The Public Orations of Demosthenes Volume II Part 7

-- 27. _Menelaus_. Either a Macedonian chieftain, who had a.s.sisted the Athenian commander Timotheus against Poteidaea in 364, and probably received Athenian citizenship; or else Philip's half-brother Menelaus. But there is no evidence that the latter ever served in the Athenian forces, and probably the former is meant.

-- 31. _Etesian winds_. These blow strongly from the north over the Aegean from July to September.

-- 33. _the whole force in its entirety_. So with Butcher's punctuation.

But it is perhaps better to place a comma after [Greek: _dynamin_], and translate, 'after making ready ... soldiers, ships, cavalry--the entire force complete--you bind them,' &c.

-- 34. See Introd. to the Speech. Geraestus was the southernmost most point of Euboea. The 'sacred trireme', the Paralus, when conveying the Athenian deputation to the Festival of Delos, put in on its way at Marathon, where there was an altar of the Delian Apollo, to offer sacrifice.

-- 35. The festival of the Panathenaea was managed by the Athlothetae, who were appointed by lot, and consequently could not be specially qualified; whereas the stewards ([Greek: _epimel_etai_]) who a.s.sisted the Archon in the management of the Dionysia, were at this time elected, presumably on the ground of their fitness.

_an amount of trouble_ ([Greek: _ochlon_]). Possibly 'a larger crowd'. But there is no point in mentioning the crowd; the point lies in the pains taken; and Thucyd. vi. 24 ([Greek: _upo tou ochl_odous t_es parhaskeu_es_]) confirms the rendering given.

-- 36. The ch.o.r.egus paid the expenses of a chorus at the Dionysiac (and certain other) festivals. The gymnasiarchs, or stewards of the games, managed the games and torch-races which formed part of the Panathenaea and many other festivals. The offices were imposed by law upon men who possessed a certain estate, but any one who felt that another could bear the burden better might challenge him either to perform the duty or to exchange property with him. (See Appendix to Goodwin's edition of Demosthenes' Speech against Meidias.)

_independent freedmen_: lit. 'dwellers apart,' i.e. freedmen who no longer lived with the master whose slaves they had been.

-- 43. _empty ships_. If these are the ships referred to in Olynth. III, Section 4, the date of the First Philippic must be later than October 351 B.C.

-- 46. _promises_. The 'promises of Chares' became almost proverbial.

-- 47. _examination_, or 'audit'. A general, like every other responsible official, had to report his proceedings, at the end of his term of office, to a Board of Auditors, and might be prosecuted before a jury by any one who was dissatisfied with his report.

-- 48. _negotiating with Sparta, &c_. As a matter of fact, Philip had evidently come to an understanding with Thebes by this time; but he may have caused some such rumours to be spread, in order to get rid of any possible opposition from Sparta. The 'breaking-up of the free states'

probably refers to the desire of Sparta to destroy Megalopolis, which was in alliance with Thebes.

_sent amba.s.sadors to the king_. Arrian, ii. 14, mentions a letter of Darius to Alexander, recalling how Philip had been in friendship and alliance with Artaxerxes Ochus. It is possible, therefore, that the rumour to which Demosthenes alludes had some foundation.

THE FIRST OLYNTHIAC

(_Note_.--Most of the allusions in the Olynthiacs are explained by the Introduction to the First Philippic.)

-- 4. _power over everything, open or secret_. The translation generally approved, 'power to publish or conceal his designs,' is hardly possible.

The [Greek: kai] in the phrase [Greek: rh_eta kai aporr_eta] (or [Greek: arr_eta]) cannot be taken disjunctively here, when it is always conjunctive in this phrase elsewhere, the whole phrase being virtually equivalent to 'everything whatever'.

-- 5. _how he treated_, &c. The scholiast says that Philip killed the traitors at Amphipolis first, saying that if they had not been faithful to their own countrymen, they were not likely to be faithful to himself; and that the traitors at Pydna, finding that they were not likely to be spared, took sanctuary, and having been persuaded to surrender themselves on promise of their lives, were executed nevertheless. Neither story is confirmed by other evidence.

-- 8. _in aid of the Euboeans_: in 358 or 357. See Speech for Megalopolitans, -- 14 n.

-- 13. _Magnesia_. There seems to have been a town of the same name as the district.

_attacked the Olynthians_. This refers to the short invasion of 351 (see vol. i, p. 70), not to that which is the subject of the Olynthiacs.

_Arybbas_ was King of the Molossi, and uncle of Philip's wife, Olympias.

Nothing is known of this expedition against him. He was deposed by Philip in 343. (See vol. ii, p. 3.)

-- 17. _these towns_: the towns of the Chalcidic peninsula, over which Olynthus had acquired influence. This sentence shows that Olynthus itself had not yet been attacked.

-- 26. _But, my good Sir_, &c. This must be the objection of an imaginary opponent. It can hardly be taken (as seems to be intended by Butcher) as Demosthenes' reply to the question, 'Or some other power?' ('But, my good Sir, the other power will not want to help him.') There is, however, much to be said for Sandys's punctuation, [Greek: _ean m_e bo_eth_es_eth umeis _e allos tis_], 'unless you or some other power go to their aid.' After the death of Onomarchus in 352, the Phocians were incapable of withstanding invasion without help.

THE SECOND OLYNTHIAC

-- 14. _Timotheus, &c_. In 364 an Athenian force under Timotheus invaded the territory of the Olynthian League, and took Torone, Poteidaea, and other towns, with the help of Perdiccas, King of Macedonia.

