Κατὰ Ἀγοράτου
. [Or. XIII.] — Agoratus, son of a slave, had gained the Athenian citizenship by pretending (falsely, his accuser says) to have had a hand in the assassination of Phrynichus in 411 B.C. (§ 76.) For six years afterwards he had lived at Athens, exercising the trade of an informer, and laying ‘all conceivable indictments’ (τὰς ἐξ ἀνθρώπων γραφάς, § 73) before the law-courts. He is now charged with having slandered away the lives of several distinguished citizens just before the establishment of the Thirty. It was in the spring of 404 B.C. that Theramenes came back from Sparta with the hard conditions of peace. Athens had been suffering for months the extreme of famine and misery; the mass of citizens were thankful for relief on any terms. But there were still a few men, influential by their position and services, who stood out against the bargain which the oligarchical party were about to strike with Sparta. The oligarchs, impatient to get rid of their opponents, had recourse to the aid of Agoratus. It was arranged that he should himself be charged with plotting to defeat the peace, and should then denounce a certain number of other persons as his accomplices. One Theocritus accused him before the Senate. A party of Senators went to the Peiraeus to arrest him. Agoratus, feigning alarm, took sanctuary at the altar in the temple of Artemis at Munychia. Certain citizens who suspected him to be the victim, or the agent, of a plot, gave bail for him, and offered to take him out of Attica to await quieter times. He declined this proposal, and appeared before the Senate to give information. He denounced, first, the men who had bailed him; then several of the Generals and taxiarchs (§ 13), among whom were the General Strombichides, Dionysodorus (kinsman of the accuser in this case), and probably Eucrates the brother of Nicias; also a number of other citizens. These, with Agoratus himself, were imprisoned; and it was decreed that they should be tried both by the Senate and by a special court of Two Thousand. Immediately afterwards the peace with Sparta was ratified. The government of the Thirty having been established, the prisoners were tried; but not by the Two Thousand; only by a new oligarchical Senate. They were all condemned to death, except Agoratus, who was banished. In 404 B.C. he joined the democratic exiles at Phylè, and afterwards returned to Athens with them; but appears to have been ill received (§ 77). He is now accused of murder by Dionysius, cousin and brother-in-law to Dionysodorus. The procedure was by ἔνδειξις (information) laid before the archon, followed by ἀπαγωγή (summary arrest) — just as in the case of Herodes (see introd. to Antiph. De Caed. Her., p. 208). — Date about 399 B.C. — Attic Orators, I. 269 f.Narrative: §§ 5 — 48.
οὐ πολλ. χρ. ὕστ.] The capture of 170 Athenian triremes by the Peloponnesians under Lysander at Aegospotami took place about Sept. 405 B.C. (Grote VIII. 297): Lysander next took measures to secure Byzantium, Chalcedon, Lesbos, etc., establishing ‘dekarchies’: and it was about Nov. 405 B.C. when he arrived with his fleet of 200 triremes in the Saronic Gulf (ib. 307). λόγοι...περὶ τῆς εἰρήνης The Athenians ‘proposed to Agis to become allies of Sparta, retaining their walls entire and their fortified harbour of Peiraeus’: Grote VIII. 308. Agis referred the envoys to the Ephori, who would not even receive them: Xen. H. II. 2. 11 — 15. — τῆς εἰρήνης, ‘peace’, not ‘the peace’: see In Eratosth. § 97, τὸν θάνατον, note, p. 258.εἰληφέναι καὶ μάλιστ᾽ <ἂν> ... καταστήσασθαι ‘thinking that they had found an excellent opportunity, and that this was the moment at which they were most likely to constitute the government in accordance with their own views’. It seems better thus to add ἄν than to alter the aor. inf. into καταστήσεσθαι. One of the two remedies is required. For we cannot render — ‘that they had found an...opportunity to constitute the gov. as much as possible (καὶ μάλιστα）’ etc...as if καταστ. depended on εἰληφ. καιρόν. And here νομίζοντες καταστήσασθαι could mean nothing but ‘thinking that they had constituted’. Cp. Olympiacus § 2 (p. 50), note on <ἂν> γενέσθαι.
