Περὶ τῶν Μυστηρίων
] — Date, 399 B.C. — Andocides had laid information, in 415 B.C., against certain persons whom he accused of complicity in the mutilation of the Hermae. He did so on the guarantee of impunity (ἄδεια) which a special decree of the Assembly had given to all who should inform. Subsequently another decree was passed — known as the decree of Isotimides — that all who had committed impiety, and had confessed it, should be excluded from the market-place and the temples. Andocides had returned to Athens under the amnesty of 403 B.C. His accusers now (399 B.C.) charge him with having broken the decree of Isotimides by attending the Mysteries and entering the temple at Eleusis. The form of the accusation is an ἔνδειξις ἀσεβείας, an ‘information’ charging him with impiety. But, in order to prove that he came under the decree of Isotimides, they had to show that he had committed impiety in 415 B.C. His speech is to show that he had not done so, either by profaning the Mysteries or by mutilating the Hermae. The Mysteries, from which it takes its title, is only one of its topics. It would be better described as a Defence on a Charge of Impiety. As to the Mysteries, Andoc. Affirms that he neither profaned them himself nor informed against others as having done so (§§ 11 — 33). But his account of the Hermae affair is the most important part of the speech. (Analysis of the whole in the Attic Orators, I. 117.) 1. The Mutilation of the Hermae — Information laid by Teucrus and Diocleides: §§ 34 — 45.τῶν ἀναθημάτων=τῶν Ἑρμῶν, ‘the images’, as dedicated to the god. Cp. § 62, ὁ Ἑρμῆς...ὃν ἡ Αἰγηὶς (the Aegeid tribe) ἀνέθηκε. The Ἑρμαῖ were plain four-cornered posts surmounted by a head or bust. ἄδειαν εὑρόμενος ‘having obtained special permission’. Teucrus was a μέτοικος who had withdrawn to Megara, and had thence sent word to the Athenian Council that he would give information regarding the Mysteries and the Hermae if he received license to do so (εἴ οἱ ἄδειαν δοῖεν). Thereupon the Council ἐψηφίσατο τὴν ἄδειαν, and sent for him (§ 15). — ἄδεια, technical term for the authorisation required by a non-citizen (μέτοικος, ξένος, δοῦλος) who desired to accuse anyone of an offence against the State, — by an ἄτιμος before he could exercise any civic right, — or by a citizen who proposed to re-enfranchise an ἄτιμος. ἀπογράφει ‘denounces’, in a ‘list’ or ‘return’ (ἀπογραφή) presented to the Βουλή, which the Ecclesia had invested with plenary powers for the occasion (§ 15, αὐτοκράτωρ). οἱ δὲ ς. ἀπέθανον Grote (VII. 268) doubts this assertion (cp. Thuc. VI. 53, 60), but it is incidentally confirmed by the statement ascribed to Charmides in § 49. See Attic Orators, I. 122.
τῶν ζητητῶν ‘The Commission of Inquiry’ specially appointed by the Ecclesia. Cp. § 14, ἦσθα ζητητής, ὦ Διόγνητε, ὅτε Πυθόνικος εἰσήγγειλεν ἐν τῷ δήμῳ περὶ Ἀλκιβιάδου, ‘impeached A. in the Assembly’. ἐπὶ τῇ τοῦ δήμου κ. ‘with a view to the overthrow of the Commonwealth’. δήμου κατάλυσις, the crime of attempting to subvert the democratical government, — often coupled with the more general προδοσία τῆς πόλεως: for each there was a γραφή. Lysias's or. 25 is δήμου καταλύσεως ἀπολογία. τὸ σημεῖον καθέλοι ‘took down the signal’, — displayed from the βουλευτήριον to show that it was time to meet, and taken down when business was about to commence. There was a similar σημεῖον for the Ecclesia (Ar. Thesm. 277) and for the law-courts (Vesp. 690).
εἰσαγγ. εἰς τ. β.] ‘lays an impeachment before the Council’. ὡς δ᾽ ἴδοι, κ.τ.λ. ‘and stated how he had chanced to become an eye-witness of the plot’. ὡς here=ὅτῳ τρόπῳ: below § 40 ὡς ἴδοι=merely ‘that he had seen’.
