James Adam, The Republic of Plato

χωρίς τινων ὀλίγων is neuter and should be taken with πάντα. The different liturgies etc. would scarcely be performed by the drones; and some departments of civic administration might be in the hands of the few exceptions noted above (ἐκτὸς ὀλίγων D).

τοίνυν is ‘also’: see I 339 E note

χρηματιζομένων κτλ.: ‘if all are engaged in making money’ etc. παντων is the whole of which οἱ κοσμιώτατοι form a part; not ‘all the citizens of a democracy,’ for the aim of democracy is not πλοῦτος but ἐλευθερία, and the drones at least are not engaged in money-making.

πλεῖστον δὴ κτλ.: ‘thus, I imagine, there is plenty of honey for the drones, and it is most easy to squeeze honey from this source.’ My correction βλίττειν for βλίττει (see cr. n.) is regarded as certain by a reviewer of my Text of the Republic in Hermathena XXIV p. 252. βλίττει is retained by J. and C.; but there is no authority for the intransitive use of the verb, and βλίσειεν in the very next sentence is active. Schneider reads βλύττει, which would be a ἅπαξ εἰρημένον. Ruhnken's βλίττεται is unexceptionable in point of sense, and has found much favour. The author of this emendation claims (in his note on Tim. Lex. s.v. βλίττειν) that it is confirmed “cum Scholiastae, tum Codicis Parisini auctoritate.” But the Paris MSS have all either βλίττει or βλύττει; and Bekker's collation of the Scholium is βλίττει: ἀφαιρεῖ (not ἀφαιρεῖται) τὸ μέλι ἀπὸ τῶν κηρίων. Moreover, although the syllable ται was sometimes abbreviated in uncial MSS (see on 563 D), it is easier to suppose that the horizontal stroke for final ν was here accidentally omitted, as constantly in the Republic: see Introd. § 5. For the sense cf. I 343 A note and on the word βλίττειν (i.e. *μ（β）λίττειν from μέλι) Blaydes on Ar. Knights 794.

πλούσιοι -- καλοῦνται. The oligarchs were frequently called πλούσιοι, κτηματικοί and the like: see Whibley Pol. Part. in Ath. p. 48 and Beloch Att. Pol. p. 2.

κηφήνων βοτάνη has a proverbial ring: cf. the proverb κηφῆνες μόχθους ἄλλων κατέδονται (Leutsch u. Schneidewin Paroem. Gr. II p. 179). The same expression, as Schneider points out Addit. p. 69, is used by Plut. Mor. 42 A with a different meaning.