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πλάνους τοὺς φυγαδικοὺς κτἑ, ‘he despised a wandering life of exile, and the attempt to obtain his release by the help of others, and courting men who were his inferiors.’ κάθοδον: the regular word for ‘return’ from exile; the verb is κατελθεῖν, § 36. θεραπεύειν: lit. ‘to pay attention to’, esp. of the gods, ‘to worship’ (cp. θεραπεία, ad N. 20); of human beings, ‘to court’, ‘pay attention to’, so (ad N. 28) ‘to serve’ (cp. θεραπεία (N. C. 22) ‘service’, (§ 46) ‘devotion to’); ‘to win over’ (ad N. 16), ‘to make much of’ (ad N. 53); but here in a bad sense ‘to flatter’. It is also used as a medical technical term to ‘treat’, ‘attend’. λαβὼν δὲ ταύτην ἀφορμήν, ‘taking this as his principle.’ ταύτην, in the absence of the definite article, must be predicative. ἀφορμή, lit. ‘starting-point’, so ‘principle’; it can also be used as a military term ‘base of operations’, and by a slight extension of meaning ‘resources’, ‘advantages’ (as in ad N. 4). χρή: sc. λαβεῖν. ἀμύνεσθαι καὶ μὴ προτέρους ὑπάρχειν, ‘to act on the defensive and not to begin a quarrel’; cp. de bigis 44 οὐδ᾽ ἀμυνόμενος ἀλλ̓ ὑπάρχων ἠδίκεις αὐτούς. For ὑπάρχειν see note on § 19. προτέρους is pleonastic. παρακαλέσας, ‘having called in the help of’; a more common meaning of παρακαλεῖν is ‘to exhort’, followed by ἐπί or πρός, or the acc. and infin., cp. N. C. 12 παρακαλέσαι πρὸς τὸ μνημονεύειν. ὡς οἱ τοὺς πλείστους λέγοντες: sc. λέγουσι, ‘according to the account of those who give the highest estimate.’ For the ellipse, Schneider compares Plut. Cleom. 9. 3 διὸ καὶ καλῶς ὁ εἰπών (sc. εἶπεν), Ἵνα γὰρ δέος, ἔνθα καὶ αἰδώς.
Isocrates Cyprian Orations. Edward S. Forster.
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