ἀποφοράν ‘He said that he had a slave at Laurium, and that he had occasion to go for a payment due to him’. ἀποφορά, the ‘return’ or ‘profit’ accruing to the master from the labour of his slave. Aeschin. In Timarch. § 97, (shoemaking slaves) ὧν ἕκαστος τούτῳ δὔ ὀβόλους ἀποφορὰν ἔφερε τῆς ἡμέρας. πανσέληνον Plut. Alcib. 20, εἷς δ᾽ αὐτῶν (the informers) ἐρωτώμενος ὅπως τὰ πρόσωπα τῶν ἑρμοκοπιδῶν γνωρίσειε, καὶ ἀποκρινάμενος ὅτι πρὸς σελήνην, ἐσφάλη τοῦ παντός (made a fatal slip), ἕνης καὶ νέας οὔσης (the new moon) ὅτε ταῦτ᾽ ἐδρᾶτο. So Diod. XIII. 2. Grote (VII. 271) rightly treats this part of the story as a later fiction. If Diocleides had made such a blunder, Andoc. would not have failed to note it’. (Cp. Attic Orators, I. 123.) τὸ προπ. τοῦ Δ., κ.τ.λ. ‘When he had come to the gateway of Dionysus’ [the entrance to the Λήναιον, the enclosure sacred to Dionysus on the S.E. of the Acropolis], ‘he saw several persons descending from the Odeum’ (of Pericles, close to the Dionysiac Theatre on the E.] ‘into the orchestra’ [the open central space of the Theatre]. ‘Afraid of them, he drew into the shade, and crouched down between the pillar and the column with the bronze statue of the General’ [just inside the προπύλαιον, as εἰσελθών seems to indicate, and covered by its shadow]. ἀνὰ πέντε καὶ δέκα ‘in groups of fifteen’.
τοῦθ᾽ ὑπέθετο...ὅπως ‘Thus, in the first place, judges, he assumed this story — a most extraordinary one — in order, I fancy, that it might rest with him to include in this list any Athenian he pleased, or at pleasure to exempt him’. τοῦθ᾽ ὑπέθετο, made this (the story of the moonlight scene) the basis of his evidence: δεινότ. πρ. in appos. with τοῦτο, ‘a most strange’, ‘an incredible affair’. I now prefer this version to rendering: ‘He made this assumption, viz. that it was in his power’, where ὅπως would=ὡς or ὅτι, in sense of ‘that’.
καταλαμβάνειν So below, λέγειν. The infins. might=κατελάμβανον, ἔλεγον, but perhaps represent rather the vivid καταλαμβάνω, λέγω used by Diocleides in his narrative. ἐν τῷ χ. καθ.] ‘sitting in his forge’ — he being a χαλκεύς. τὸ Ἡφαιστεῖον The guild of smiths, and perhaps artisans generally, held the annual festival of the χαλκεῖα to Hephaestus early in Nov. (Pollux VII. 105). The Ἡφαιστεῖον, or temple of H., was on the W. of the Agora, having the Stoa Poecilè just above it (Paus. I. 14. 6). For the custom of taking oaths in a temple, cp. Plat. Prot. 328 C, ἐλθὼν εἰς ἱερόν, ὀμόσας, ὅσου ἂν φῇ ἄξια εἶναι τὰ μαθήματα, τοσοῦτον κατέθηκε. οὔκουν δέοιτο ‘Now, he said, he did not desire’ — oblique for οὔκουν δέομαι, after a secondary tense (ἔφη in § 39). καὶ νῦν ἥκειν κ ‘and said, “Now pray come to the house of L., that you and I may there confer with A. and the other needful persons”.’ Euphemus said: νῦν ἧκέ μοι εἰς τὴν Λ. οἰκίαν: this becomes, Εὔφημος (Διοκλείδην) νῦν ἥκειν οἱ ἐκέλευσε, and, in the oblique form, ἔφη τὸν Εὔφημον νῦν ἥκειν κελεῦσαί οἱ. — οἱ=‘to oblige him’ (Euphemus). κελεύειν does not, in Attic prose, take a dat. of the person commanded.
ἥκειν...κόπτειν The oblique of ἧκον καὶ δὴ ἔκοπτον: ‘He said that the next day he was there [ἧκον=I came promptly or punctually], and was in the act of knocking at the door’: καὶ δή=‘and even now’. ἆρά γε σέ, κ.τ.λ. ‘Are you the visitor whom the company here expect? Well, one ought not to reject such friends — and with these words he was gone’. οἵδε — Andocides and the others who were already at the house of Leogoras: σέ, Diocleides. Acc. to D.'s story, the father of Andoc. gives him a parting hint not to reject the overtures about to be made to him by the conspirators. — ἀπώλλυε, ‘sought to ruin’.
ὅτι βουλεύσοιτο ‘that he would think it over’. He said, βουλεύσομαι: the fut. opt. here, as always, being the oblique of the fut. ind. after a secondary tense. καθομολογήσας, κ.τ.λ. ‘concluded an agreement with us, and gave us pledges on the Acropolis’ (by taking an oath in one of the temples: cp. on § 40). — διαψεύδ. — διδόναι, oblique pres. rather than imperf.: ‘fail to keep our word or to pay’: as ἥκειν for ἥκω rather than ἧκον.
