Ὑπὲρ Μαντιθέου
. [Or. XVI.] — The name occurs only in the title, which, contrary to the general rule, is perhaps of the same age as the speech — ‘A defence for Mantitheus on his Scrutiny before the Senate’. The office to which this scrutiny related was perhaps that of an ordinary senator, since in § 8 the speaker cites instances of persons who had really done what he is charged with doing, and had yet been admitted to the Senate. The complaint against him was that his name appeared on the list (σανίδιον, § 6) of those who had served as Knights in the time of the Thirty. As or. XXVI. against Evandrus shows (§ 10), the fact of such service under the Tyrants became, after the restoration of the Democracy, a disqualification for the office of senator. Mantitheus must, then, have been at least eighteen years of age in 405 B.C., and so must have been born before 422. He refers to his share in campaigns subsequent to that of 394 B.C. (§§ 15 — 18). On the other hand, the tone of § 15 rather suggests that Thrasybulus was still alive; — that is, that the speech is earlier than 389 B.C. The date may have been about 392 B.C. The speaker, who was taunted with youthful presumption (§ 20), cannot have been much more than thirty. — Attic Orators, I. 245.τῶν αὐτοῖς βεβ ‘their course of life’. Dem. De Cor. § 265, ἐξέτασον τοίνυν παρ᾽ ἄλληλα τὰ σοὶ κἀμοὶ βεβιωμένα.
ἀξιῶ δέ ‘What I ask of your House is this: — If I merely prove that I am loyal to the existing Constitution’ [the restored Democracy], ‘and that I have been compelled to share your dangers’ [by ordinary service in war], ‘let not that bring me any positive (πω) credit: but if my career is shown to have been worthy in the most complete sense — in a sense directly opposed to the opinion and the assertions of my enemies — then I pray you to ratify my admission [to the Senate], and to pass a silent condemnation on my foes’. — καὶ περὶ τὰ ἄλλα: ‘in all other things also’: i.e. not only in the rudiments of civic loyalty, but in all its duties, public and private.
τῆς ἐν Ἑλλ. ς. — Σάτυρον The Athenian overthrow at Aegospotami, 405 B.C. — Satyrus, king of Bosporus in the Tauric Chersonese (Crimea), 407 — 393 B.C. The Trapeziticus of Isocrates (or XVII.) was written for a subject of this Satyrus. Cp. Attic Orators, II. 222. οὔτε τῶν τειχῶν ‘neither when the walls were being pulled down’ [under the terms imposed by Sparta when Athens surrendered to Lysander in the spring of 404 B.C.], ‘nor when the form of government was being changed’ [by the establishment of the Thirty Tyrants a little later, in April, 404]. See Annals in Attic Orators, I. p. xlv. After πολιτείας, ἐπεδημοῦμεν seems to have dropped out of the mss.
τῶν ἀλλοτρ. κινδ.] i.e. the perils of the Thirty Tyrants, who were deposed soon after the advance of Thrasybulus and the exiles from Phylè to the Peiraeus (Dec. 404 B.C.), and were succeeded by the Ten. The exiles were in possession of Athens in July 403, and the Democracy was formally restored in September. τοῖς μηδὲν ἐξ ‘who had no share in their crimes’, and therefore no claim upon their favour.
ἐκ...τοῦ σανιδίου The tablet (a board covered with gypsum), the official list. Cp. Lys. In Epicr. (or. XXVI.) § 16, εἰ μὲν δὴ βουλεύσων νυνὶ ἐδοκιμάζετο καὶ ὡς ἱππευκότος αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τῶν τριάκοντα τοὔνομα ἐν ταῖς σανίσιν ἐνεγέγραπτο. τοὺς φυλάρχους, κ.τ.λ. ‘that the cavalry commanders’ (10 in number, one for each φυλή — opp. to ταξίαρχοι, commanders of the tribal infantry) ‘should make a return of those who had served as Knights, in order that you might compel them to refund the sums paid to them for their equipment’ (καταστάσεις, ‘appointments’ — allowances for outfit made by the State to ἱππεῖς when first enrolled).
