Edward S. Forster, Isocrates Cyprian Orations

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ἐφίκοιτο, ‘reach to,’ so ‘adequately describe’, ‘do justice to’; cp. Paneg. 187 τότε μὲν γὰρ ᾤμην ἀξίως δυνήσεσθαι τῶν πραγμάτων εἰπεῖν: νῦν δ᾽ οὐκ ἐφικνοῦμαι τοῦ μεγέθους αὐτῶν, ‘I thought then that I should be able to speak in a manner worthy of my subject; but now I cannot do justice to its importance.’ Jebb compares the use of the Latin consequi.

φύσεως: here of ‘natural qualities’, ‘character’, ‘talents’.

ὅς: an antecedent such as αὐτοῦ must be supplied. ὅς is here causal ‘in as much as he’ (Latin quippe qui).

τὸν τόπον ὅλον τὸν περιέχοντα τὴν νῆσον: i. e. the mainland of Cilicia and Lycia and possibly Phoenicia. Some editors (see critical note) omit τὴν νῆσον, in which case the phrase will mean the districts of Cyprus round Salamis; this is, however, unnecessary, and the words are a characteristic exaggeration on the part of the author. With the exception of a few colonies, Greek influence in south-eastern Asia Minor was very slight until the time of Alexander the Great.

ἀπροσοίστως καὶ χαλεπῶς εἶχον, ‘were unsociable and intractable’; the Scholiast paraphrases, μὴ προσδεχόμενοί τινας τῶν Ἑλλήνων. For ἔχειν with an adverb see note on ὥσπερ εἶχε, § 30.