ταξιαρχοῦντας The commanders of the tribal infantry (ταξίαρχοι) would have democratic sympathies, while the ἱππεῖς, with their tribal commanders (φύλαρχοι), would, as the wealthier class, be the natural allies of oligarchy. Cp. Arist. Pol. VI [IV] 3. § 3, ὅσαις πόλεσιν ἐν τοῖς ἵπποις ἡ δύναμις ἦν, ὀλιγαρχίαι παρὰ τούτοις ἦσαν: and ib. 13. § 10. ἁμωσγέπως ‘by some means or other’. Lys. or. XXIV. De Inval. § 20, ἅπαντες γὰρ εἴθισθε προσφοιτᾶν καὶ διατρίβειν ἁμοῦ γέ που. Cp. ἁμόθεν. On the stem ἁμο — perh. akin to that of εἷς — see Curt. Gr. Etym. 600. βούλοιντο might represent either ἃ βούλονται or ἃ ἂν βούλωνται: here it represents the latter. Κλεοφῶντι] ὁ λυροποιός, — the demagogue who led the popular party at this time: Lys. or. XIX. § 48, Κλεοφῶντα δὲ πάντες ἴστε ὅτι πολλὰ ἔτη διεχείρισε τὰ τῆς πόλεως πάντα καὶ προσεδοκᾶτο πάμπολλα ἐκ τῆς ἀρχῆς ἔχειν (and yet died poor).
ἐπὶ δέκα στάδια i.e. to the length of about a mile and a quarter. οἷόν τε εἴη oblique of ἐστί (not of ἦν). Acc. to Aeschin. Fals. Legat. § 76, Cleophon threatened ‘to cut off the head of anyone who mentioned peace’.
λέγει ὅτι...εὑρήσεσθαι ‘He says that, if they appoint him envoy with plenary powers to treat for peace, he will effect a peace (ποιήσειν, sc. εἰρήνην) on such terms (ὥστε) that no breach shall be made in the walls, and that Athens shall suffer no detriment whatever: and “I think”, he added, “that I shall even obtain some further advantage for the city from the Lacedaemonians”.’ ποιεῖν εἰρήνην, Xen. Cyr. III. 2. 12. — ποιήσειν ὥστε might (less well) be taken as=‘to effect that’ no breach shall be made: cp. Isocr. Adv. Soph. § 1, πεποιήκασιν ὥστε δοκεῖν, κ.τ.λ. For ποιήσειν instead of ποιήσει (or -οι) after ὅτι, cp. Xen. Cyr. II. 4. 15, ἀκούω ὅτι...γενέσθαι (for ἐγένοντο). — οἴοιτο depending on ὅτι: he said οἴομαι: cp. Soph. Phil. 617. — The subject to διελεῖν, ἐλαττῶσαι is not τοὺς Λακεδ. understood, but αὐτόν, Theramenes.
τῷ προτέρῳ ἔτει In 405 B.C. — prob. on the occasion when three new στρατηγοί were appointed (Xen. H. II. 1. 16). The people were doubtless disgusted with his conduct the year before, when he had been active in procuring the judicial murder of the Generals after Arginusae. Thirlwall thinks that in that affair Theramenes was the agent of an oligarchical plot (IV. 138).
ἐλθὼν εἰς Λακ. — πολὺν χρόνον Theramenes went first to Lysander, who was now blockading the Peiraeus [Xen. H. II. 2. 9], and remained with him ‘three months or more’, on the pretext that L. detained him. In the fourth month, at his own request, he was sent to Lacedaemon as a plenipotentiary, with nine colleagues: Xen. H. II. 2. 16 f. Lysias omits the visit to Lysander, and represents the long sojourn of Ther. as made at Sparta (ἐκεῖ). διαθείη...ἀπόρως ‘reduce you to destitution’, — by the pressure of famine, which was already severe when he left Athens (ᾤοντο...πολλοὺς τῷ λιμῷ ἀπολεῖσθαι, Xen. H. II. 2. 14). — ἀπόρως is not indispensable, but neither is it, I think, a gloss.
οὐκ ἦλθεν εἰς τὰ ὅπλα ἀναπ ‘because he did not come to pass the night at his post’: cp. Xen. H. II. 4. 24, ἐξεκάθευδον δὲ καὶ οἱ ἱππεῖς ἐν τῷ Ὠιδείῳ. So in the panic of 415 B.C. the hoplites were ordered to muster under arms in the agora (and bivouac there), Andoc. De Myst. § 45 (p. 35), note. For τὰ ὅπλα as=‘the place where the arms are piled’, ‘the camp’, cp. Xen. Anab. III. 1 § 3, ἐπὶ δὲ τὰ ὅπλα πολλοὶ οὐκ ἦλθον ταύτην τὴν νύκτα, ἀνεπαύοντο δὲ ὅπου ἐτύγχανεν ἕκαστος. ἐκείνῳ...ταύτῃ ‘So, having contrived the appointment of a court to try him, and having taken seats in it themselves, the promoters of the oligarchy put Cleophon to death by means of this pretext’. Acc. to Lysias or. XXX. §§ 10 f., the βουλή, with the corrupt connivance of Nicomachus (then a νομοθέτης), claimed a legal right to sit in judgment along with the dikasts — ὡς χρὴ τὴν βουλὴν συνδικάζειν. Cleophon had already denounced the βουλή, — φάσκων συνεστάναι (was in a conspiracy against the Democracy), ib. ἐν τῇ προφάσει τ.] Baiter and Cobet conj. ἐπί. But ἐν=‘by means of’, cp. Lys. or. VII. § 20 (below, p. 91) ἐν τούτῳ τῷ τρόπῳ: ἐν δόλῳ ἄγειν (Soph. Phil. 102), ἐν λιταῖς στέλλειν (ib. 60), ἐν λόγοις πείθειν (ib. 1394).
τοιαύτην, ἥν...ἔγνωμεν ‘a peace of that character which stern experience taught us to know’: ἔγν., came to know: ἥν=οἵαν, as oft. after τοιοῦτος. Cp. Shaksp. All's W. III. 6. 24, ‘Such will I have whom I am sure he knows not’. ἐξηλάθημεν Cp. In Eratosth. § 95, ἐξεκηρύχθητε ἐκ τῆς πόλεως (p. 76), note.
ἦν...κατασκάψαι ‘For its terms were that...we should destroy’. The subj. to ἦν is εἰρήνη, which, as=σύμβασις or ὁμολογία, takes the infin.
λεγομένην, κ.τ.λ. ‘These men [Strombichides and the democratic party, § 13] seeing that, though the talk was of peace, the work really in hand was the overthrow of the Democracy, said that they could not allow such terms to be ratified’. — ὀνόμ. λεγομ. εἰρ., lit. ‘that (the arrangement) was nominally called peace’. The conjecture γενομένην is unsuitable, since peace had not been concluded: we should require γιγνομένην. — οὐκ <ἂν> ἔφασαν ἐπιτρέψαι. Cp. note on § 6 above, μάλιστ᾽ <ἂν>...καταστήσασθαι. οὐκ ἐλεοῦντες...ποιής.] ‘Not because their pity was moved by the threatened destruction of the walls, — not because they shrank from the thought of our fleet being surrendered to Sparta — for these things did not touch them more nearly than they touched every one of yourselves — but because they perceived that this was the way to ruin your Commonwealth: they were not, as some allege, reluctant that peace should be made, but they desired to obtain for the Athenian people a peace on better terms than these’. — Lysias has to show two things: (1) that the democrats were right in objecting to this peace; (2) that they sincerely desired a peace, and were not pursuing a party war-policy in selfish disregard of the extreme sufferings endured by their fellow-citizens. They would have made sacrifices, he says, however painful, if these sacrifices had not further involved the destruction of the Commonwealth.
εἵλοντο ‘mira locutio: an προείλοντο?’ Dobree: but εἵλ.=‘elected’ as the least of two evils. Isocr. Philipp. § 93, εἱλόμην μὴ πονεῖν. τὴν ἐκκλ. τὴν περὶ τῆς εἰρ.] The meeting of the Ecclesia at which the peace was accepted took place, acc. to Xen. H. II. 2. 22, on the day after the return of Theramenes with the terms offered by Sparta. In the Attic Orators, I. 270 note, I have given reasons for dissenting from Grote's view that Agoratus laid his information after the capitulation of Athens, and for believing that the account of Lysias is correct in this particular.
οὐ ξυνειδότα ἐκείνοις ‘though he was in none of their secrets’. — ἐκείνοις, the Generals and the democratic party: αὐτοῖς below, the oligarchic conspirators.
ὅπως π. ὑμῖν ὑποφαίνοιτο Dobree would read φαίνοιτο, thinking that ὑπό has arisen from ὑμῖν: but ὑποφ. expresses what is hinted by the look of that about which we cannot be sure. ‘In order that the affair might have a more plausible colour in your eyes’. — καὶ ὑμᾶς: ‘you, too’ will see (as clearly as the speaker himself). * εἰσπέμπουσι Dobree's correction of ἐκπέμπουσι. The verb εἰσπέμπω is often used of suborned agents. Cp. Andoc. De Red. § 4, ἑτέρους δ᾽ εἰσπέμπουσι: Isocr. De Bigis § 7, μηνυτὰς εἰσέπεμπον. On the other hand, ἐκπέμπουσι could mean only, ‘send forth (from their secret councils)’, — a use of the word which seems rather forced (at least for prose) without further definition of the place to which ἐκ refers. [τὴν πρὸ τῶν τριάκ. β.] plainly a gloss which has crept in from § 20 ad init. Θ. τὸν τοῦ Ἐ. καλούμενον The nickname Ἐλαφόστικτος (‘dappled like a deer’) may have been that of a slave or freedman, — a branded στιγματίας. Perh. καλουμένου.
*ἐγένετο Markland's correction of ἐλέγετο. I formerly preferred ἐλέγετο, on the ground that it shows the ψηφίσματα in the making, and is thus more vivid. But there seems to be no warrant for such a phrase as λέγω ψήφισμα in the sense of γράφω ψήφισμα, to ‘propose’ a decree. Rather reluctantly, then, I have acquiesced in the emendation, — which, from the palaeographical point of view, is an easy one. καὶ ὡς τοιούτ. οὖσιν αὐτ. τὸν νοῦν προσέχητε ‘and that (ἵνα), knowing them to be such, (ὡς τοι. οὖς.,) you may carefully note their conduct’: i.e. this knowledge will throw light on the facts which I have to relate. Bekker with one ms. μὴ προσέχητε, ‘may disregard them’, and so Reiske conj. ἧσσον: but this destroys the point.
ἐν ἀπορρήτῳ Cp. Andoc. De Myst. § 45 (p. 35), ἡ δὲ βουλὴ ἐξελθοῦσα ἐν ἀπορρήτῳ. Strangers (ἰδιῶται) were often present at the sittings of the βουλή, Dem. F. L. § 18, τὸ γὰρ βουλευτήριον μεστὸν ἦν ἰδιωτῶν: to move that they withdraw, was μεταστήσασθαι τοὺς ἰδιώτας, Aeschin. In Ctes. § 125. τοῖς τότε καθιστ. πράγμασι ‘The government which was then in process of being established’,=ἃ τότε καθίστατο — the Oligarchy. — ἐκείνοις, the democratic opposition.
νυνὶ δὲ...ἐψηφ.] ‘but, as it was, the Council passed the following decree’ — merely for the arrest of Agoratus, instead of compelling Theocr. to give a complete list of names.
ἐν ἀγορᾷ The Ἱπποδαμεία ἀγορά in the Peiraeus, Andoc. De Myst. § 45 (p. 35). Νικίας...Νικομένης supporters of the democratic party, mentioned only here. οὐχ οἷα βέλτιστα ‘seeing that the state of affairs in Athens was not all that could be desired’,=οὐ τοιαῦτα οἷα ἂν ὄντα βέλτιστα εἴη. Dem. De Cor. § 207, ὡς οὐ τὰ βέλτιστα ἐμοῦ πολιτευσαμένου. προήσεσθαι, κ.τ.λ. ‘said that they could not allow A. to be taken away, — vindicated him from arrest (ἀφῃροῦντο), — and offered bail, binding themselves to produce him before the Council’. ἀφαιρεῖσθαι εἰς ἐλευθερίαν=vindicare in libertatem: but A. was not a slave, and here ἀφῃρ. merely=‘asserted his right to be at large’ against οἱ ἄγοντες. Cobet was not right in altering παρέξειν into παράξειν: the surety ‘produces’ (παρέχει) the bailee, the accuser ‘brings’ the accused ‘into court’ (παράγει). Cp. Lys. or. XXIII. § 9 (p. 99), ἐγγυησάμενοι παρέξειν εἰς ἀγορὰν (τὸν ἄνθρωπον).
τὸν βωμὸν Μουν The altar in the temple of Artemis: Μουνυχίας ναὸς Ἀρτέμιδος, Paus. I. 1. 4.
παρορμ. δύο πλοῖα Μουν.] ‘having brought two boats alongside the shore at Munychia’. The blockade of the Peiraeus need not have hindered this (Xen. H. II. 2. 9, the Pelop. fleet τὰ πλοῖα εἶργε τοῦ εἴσπλου): see Attic Orators, I. 271, note. ἕως τὰ πρ. καταστ.] ‘until quieter times’: i.e. until the terms of peace should have been fixed, and the strife of parties in Athens allayed.
ἀλλὰ μὲν δή, κ.τ.λ. ‘But this is not all — your situation was very different from theirs’: i.e. much more perilous, if you stayed: if they were ready to go, much more would you have been so, had you not had a secret understanding with the government. βασανισθῆναι Citizens were protected from torture by τὸ ἐπὶ Σκαμανδρίου ψήφισμα, Andoc. De Myst. § 43, p. 35. οὐ πατρίδα, κ.τ.λ. ‘you would not have forsaken your land’: Agoratus, acc. to Lys., being of foreign and servile origin. The v. l. ἀπέλιπες=‘quitted’: κατέλ. (cp. καταλιπόντες above) ‘left behind’.
προσποιῇ sc. ἀποκτεῖναι, as below § 75, εἰ μὲν οὖν μὴ ἀποκτείνας προσποιεῖται (ἀποκτεῖναι). παρεσκευάσθη ‘contrived’ (between Agor. and the βουλή): so παρασκευάσαντες, § 12. τὸ ψήφισμα The object of the new ψήφισμα, as §§ 29, 30 show, was to authorise the arrest of Agoratus, notwithstanding that ἐγγυηταί had been found for him: § 24.
ἐκομίσθησαν ‘were brought’ (not merely ‘came’). The plural verb would most naturally refer to Agoratus and the persons who, by giving bail for him, had frustrated the first attempt to arrest him. They were probably still with him at Munychia (cp. § 24) when he was arrested by the second mission from the Council, armed with the second decree (§§ 28, 29) — which apparently authorised an immediate arrest, irrespective of bail having been given. The plural ἐκομίσθησαν may, however, also refer to the fact that, besides Agoratus, two other persons denounced by Theocritus were brought before the Council at the same time, as we learn from a later part of the speech (§ 54), where the phrase is, ὑπὸ τῆς βουλῆς μετεπέμφθησαν. ἡ δὲ ἀρχὴ αὕτη The more usual form would be ἀρχὴ δ᾽ αὕτη. Cp. note on Antiph. De Caed. Herod. § 93 (p. 23), τὴν τιμωρίαν οἱ ἥκειν ταύτην, ‘that this has come on her as the punishment’. ἐπ᾽ αὐτοφώρῳ ‘I will convict him in the very act’, — i.e. I will show precisely how and when he did it.
ἔρρωτο...οὔσης ‘So vigorously was the Council bent on mischief’: Thuc. II. 8, ἔρρωντο ἐς τὸν πόλεμον. At first the Council had accepted the ἀνώνυμος μήνυσις of Theocritus (§ 22): then Agor. had given certain names (§ 30): and, after that, the Council still pressed for more: this fact was elicited by the ἐρώτησις (§ 31, τοίνυν). — ἑκών, since he had not yet been threatened with torture (cp. § 27), ἀνάγκη.
Μουν. ἐν τῷ θεάτρῳ Thuc. VIII. 93, ἐς τὸ πρὸς τῇ Μουνυχίᾳ Διονυσιακὸν θέατρον ἐλθόντες καὶ θέμενοι τὰ ὅπλα ἐξεκλησίασαν (411 B.C.). The theatre was at the N.W. side of the Munychian hill. — ἐγίγνετο, ‘came to be held’. οὕτω σφόδρα ‘Some persons were so anxious that the information regarding the Generals and the Infantry Commanders should be laid before the people as well, (in regard to the others, the information laid before the Council sufficed,) that they bring Agoratus before the people in the Ecclesia also’ (καὶ ἐκεῖ). καὶ ἐκεῖ...εἰς τὸν δ., i.e. ‘there also’, and this time before the people. — ἀπέχρη, κ.τ.λ. Dobree is right in condemning μήνυσις as a scholion, but ἐν τῇ βουλῇ is prob. genuine: it makes the contrast with ἐν τῷ δ. clearer. Cp. § 33.
ἀναγνώσεται sc. ὁ γραμματεύς. καὶ τὰ ἐν τῇ β., κ.τ.λ. sc. ἀπογραφέντα: ‘both those names which were given before the Council and those which were given before the Ecclesia’.
εἰσέπλευσε Xen. H. II. 2. 23, ἔδοξε δέχεσθαι τὴν εἰρήνην. μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα Λύσανδρός τε κατέπλει εἰς τὸν Πειραιᾶ [hitherto he had been at anchor off the Peiraeus, πρὸς τὸν Π., § 9], καὶ οἱ φυγάδες κατῄεσαν, καὶ τὰ τείχη κατέσκαπτον ὑπ᾽ αὐλητρίδων πολλῇ προθυμίᾳ, νομίζοντες ἐκείνην τὴν ἡμέραν τῇ Ἑλλάδι ἄρχειν τῆς ἐλευθερίας.
κατεστάθησαν ‘were installed in office’. The 1st aor. pass. seems here to differ from the 2nd aor. act. κατέστησαν in § 34 (‘were established’) by suggesting the formal induction into office. On the other hand, in Antiphon De Chor. § 11 (p. 25), χορηγὸς κατεστάθην seems to be no more than κατέστην. The pass. aor. is mainly poetical. κρίσιν...ἐποίουν ‘proceeded to direct that these men should be tried before the Council’: but κρίσιν ἐποιοῦντο would be merely ἔκρινον, ‘proceeded to try them’. ὁ δὲ δῆμος ‘whereas the words of the people's decree had been, “before the (ordinary) court, with a jury of 2000”.’
εἰ...ἐκρίνοντο ‘If they had been on their trial before the ordinary court, they would have been in a fair way to be acquitted’: the imperf. referring here to a continued action in past time, whereas ἐκρίθησαν...ἐσώθησαν would have meant simply, ‘If they had been tried, they would have been acquitted’. Cp. Goodwin § 49. 2. ἐν ᾧ referring to ἤδη: ‘for now, when you could no longer do any good, you had recognised the desperate situation of Athens’. — νῦν δ᾽, ‘but as it was’, with historic pres., as in § 22.
ἐπὶ τῶν βάθρων ‘The Thirty sat on the seats usually occupied by the Presidents of the Assembly’ (50 in number). Cp. Plat. Prot. 315 c, where Hippias the sophist is seen ἐν θρόνῳ, surrounded by his hearers ἐπὶ βάθρων. καδίσκους ‘urns’ for the secret ballot, — the ψῆφοι being dropped through a funnel-shaped top (κημός). Lycurg. In Leocr. § 149, δυοῖν καδίσκοιν κειμένοιν, τὸν μὲν προδοσίας τὸν δὲ σωτηρίας εἶναι.
οὐδενὸς ἀπεψηφίσαντο The Thirty afterwards as sumed the right of putting to death without trial any one who was not in the list (κατάλογος) of 3000. Isocrates speaks of them as having executed ‘1500 citizens without trial’ (ἀκρίτους: or. XX. § 11). Cp. Xen. H. II. 3. 51: Grote VIII. 327.
μέλαν [τε] Baiter and Sauppe would omit τε: and I incline to think that it may have been a spurious addition, designed to link the participles. If we retain it, we must suppose a partic. (e.g., ὀδυρομένη, ἀποκειραμένη, κεκαρμένη) lost before or after ἠμφιεσμένη.
διέθετο not διετίθετο (though ἔλεγεν, etc.), because the testamentary disposition — διάθεσις, the making of a διαθήκη — is an act completed at a definite moment.
τιμωρεῖν τιμωρεῖσθαι could stand: cp. In Eratosth. § 35, ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν τιμωρουμένους (p. 74): but the active marks more clearly that the cause in which the punishment is dealt is another's.
τοὺς ἐκ Σαλ. — ἐξ Ἐλευς Cp. In Eratosth. § 52, ἐλθὼν (Eratosthenes) μετὰ τῶν συναρχόντων εἰς Σαλαμῖνα καὶ Ἐλευσῖνάδε τριακοσίους τῶν πολιτῶν ἀπήγαγεν εἰς τὸ δεσμωτήριον, καὶ μιᾷ: ψήφῳ αὐτῶν ἁπάντων θάνατον κατεψηφίσατο. — τοὺς ἐνθαδε, at Athens. From § 30 of the speech against Eratosthenes (above, p. 72) we may infer how frequently such ἴδιαι ἔχθραι were thus indulged. In Lys. or. XXV. § 15 a speaker claims credit for not having gratified his enmities during the Oligarchy.
ἔτι δὲ τὰ τείχη ὡς κατεσκάφη sc. ἴστε, to be supplied from § 44.
οὐκ <ἂν> ἔφασαν ἐπιτρέψαι See note above on § 15.
ἀπέκτεινας, κ.τ.λ. The words τῇ πόλει occur thrice in the sentence. Before ἐπιβουλεύειν they are clearly, as Dobree saw, an interpolation, either from the previous or from the subsequent clause. ‘You put them to death, by denouncing them as plotters against the Commonwealth’. There is no incongruity in this, since the oligarchical Βουλή claimed to represent the Commonwealth, and would affect the language of patriotic citizens. — Dobree, with great plausibility, proposed to read, ἀπέκτεινας μηνύσας, αὐτὸς ἐπιβουλεύων τῷ πλήθει τῷ ὑμετέρῳ.
