homeric formula, νέος ἠὲ παλαιός, Il. XIV. 108: νέοι ἠδὲ παλαιοί, Od. I. 395, etc.


φήμην δὲ καὶ μνήμην καὶ δόξαν ‘name and fame and repute’: φήμην, the rumour in men's mouths (volitare per ora), as gratifying to the living, — μνήμην, the posthumous fame of the dead. Arist. Rhet. III. 7. § 11, (words or phrases of an unusual or a poetical colour may be used by the speaker) ὅταν ἔχῃ ἤδη τοὺς ἀκροατὰς καὶ ποιήσῃ ἐνθουσιάσαι ἐπαίνοις ψόγοις ὀργῇ φιλίᾳ (‘when the speaker has got his hearers into his power, and has worked them up into enthusiasm by praise or blame, by indignation or by love’), οἷον καὶ Ἰσοκράτης ποιεῖ ἐν τῷ πανηγυρικῷ ἐπὶ τέλει, ‘φήμη δὲ καὶ γνώμη’: — where γνώμη is a slip for μνήμη — a strange one, since it weakens the παρονομασία (similarity of form) and destroys the παρομοίωσις (similarity of sound). Cp. Phil. § 134, καὶ τὴν φήμην καὶ τὴν μνήμην. Ar. Ran. 463, καθ᾽ Ἡρακλέα τὸ σχῆμα καὶ τὸ λῆμ̓ ἔχων.

πρὸς Ἀλέξανδρον=Πάριν. ‘The heroes (of Troy) themselves bear each a double name, as Alexander and Paris, Hector and Darius; of which the one indicates their connexion with Hellas, the other with interior Asia’: Curt. Hist. Gr. I. 79.

ποιεῖν...λέγειν, κ.τ.λ. ‘who that has the gift of the poet or the art of the orator will not devote his labour and meditation to the purpose of bequeathing for all time a monument of his own intellect and of their heroism?’ ποιεῖν: as in Plat. Ion 534 B (quoted by Sandys), πρὶν ἂν ἔνθεος γένηται...ἀδύνατος πᾶς ποιεῖν καὶ χρησμῳδεῖν. — φιλοσοφήσει: cp. Lysias Pro Invalido § 10, note.

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