τὸ ἐπὶ Σκαμανδρίου ψήφ A ψήφισμα forbidding that citizens should be put to the torture. A decree of the Βουλή (then temporarily invested with plenary powers) could of course suspend this. — Cp. Herm. Ant. I. § 141. 15. ὅπως μὴ...ἔσται This would be regular in an object-clause (as σκοπῶ ὅπως μὴ ἔσται): here, in a final clause, we should expect rather ὅπως μὴ ᾖ. But the notion of contriving how the object may be attained is uppermost, and so the clause is virtually an object-clause. Xen. Cyr. II. 1. 21, οὐδὲ δι᾽ ἓν ἄλλο τρέφονται ἢ ὅπως μαχοῦνται. Goodwin § 44. 1.
ἐπὶ τὴν ἑστίαν Cp. note on De Red. § 15, p. 222.
ἐξελθοῦσα, κ.τ.λ. ‘The Council, after retiring to a secret conference, had us seized and put in the pillory. Then they summoned the Generals before them’ [ἀνακαλ., up to the βουλευτήριον], ‘and ordered them to proclaim that those Athenians who lived in the city should proceed under arms to the market-place, — those at the Long Walls, to the Theseum, — those in the Peiraeus, to the market-place of Hippodamus; that before dawn the Knights should sound the trumpet-call to the Anakeum; that the Senate should go to the Acropolis, and sleep there; and that the Presidents should sleep in the Rotunda’. — τοὺς δ᾽ ἐν μακρῷ τείχει: cp. Thuc. II. 17, τά τε μακρὰ τείχη ᾤκησαν κατανειμάμενοι καὶ τοῦ Πειραιῶς τὰ πολλά. The sing. here denotes the two main long walls (the ‘Northern’ and the ‘Middle’), with the space enclosed by them, conceived as a district. — Ἱπποδ. ἀγοράν, the market-place of the Peiraeus. — Ἀνάκειον, temple of the Dioscuri (ἄνακες), N.W. of Acropolis. — θόλῳ, a circular building, with dome, near the Βουλευτήριον in the Agora: the Prytanes and γραμματεῖς dined there, Dem. Fals. Legat. § 249. ἐπὶ τοῖς ὁρίοις...ἐξεστ.] ‘had taken the field, and were on the frontier’. ἐδείπνει ‘was entertained’. The privilege of daily σίτησις ἐν Πρυτανείῳ (Ar. Ran. 764) was given either for a limited period or for life (ἀείσιτος): here the imperf. shows that at least more than one day is meant.
2. The Disclosures of Andocides: §§ 48 — 69.
ἐπειδὴ δέ The apodosis is λέγει πρός με X. Compare the prison-scene in Lysias, Agorat. §§ 39 f. ὅτι, Ἀνδοκίδη, κ.τ.λ.] ὅτι redundant before the direct quotation: Xen. Cyr. VII. 3. 3, ἀπεκρίνατο ὅτι, ὦ δέσποτα, κ.τ.λ. Goodwin § 79.οὐδὲν ἐδεόμην ‘I had no wish to speak or to give you pain’. But ἐδεόμην μηδὲν λέγειν, ‘I wished to say nothing’. Cp. § 40, οὔκουν δέοιτο, ‘did not desire’. οἷς γὰρ ἐχρῶ ‘Your other friends (ἐχρῶ) and associates (συνῆσθα), except us your relations’. ἄνευ, ‘besides’, either= ‘except’ (as here), or ‘in addition to’. Cp. Dem. De Cor. § 89, ἄνευ τοῦ καλὴν δόξαν ἐνεγκεῖν, ‘in addition to bringing you fair fame’. So when Caesar says (Bell. Gall. v. 12) of south Britain, Materia (timber) cuiusque generis ut in Gallia est, praeter fagum atque abietem, some render ‘except’; others, ‘in addition to’.
πρῶτον μέν With this series, πρῶτον — εἶτα — ἔπειτα — ἔτι, cp. Soph. El. 261 — 271, πρῶτα — εἶτα — ἔπειτα — τελευταῖον. ἀναγκαίους ‘near relations’. συγγενεῖς is the larger term, including the more distant degrees of kinship: ἀναγκαῖοι (necessarii) are those to whom one is bound by the first, the closest natural ties; as τὰ ἀναγκαῖα are those things with which life cannot dispense.
πότερα περιίδω deliberative subj., to which answers ἢ εἴπω: the tense being, as usu., the aor., since the prospective act will be done once for all, not continued or repeated. But Eur. Ion 758, εἴπωμεν ἢ σιγῶμεν; ‘shall we speak [once for all: aor.]; or keep silence?’ [pres. of the continued act]. ἀλιτ. τῶν θεῶν For genit., cp. Aeschin. Ctes. § 157, ἀλιτήριος τῆς Ἑλλάδος: Thuc. I. 26, τὸ ἄγος τῆς θεᾶς.