_ruling dynasty_: i.e. the dynasty of Lycophron and Peitholaus at Pherae.

(See Introd. to First Philippic.)

-- 28. _this war_: i.e. the war with Philip generally. The reference is supposed to be to the conduct of Chares in 356 (cf. Phil. I, Section 24 ii.), though in fact it was against the revolted allies, not against Philip, that he had been sent. Sigeum was a favourite resort of Chares, and it is conjectured that he may have obtained possession of Lampsacus and Sigeum (both on the Asiatic sh.o.r.e of the h.e.l.lespont) in 356. The explanation of the conduct of the generals is to be found in the fact that in Asia Minor they could freely appropriate prizes of war and plunder, since under the terms of the Peace of Antalcidas, Athens could claim nothing in Asia for her own.

-- 29. _taxes by Boards_. Each of the Boards const.i.tuted in 378-377 for the collection of the war-tax (see vol. i, p. 31) had a leader or chairman ([Greek: __hegem_on_]), one of the 300 richest men in Athens, whose duty it was to advance the sums required by the State, recovering them afterwards from the other members of the Boards. Probably the Three Hundred were divided equally among the 100 Boards, a leader, a 'second', and a 'third'

(Speech on Crown, -- 103) being a.s.signed to each. The 'general' here perhaps corresponds to the 'second'.

THE THIRD OLYNTHIAC

-- 4. _two or three years ago_ (lit. 'this is the third or fourth year since). It was in November 352 B.C. If the present Speech was delivered before November 349, not quite three years would have elapsed. (The Greek words, [Greek: triton _he tetarton etos touti], must, on the a.n.a.logy of the Speech against Meidias, -- 13, against Stepha.n.u.s, II. -- 13, and against Aphobus, I. -- 24, &c., mean 'two or three', not 'three or four years ago'). The vagueness of the expression is more likely to be due to the date of the Third Olynthiac being not far short of three years from that of the siege of Heraeon Teichos, than to the double-dating (on the one hand by actual lapse of time, and on the other by archon-years--from July to July--or by military campaigning seasons) which most commentators a.s.sume to be intended here, but which seems to me over-subtle and unlike Demosthenes.

_that year_: i.e. the archonship of Aristodemus, which ran from July 352 B.C. to July 351.

-- 5. _the mysteries_. These were celebrated from the 14th to the 27th of Boedromion (late in September).

_Charidemus_, of Oreus in Euboea, was a mercenary leader who had served many masters at different times--Athens, Olynthus, Cotys, and Cersobleptes--and had played most of them false at some time or other. But he was given the citizenship in 357 for the part which he had taken in effecting the cession of the Chersonese to Athens, and was a favourite with the people. He was sent on the occasion here referred to with ten ships, for which he was to find mercenary soldiers.

-- 6. _with might ... power_. A quotation, probably from the text of the treaty of alliance between Athens and Olynthus.

-- 8. _funds of the Phocians are exhausted_. The Phocian leader Phalaecus had been using the temple-treasures of Delphi, but they were now exhausted.

-- 10. _a Legislative Commission_: i.e. a Special Commission on the model of the regular Commission which was appointed annually from the jurors for the year (if the a.s.sembly so decreed), and before which those who wished to make or to oppose changes in the laws appeared, the proceedings taking the form of a prosecution and defence of the laws in question. The a.s.sembly itself did not legislate, though it pa.s.sed decrees, which had to be consistent with the existing laws. As regards legislation, it merely decided whether in any given year alterations in the laws should or should not be allowed.

-- 11. _malingerers_. The scholiast says that the ch.o.r.egi were persuaded to choose persons as members of their choruses, in order to enable them to escape military service, ch.o.r.eutae being legally exempted. Other exemptions also existed.

-- 12. _persons who proposed them_. This can only refer to Eubulus and his party.

-- 20. _Corinthians and Megareans_. From the pseudo-Demosthenic Speech on the Const.i.tution ([Greek: _pe_ri suntaxe_os_]) and from Philochorus (quoted in the Scholia of Didymus upon that Speech) it appears that the Athenians had in 350 invaded Megara, under the general Ephialtes, and forced the Megareans to agree to a delimitation of certain land sacred to the two G.o.ddesses of Eleusis, which the Megareans had violated, perhaps for some years past (see Speech against Aristocrates, -- 212). A scholiast also refers to the omission by Corinth to invite the Athenians to the Isthmian games, in consequence of which the Athenians sent an armed force to attend the games. Probably this was also a recent occurrence, and due to an understanding between Corinth and Megara.

-- 21. _my own namesake_: i.e. Demosthenes, who was a distinguished general during the Peloponnesian War, and perished in the Sicilian expedition.

-- 24. _for forty-five years_: i.e. between the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars, 476-431 B.C.

_the king_: i.e. Perdiccas II, who, however, took the side of Sparta shortly after the beginning of the Peloponnesian War. He died in 413. (The date of the beginning of his reign is unknown, but he did not become sole king of the whole of Macedonia until 436.)

-- 27. _Spartans had been ruined_: sc. by the battles of Leuctra (in 371) and Mantineia (in 362).

_Thebans had their hands full_, owing to the war with the Phocians, from 356 onwards.

-- 28. _in the war_, when Athens joined Thebes against Sparta (in 378).

'The allies' are those members of the Second Delian League (formed in 378) who had been lost in the Social War which ended in or about 355, when Athens was at peace with Thebes and Sparta. (See Introduction, vol. i, p.

9.)