τοῖς συνδίκοις The Fiscal Board of Ten, — the Athenian ‘Solicitors to the Treasury’ — by whom he would have been prosecuted as a public debtor (ὀφείλων τῷ δημοσίῳ). Cp. Harpocration p. 279, σύνδικοι, πρὸς οὓς τὰ δημευόμενα ἀπεφέρετο, ἀρχή τις καθισταμένη μετὰ τὴν ἐκ Πειραιῶς κάθοδον (i.e. at the restoration of the Democracy in 403 B.C.): Herm. Ant. I. § 151 n. 4. οὔτε κατ. παραλ.] ‘nor that I had received any allowance’ (in the first instance). Bake reads καταβαλόντα, which could hardly=‘refunded’. Others regard the clause as interpolated. ἐκείνοις The list kept by the φύλαρχοι: τούτοις — the list on the σανίδιον.
βουλεύοντας=βουλευτὰς ὄντας. The δοκιμασία of Mantitheus himself was probably for admission to the βουλή (see introd.). μαρτύρησον viz. that I returned to the Peiraeus only at the time stated in § 4.
ταῖς δοκιμ ‘Cases of scrutiny’: esp. the scrutiny by the Senate of officials designate. Four other speeches of Lysias are concerned with δοκιμασίαι, viz. XXVI. XXXI. XXV. XXIV. See Attic Orators, I. 215, and 242 — 254.
ἐπιδούς ‘giving a dowry of 30 minas to each’: i.e. giving with (ἐπί) the bride (to the husband): Il. IX. 148, ὅσσ᾽ οὔπω τις ἑῇ ἐπέδωκε θυγατρί. ἐνειμάμην ‘shared my inheritance’: Isae. or. VII. § 5, οὐσίαν ἐνείμαντο πρὸς ἀλλήλους.
περὶ δὲ τῶν κοινῶν ‘As to my public life’; — not merely, as the context shows, his discharge of public duties, but, more generally, the character which he bore in society, as distinguished from his conduct of family affairs (τὰ ἴδια). περὶ κύβους Cp. Lys. or. XIV. § 27 (of the younger Alcibiades), κατακυβεύσας τὰ ὄντα. Isocrates says of the idle youth of the day, οἱ μὲν γὰρ αὐτῶν ἐπὶ τῆς ἐννεακρούνου ψύχουσιν οἶνον... ἕτεροι δ᾽ ἐν τοῖς σκιραφείοις (gambling-houses) κυβεύουσι, Antid. § 287.
δίκην...γραφὴν...εἰσαγγ.] Neither a private lawsuit, nor a public prosecution, nor an impeachment (for an offence more directly against the State).
εἰς Ἁλίαρτον The Athenian expedition in 325 B.C. for the relief of Haliartus, defended by the Thebans against the Lacedaemonians, whose leader, Lysander, was killed in the battle under its walls: Xen. Hellen. III. 5. 16 f. ἡγουμένους synonymous with νομίζοντας. The contrasted clauses are τοῖς μὲν ἱππεύουσιν ἀσφάλειαν, τοῖς δ᾽ ὁπλίταις κίνδυνον. The notion of ‘thinking’ is common to both clauses. Yet it is repeated in different words, as if these words, too, were contrasted. This trait deserves remark as showing immaturity in the use of antithesis. Cp. or. XXV. § 22, ἡγούμενοι διὰ τὴν τῶν τριάκοντα πονηρίαν πολὺ μᾶλλον σωθήσεσθαι ἢ διὰ τὴν τῶν φευγόντων δύναμιν κατιέναι. Also In Eratosth. § 7 (below, p. 66) περὶ οὐδενὸς ἡγοῦντο...περὶ πολλοῦ ἐποιοῦντο: ib. § 32 (p. 73) τοῖς μέλλουσιν ἀδίκως ἀποθανεῖσθαι......τοὺς ἀδίκως ἀπολουμένους. See, too, note on Antiphon De Caed. Herod. § 87 (above, p. 21). ἀδοκιμάστων who had not passed the scrutiny necessary for admission to the cavalry: the law was, ἐάν τις ἀδοκίμαστος ἱππεύῃ, ἄτιμον εἶναι (Lys. or. XIV. § 8). τῷ Ὀρθοβούλῳ prob. the phylarch of the tribe to which Mantitheus belonged.
ἐφοδίων ‘funds’ for their equipment and journey. M. assisted the more needy of his own δημόται, who were personally known to him. The tribe consisted of demes not adjacent to each other.
εἰς Κόρινθον in 394 B.C., when the allies, including the Athenian contingent under Thrasybulus (whose deme was Steiria — hence ὁ σεμνὸς Στειριεύς), were defeated by the Spartans: Xen. Hellen. IV. 2. 9 — 23. τῆς πρώτης τεταγμ ‘posted in the front rank’ (τάξεως): cp. Isocr. Panath. § 180, τῆς πρώτης τάττειν. Below, § 16, τάξις=the contingent of infantry furnished by each φυλή. *ἐναποθανόντων ‘died on the field’. The place to which the ἐν- of the compound refers is left to be understood from the context; cp. Her. IX. 65, οὔτε ἐσελθὼν ἐς τὸ τέμενος, οὔτε ἐναποθανών. Thuc. II. 52, τὰ ἱερὰ...νεκρῶν πλέα ἦν αὐτοῦ ἐναποθνῃσκόντων. While ἐναποθνῄσκω is current in classical prose, ἐνθνῄσκω is unknown to it, being (like the simple θνῄσκω) a poetical word.
χωρίων ἰσχ ‘strong positions having been occupied (by the Athenians and their allies), so that the enemy (the Spartans) could not approach’. The reading παριέναι (pass the Isthmus) would give more point. Ἀγησιλάου δ᾽ εἰς τὴν Β Agesilaus, recalled from Asia Minor, entered Boeotia from the north, and won the battle of Coroneia against the allies (394 B.C.). ἀποχωρίσαι...βοηθ.] ‘to detach some companies as supports’ (of the allied forces in Boeotia). βοηθήσουσι can only mean, against Agesilaus: and ἕτερος κίνδυνος, ‘peril in a new quarter’, is opp. to peril at Corinth. ἀγαπητῶς...σες.] ‘barely saved’: i.e. so as only just to satisfy the desire of safety: cp. Plat. Lysis 218 C, ἔχων ἀγαπητῶς ὃ ἐθηρευόμην, ‘having only just secured my prey’. ἀκληρωτί ‘without ballot’ — waiving the chance of no being drawn.
στρατειῶν καὶ φρ ‘expeditions and terms of garrison duty’. ἀλλ̓ οὐκ, εἴ τις Κομᾷ ‘instead of hating one for wearing long hair’, — a custom which, at this period, was retained by the Spartans, but which, at Athens, was restricted to youths under 18, and to the Ἱππεῖς, — being regarded, in other cases, as a mark of foppery, or as an affectation of Spartan manners. κομᾷ, Hamaker's conjecture, is irresistibly commended by the context here. The traditional τολμᾷ is not only weak, but incompatible with the context; for the verb ought to denote some harmless personal peculiarity which is contrasted with sterling merit in the field (τῶν κινδυνεύειν ἐθελόντων). So the Ἱππεῖς say in Ar. Eq. 582, ἤν ποτ᾽ εἰρήνη γένηται...μὴ φθονεῖθ᾽ ἡμῖν κομῶσι: Av. 1281, ἐλακωνομάνουν...ἐκόμων. Cp. § 19, ἀπ᾽ ὄψεως (personal appearance). — With ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ supply χρή: we could not have χρὴ οὐ μισεῖν.
μικρὸν δ., κ.τ.λ. ‘though their voice was low and their dress decorous’. Cp. [Dem.] or. XXXVII. Adv. Callipp. § 52, ἐπίφθονός ἐστι καὶ ταχέως βαδίζει καὶ μέγα φθέγγεται.
νεώτερος ὠν In Anab. III. 1. 14 Xenophon speaks as if his youth made it strange that he should take a leading part — being then, probably, about 30 years old. — καὶ ἐμαυτῷ, ‘to myself also’ (and not only to my possible critics).
μόνους ἀξίους Cp. Thuc. II. 40, τὸν μηδὲν τῶνδε (τῶν πολιτικῶν) μετέχοντα οὐκ ἀπράγμονα ἀλλ᾽ ἀχρεῖον νομίζομεν. κριταί ‘the judgment on their character rests with none but you’: κριταί is more general than δικασταί, judges of their (legal) cause. Cp. Antiph. De Caed. Her. § 94 (above, p. 24).