ἐτεθνήκεσαν In the 3rd pers. pl. of the pluperf. act., -εσαν, not -εισαν, was the Attic form. παρειλήφεσαν occurs in an inscription of 323 B.C. (Meisterhans, Gramm. d. Attisch. Inschriften, p. 75). In the 3rd pers. sing. of the pluperf., -ει is contracted, of course, from εε, and the post-Attic -εισαν in the 3rd pers. plur. was perhaps an instance of false analogy. (Cp. Curtius, Greek Verb, p. 433 Eng. tr.)
εἶναι τούτων τῶν ἀνδρῶν to belong to their party, to be their confederates. Cp. above, § 41, ἕνα αὐτὸν ἡμῶν εἶναι. εἰ μή τις ἐρεῖ The vivid construction, instead of εἰ μή τις λέξοι or εἴποι, after βέβαιος ἦν. ἀποθανόντας Here, as in § 51, the aor. refers, not to those who had already died (§ 49, οἱ μὲν αὐτῶν τεθνᾶσιν), but to those who were threatened with death. It is stronger than ἀποθνῄσκοντας (cf. ἀπολλυμένους of the same persons in § 51), just as ‘to see them murdered’ is stronger than ‘to see them being murdered’: the aor. pictures the deed as accomplished while he looks on.
κατὰ τῶν ἑταίρων τῶν ἐμαυτοῦ ‘against my own associates’. Here, the word ἑταῖρος seems to bear a merely social sense, referring to a circle of private friends (cp. § 61 πινόντων ἡμῶν). On the other hand, the title of a lost speech by Andocides, Πρὸς τοὺς ἑταίρους, probably indicates the members of the oligarchical ἑταιρεῖαι at Athens (Attic Orators, vol. I. p. 139). For the latter, or political, sense of ἑταῖρος, cp. below, p. 138, § 87. ἐλογοποίουν Cp. Thuc. VI., οὔτε ὄντα οὔτε ἂν γενόμενα λογοποιοῦσιν. So λογοποιός; of one who spreads fictitious news (Theophrastus, Char. VIII).
ἐμοὶ γάρ, ὦ ἄνδρες Andoc. says: — ‘Now, in this trial, judges, nothing is so important for me as that, if acquitted, I should be acquitted with honour: and, further, that the general public (τοὺς ἄλλους ἅπαντας) should understand my whole conduct to have been absolutely free from baseness or cowardice’. He wishes to be pronounced an honourable man (1) by his judges, (2) by οἱ ἄλλοι ἅπαντες. All that would be given by ἀλλὰ πρῶτον μὲν ὑμᾶς, which Blass proposes to insert after κακῷ εἶναι (see crit. note), is already contained in σωθέντι.
φέρε δὴ — χρὴ γάρ ‘Now consider — for a judge ought to examine the facts by a human standard [ἀνθρωπίνως — making allowance for human infirmity], as if the misfortune had been his own — What would any one of you have done?’ ὥσπερ ἂν αὐτὸν ὄντα: i.e. ὥσπερ ἂν (χρείη λογίζεσθαι), αὐτὸν ὄντα (=εἰ αὐτὸς εἴη). A simpler form would have been ὤσπερ ἂν (sc. λογίζοιτο) αὐτὸς ὤν. εἰ μὲν γὰρ ἦν δυοῖν The thought is not completed till the end of § 60, χρήματα ἐλάμβανε. Briefly, it is this: — ‘If it had been a question between noble death and shameful life, my conduct might be condemned. But it was really a question between slaying the innocent by my silence, and saving them at the expense of he guilty, by speaking out. Therefore I spoke’. — In the series of clauses, note these points: — (1) All is plain down to τοῦ καλῶς ἀποθανεῖν. (2) ὅπου δὲ τούτων begins a protasis which has no formal apodosis. The virtual apodosis comes at § 60, (ταῦτα δὲ πάντα σκοπῶν, ‘considering all these things, I say’) εὕρισκον, ‘I found’ that the least evil was to speak. (3) The protasis begun by ὅπου δὲ τούτων is interrupted by the parenthesis Διοκλείδης μὲν γάρ...ὑμῖν ἃ ἤκουσα. Then the consequences of his silence are pursued in ἔτι δὲ...ἀπώλλυον, the long parenthesis having broken the original construction, ἦν σιωπήσαντι μὲν...ἀπολλύναι. (4) The new independent constr. is continued in describing the consequences of his speaking: εἰπὼν δὲ τὰ ὄντα, κ.τ.λ. Then at § 60 comes the result, prefaced by the summary, ταῦτα δὲ πάντα σκοπῶν.
ὅπου δὲ τούτων...μὴ εἰπόντος ‘But here the case was the very reverse: by keeping silence I must have perished ignominiously in my innocence, and must also have permitted the destruction of my father, of my brother-in-law, of all my cousins and relations, whom I and no one else threatened with death, by concealing the guilt of others. The falsehoods of Diocleides had sent them to prison; their only hope of deliverance lay in the Athenians learning the whole truth. I was in danger, therefore, of becoming their murderer, if I failed to tell you what I had heard. I was also in danger of destroying three hundred Athenians, and of involving Athens in the most serious evils. This, then, was the prospect if I were silent’.
καὶ τιμωρήσασθαι The conjectural insertion before these words of καὶ σῶσαί τε ἡμᾶς is as needless as the similar insertion in § 56 (where see n.), since the thought is contained in ὃς ἡμᾶς μὲν ἀπώλλυεν (was seeking to destroy). — ἐκεῖνον follows Διοκλείδην as it often follows αὐτόν, e.g. Plat. Prot. 310 D, ἂν αὐτῷς διδῷς ἀργύριον καὶ πείθῃς ἐκεῖνον: see Shilleto on Thuc. I. 132.
οὐ γένοιτο δι᾽ ἐμέ Notice the opt. γένοιτο preceded by εἰσηγήσατο, ἀντεῖπον, and followed by ἔπεσον, κ.τ.λ. — all depending on ἐξήλεγξα ὅτι. The optative has the effect of presenting this particular statement, not simply as a fact, but as a quotation of what was confessed by the conspirators. It is the oblique form of οὐκ ἐγένετο δι᾽ Ἀνδοκίδην: ‘I proved the facts, — that E. proposed this plan, etc., and that (as they said) it was I who “hindered the plan from being executed at the time”.’ ἐν Κυνοσάργει] τὸ Κυνόσαργες, a gymnasium, with a sanctuary of Heracles, on the E. side of Athens, near the Διομεία πύλη. τὴν κλεῖν συνετρίβην ‘broke my collar-bone’: Dem. or. 18 § 67, τὴν κλεῖν κατεαγότα. — τὴν κεφαλὴν κατεάγην (α_ in Attic), ‘cut my head’: Ar. Ach. 1180, καὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς κατέαγε περὶ λίθον πεσών (partit. genit., — the more usual construction in this phrase).
τὸν Ἑ. τὸν παρὰ τὸ Φ.] ‘The Hermes by the Phorbanteum’ — the ἡρῷον of Phorbas, perh. the hero of that name worshipped in Rhodes as having banished snakes from the island (Diod. v. 58), and also famed in myth as a boxer (schol. ad Hom. Il. XXIII. 660, etc.). The idea of παρά with accus., in such general indications of position, is — ‘that which one sees when one goes past’ the place. We may render it ‘by’. παρά with dat., ‘beside’, is more precise.
δεινὰ ἐποίουν ‘On finding this out, the conspirators were furious that I should know of the deed without having had a hand in it’. The more usual phrase, δεινὸν ποιοῦμαί τι,=‘to regard a thing as monstrous’, ‘to feel indignant at it’. On the other hand, δεινὰ ποιῶ (lit., ‘to do dreadful things’), refers to the external manifestation of horror or grief by gestures, cries, etc.: Her. III. 14, κλαιόντων καὶ δεινὰ ποιεύντων ‘weeping, and displaying anguish’: Thuc. v. 42, λεγομένων δὲ τούτων οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι δεινὰ ἐποίουν, ‘exclaimed’, ‘raised an outcry’. δι᾽ ἡμᾶς ob nos proditos. ‘Otherwise our enmity will be more effectual than any friendships that you can make by betraying us’.
αὐτοῖς...ἐκείνοις For ἐκείνοις following αὐτοῖς in reference to the same persons, see note on § 60. ὡς οὖν...ἐκεῖνοι ‘In support of this statement, I gave up my own slave for the torture, (to prove) that I had been ill’, [imperf., was at the past time in question,] ‘and unable even to leave my bed; and the Presidents received [for examination] the female slaves in the house from which the conspirators set forth to begin their work’. ὅθεν=ἐκ τῆς οἰκίας ἐξ ἧς.
φράσας ‘on condition of revealing’. Φηγούσιον Of the deme of Phegeus near Marathon.
λαβόντες τὰ ὅπλα ἀπ ‘and you yourselves’ (αὐτοί, the Athenian citizens generally, as represented by the court) ‘took up your arms and went home’. The order given in the panic had been, τοὺς μὲν ἐν ἄστει οἰκοῦντας ἰέναι εἰς τὴν ἀγορὰν τὰ ὅπλα λαβόντας, κ.τ.λ., § 45.
πίστιν τῶν ἐν ἀ. ἀπιστοτάτην ‘The most traitorous of all possible compacts’: πίστιν, the pledge given by the conspirators to each other: ἀπιστοτάτη, most disloyal to the State. Cp. Aesch. Theb. 1021, ταφέντ᾽ ἀτίμως τοὐπιτίμιον λαβεῖν. τότε δέ We might expect τότε δή, tum demum, then and not sooner: but the thought is (πρότερον μὲν) συνέκρυψα, τότε δὲ ἀπέγρ. Cp. § 34, note on ἀπογράφει.
σὺ δέ, κ.τ.λ. To the γραμματεύς of the Court. ‘Clerk, call the persons themselves who were released by my means’. μέχρι τούτου ‘They will come up and give evidence for as long as you desire to listen to it’. III. ΠΕΡΙ ΤΗΣ ΠΡΟΣ ΛΑΚΕΔΑΙΜΟΝΙΟΥΣ ΕΙΡΗΝΗΣ. — The speech On the Peace with Lacedaemon belongs to 390 B.C., the fourth year of the Corinthian War. Athens, Boeotia, Corinth and Argos were at this time allied against Sparta. The success of Agesilaus in 391 had led the Athenians, probably in the winter of 391 — 90 B.C., to send plenipotentiaries, among whom was Andocides, to treat for peace at Sparta. According to the terms proposed by the Lacedaemonians, Athens was to retain her Long Walls — rebuilt three years before by Conon — and her fleet; she was also to recover Lemnos, Imbros and Scyros: and Boeotia was to be gratified by the withdrawal of the Spartan garrison from Orchomenus. The plenipotentiaries did not use their powers, but requested that the Athenian ecclesia might have forty days in which to consider these proposals; and returned, accompanied by Spartan envoys, to Athens. It was in the ensuing debate — early in the year 390 — that the speech of Andocides was made. — Attic Orators, I. 83. The genuineness of the speech has been questioned, but without sufficient reason. One passage of it (§§ 3 — 12) was adopted, with slight modifications, by Aeschines (De Fals. Legat. §§ 172 — 176). See Attic Orators, I. 129. Andoc. first shows that a peace with Sparta is not a danger to the Athenian democracy (§§ 1 — 12). He then argues that there is no good reason for continuing the war, and that the proposed terms are peculiarly advantageous to Athens (§§ 13 — 23). If the Boeotians make peace on their own account, Athens will be left with one weak ally, Corinth, and another of which the policy is thoroughly selfish — Argos (§§ 24 — 27). §§ 28 — 41 (end). Alliance with Sparta is better than alliance with Argos. — Objections to the Peace answered.
τοιούτων δ᾽ ἐλπ. μ.] ‘Committed, as we are, to such prospects, we have to choose between joining the Argives in war against Sparta, and joining the Boeotians in making a peace for the common interest’. τ. ἐλπ. μετασχ., ‘having become sharers in such hopes’, i.e. having entered into alliance with States which have such objects in view as Argos and Boeotia have respectively. Argos hoped to get Corinth if the war were prolonged (§ 27): Boeotia was likely to make peace on its own account with Sparta (§ 24). — κοινῇ: cp. § 27, μετὰ πάντων τῶν συμμάχων τὴν εἰρήνην ποιουμένους. δι᾽ ἡμᾶς αὐτούς for our own sakes, opp. to δι᾽ ἑτέρους. The words might also mean ‘through our own exertions’. In De Myst. § 63, δι᾽ ἡμᾶς=‘on account of (betraying) us’.
χρὴ γὰρ ἀναμνησθέντας The partic. here expresses the thought on which the chief stress falls. ‘For if we are to take a prudent decision, we must refresh our memory of the past’. Cp. Her. VIII. 129, ἔτι δὲ τρεῖς (μοῖραι) ὑπόλοιποι ἦσαν, τὰς διελθόντας χρἦν εἶναι ἔσω ἐν τῇ Παλλήνῃ, ‘which they must traverse before arriving in Pallenè’. Thuc. I. 20, δράσαντές τι καὶ κινδυνεῦσαι, i.e. ‘to do something if they must risk their lives’ (and Shilleto's note): IV. 11, τὰς σφετέρας ναῦς βιαζομένους τὴν ἀπόβασιν καταγνύναι, ‘to force the passage, though they must wreck their ships in doing it’. ἃ ἡμῖν ἐπρέσβευσεν...πειθόμενοι ‘listening to the overtures made to us by Epilycus, on behalf of Amorges, — the slave of the Great King, and an exile’: lit., ‘as to the proposals made us by the envoy E. — in regard to these complying with Amorges’, obeying his wishes. Amorges, son of the satrap Pissuthnes, revolted from Dareius II. [regn. 424 — 405 B.C.] and established himself in Iasus, a sea-board town of Caria. In 412 B.C. the Peloponnesians took Iasus, and delivered Amorges to Tissaphernes: Thuc. VIII. 28: Grote VII. 504, 535.
Συρακούσιοι δ᾽ In 427 B.C. the chief Ionic cities of Sicily — viz. Leontini, Naxos and Catana — in alliance with the Dorian Camarina, sent an embassy to Athens, with Gorgias at its head, asking aid against Syracuse. This was the occasion of the first Athenian expedition to Sicily in 427 B.C.: a second was sent in 425, and a third in 422. The application of Egesta for help against Selinus led to the great expedition of 415 B.C. Andoc. seems to be thinking of the embassies sent by the Ionic Siceliots, and to imagine that a rival embassy had been sent by Syracuse — which was not the case. ἡμεῖς τοίνυν εἱλόμ ‘Well, we chose then also’: τοίνυν ‘so’, ‘accordingly’, i.e. with our usual perversity. ἀντὶ τοῦ μένοντες...ἔχειν The rule that the subject of the infin. stands in the nominative, if it is identical with the subject of the principal verb, holds good even when the infin. takes the article: Plat. Rep. 526 B, εἴς γε τὸ ὀξύτεροι αὐτοὶ αὑτῶν γίγνεσθαι πάντες ἐπιδιδόασιν: Ib. 598 D, ἐξηπατήθη διὰ τὸ αὐτὸς μὴ οἷός τ᾽ εἶναι επιστήμην...ἐξετάσαι. ἀριστίνδην lit. ‘merit-wise’: αἱρεῖσθαι ἀριστίνδην (Arist. Pol. II. 11. 3) to choose (magistrates) by merit: so πλουτίνδην. Here the idea is that the best men were chosen out (by destiny) for destruction. ‘Having lost the very flower of our citizens and allies’. Cp. Her. VI. 21, “Μιλήσιοι πάντες ἡβηδὸν ῾φρομ τηε ψουτη υπωαρδς — αλλ τηε αδυλτς᾿ ἀπεκείραντο τὰς κεφαλάς”. αἰσχ. δ. οἱ σωθέντες αὐτ.] Not a formal anacolouthon: but we can see that the speaker's thought has changed its direction. He began the sentence as if it were to end in some such way as ὀλίγους εἴδομεν σωθέντας. Thuc. VII. 87, ὀλίγοι ἀπὸ πολλῶν ἐπ᾽ οἴκου ἀπενόστησαν.
ὕστερον δ᾽ ὑπ᾽ Ἀργ.] ὕστερον can be justified only if Andoc. refers to the beginning of Athenian intervention (427 — 422 B.C.) in the affairs of Sicily. The events noticed here occurred before the Sicilian expedition of 415 B.C. εἰρήνης ἡμῖν οὔσης: the Peace of Nicias, 422 B.C. — πλεύσαντες ἐπὶ τὴν Λακωνικήν: an allusion to the expedition against Epidaurus in which the Argives were assisted by the Athenians under Alcibiades (419 B.C., Thuc. v. 52 — 54): ἐκκαλεῖν αὐτ. τὸν θυμόν, because the Spartans retaliated by invading Argos, thus opening the campaign which was closed by the battle of Mantineia (418 B.C.) and an alliance between Argos and Sparta. ἐξ οὗ πολεμήσαντες Andoc. regards the aid given by Athens to Argos in 419 B.C. as the origin of the renewed war which ended in the final defeat of Athens. But the Sicilian Expedition came after (not, as he seems to think, before) this event, and it was the result of that expedition which led up to the Δεκελεικὸς πόλεμος (413 — 404 B.C.).
τοῦτο ὑπόλοιπον ironical: all that is needed to complete the list of our follies. Κορινθίων δὲ τοὺς ν. ἔχ.] ‘The Corinthian party which now holds the city’=the war-party, who were in the closest alliance with Argos, as opposed to the Philo-laconian or peace-party led by Pasimêlus. The present rulers of Corinth, Andoc. means, are mere instruments of Argive ambition. See Grote IX. 462 f.
τοσαύτην explained by φασὶ γάρ instead of ὥστε φάναι. Cp. below, p. 69, § 19, line 6. τὰς τετταράκονθ᾽ ἡμ The forty days for which the Athenian plenipotentiaries at Sparta had asked, in order that they might refer the proposed terms to the Athenian Ecclesia. — ἡμᾶς, the envoys, of whom Andoc. had been one. τὴν ἀσφ. ἡμῶν τῆς ἐπαναφορᾶς ‘The precaution taken by us in making the reference’: cp. Thuc. III. 47, τὸ Κλέωνος τὸ αὐτὸ δίκαιον καὶ ξύμφορον τῆς τιμωρίας, Cleon's view that the punishment is both just and expedient.
