Thirteen Declamations

STUDY I.

...peculiar, I alone advised my own people and in private, and I assisted in the tasks then, so that, if possible, they might become superior to profit original: "kerdous ginesthai kreittous"¹ and have their mind fixed only on the end of the war; "but if not," I cried, "let the profit from the war be the weapons of the fallen, and those alone!" I said this so that someone, even if they seemed fond of profit, might be able to defend themselves justly, saying they were collecting weapons—though despoiling something else—and would not have anyone to slander them.

It was so², and while the houses of others were being filled with riches through me and my labors, my own house was filled with full suits of armor; and while the rewards from the people brought me glory throughout the city, at home I was made more illustrious by these, as if by pillars and histories of my brave deeds, rather than by anything else³. Often a patriotic thought came to me, that again, when the opportunity arose, these weapons would be useful, and would immediately make many heavy-infantrymen hoplites: heavily armed infantry soldiers out of those whom nature perhaps arms with innate daring and nobility, but whose livelihood stands in their way, providing nothing for armor⁴; and only the one Peri-

¹ Thucydides 2.60, 65; Plutarch, Life of Pericles 15; Aristides, Oration 46, p. 164.

² I had unwisely written houtos [thus], and immediately "against the those before and the" original: "kata ton pro kai ton". Often "and" [kai] and "against" [kata] are interchanged. Those who perform verbal criticism know this well. Lucian, The Parasite 31: "whom you pretend not to know even while you do know them, as if some shame resulted from it, rather than honor." I side with those who thought kata [against] should be changed to the conjunction kai [and]. Now I see it has been published, with the little word suppressed, "as someone's" [hos tinos], for which reading I am ignorant of the critical reasons. