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τοιαῦτ᾽ ἄττα κτλ. Plato is here alluding to epideictic harangues by sophistical rhetoricians of the school of Gorgias. τοιαῦτ᾽ ἄττα ῥήματα=‘expressions of this sort’ refers to the jingle in γενόμενονλεγόμενον, which is an example of the rhetorical device called παρομοίωσις: see Arist. Rhet. III 9. 1410^{a} 24 ff. παρομοίωσις δ᾽ ἐὰν ὅμοια τὰ ἔσχατα ἔχῃ ἑκάτερον τὸ κῶλον, e.g. ἐν πλείσταις δὲ φροντίσι καὶ ἐν ἐλαχίσταις ἐλπίσι, and many other examples: see Cope ad loc. In ἐξεπίτηδεςὡμοιωμένα, ‘assimilated to one another of set purpose,’ the same device is meant. Isocrates and his literary brethren employed it constantly: see the references on 495 E.

ἀλλ̓ οὐκ -- συμπεσόντα κτλ.: ‘instead of spontaneously chiming together, as in the present case’ etc., where the παρομοίωσις of γενόμενον and λεγόμενον is ἀπὸ τοῦ αὐτομάτου (‘natural,’ ‘spontaneous,’ ‘accidental’ as opposed to ἐξεπίτηδες). παρισωμένον and ὡμοιωμένον are said with a reference to παρίσωσις (the equality of clauses, as for example in Isocr. Paneg. 76: see Cope l.c. p. 106) and παρομοίωσις. The Many have had quite enough of παρίσωσις etc. in words; but they have never seen a Man παρισώμενον τῇ ἀρετῇ. Plato means that the time for mincing Rhetoric is past; we want a Man (ἄνδρα is emphatic), “with heart head hand, One still strong man in a blatant land, Who can rule, and dare not lie” (Tennyson). It is highly probable, as Dümmler holds (Chron. Beitr. p. 14), that Plato has specially in view Isocrates' Panegyricus throughout this passage. The contemptible devices which Plato here ridicules are extraordinarily common in that harangue. For other views of this passage see App. III.

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