λανθάνοντα, κ.τ.λ. ‘must hoodwink and beguile the multitude, if he is to bring them to face dangers’: see note on § 29, ἀναμνησθέντας. στῆλαι slabs set up in public places inscribed with the terms of treaties, etc.: κατὰ τὴν στήλην, Ar. Av. 1051, ‘acc. to the compact’: στ. αἱ πρὸς Θηβαίους, their treaty with Thebes, Dem. Megalop. § 27. — ταῦτα δέ, ‘in regard to these’ (δέ in apodosis,=‘on the other hand’).
γράμματα τὰ γεγραμμ ‘the letter of the terms’: cp. § 40. ὑπονοεῖν, κ.τ.λ. ‘In regard to what is at your disposal’ (ἑτοίμων, the advantages offered by the Spartan terms), ‘it is your habit to feel misgivings and to raise objections’.
ὅπου — τροφήν] ὅπου=‘and in such a case’. ‘Such is the choice now; and some people are already saying that they do not understand the meaning of the Convention, if the city is merely to get walls and ships: “we do not recover our possessions on foreign soil”, they argue, “and stone walls do not give us bread”.’ — ἐκ τῆς ὑπερορίας: Athenian possessions abroad, esp. in Thrace and the Chersonese, of which Athens had been deprived at the end of the Peloponnesian War. Cp. § 15, φέρε, ἀλλὰ Χερρόνησον καὶ τὰς ἀποικίας καὶ τὰ ἐγκτήματα (property acquired in a foreign land) καὶ τὰ χρέα (debts) ἵνα ἀπολάβωμεν. Xen. Mem. II. 8 § 1 (where the speaker refers to the end of the War), ἐπειδὴ...ἀφῃρέθην μὲν τὰ ἐν τῇ ὑπερορίᾳ κτήματα, ἐν δὲ τῇ Ἀττικῇ ὁ πατήρ μοι οὐδὲν κατέλιπεν.
ὧν — ταῦτα] ὧν=τῶν ἀγαθῶν: ταῦτα=τείχη καὶ ναῦς. — ταύτην, κ.τ.λ.: ‘These were the resources from which our fathers set out’. πριάμενοι from aor. ἐπριάμην: pres. in use, ὠνέομαι.
Ἀθήνησι ποιής ‘To make Athens the seat of the Board which administered the common fund’ (of the Delian Confederacy), derived from the φόρος of the members; Thuc. I. 95 — 96. The transference of the fund from Delos to Athens is said to have been proposed — not, as Andoc. implies here, by the Athenians — but by the Samians (Plut. Arist. 25): Grote v. 465. λαθόντες δὲ Πελ In 479 B.C., when the walls of Athens were rebuilt and the Peiraeus was fortified. λαθόντες: alluding to the artifices by which Themistocles gained time, Thuc. I. 90 f. Grote v. 331. πριάμ. π. Λακεδ.] The statement that Athens ‘bought impunity’ from Sparta is not only baseless but absurd. It seems to refer to the Thirty Years' Truce between Athens and Sparta (445 B.C.) by which Athens gave up Achaia, Troezen and the harbours of Megara: see Grote v. 475. ὀγδοήκοντα καὶ πέντε i.e. from the battle of Marathon (490 B.C.) to the battle of Aegospotami (405 B.C.): since the policy by which Themistocles made Athens a naval power dated from the close of the first Persian invasion.
ἐνέχυρα as pledges against the restoration of the Athenian ἀρχή: Xen. Hellen. II. 2. 19, 20. τὰ τείχη καὶ ναῦς The Long Walls (except the Phaleric wall) had been restored by Conon in 393 B.C. — ναῦς, without the art., because a fleet had yet to be created under the terms imposed by Sparta in 404 B.C. Athens had retained only 12 ships, acc. to § 12 of this speech.
πᾶσί τε τοῖς γεγρ ‘And we can have a peace on the basis of all the terms thus defined’: i.e. any new terms proposed by Athenian critics of the treaty can be added to those already formulated (προσγράφεσθαι).
τούτων δ᾽...ἡμᾶς ‘And the decision on these questions is with you’ (the ἐκκλησία), ‘and does not depend on the Lacedaemonians — thanks to us’ (the envoys, who asked for the forty days). πρεσβευτάς i.e. πρεσβευτὰς αὐτοκράτορας. The plur. of πρεσβευτής is usually πρέσβεις, but πρεσβευταί in Thuc. VIII. 77, 86. οὗτος ὁ πρεσβ ‘He is the true plenipotentiary’.
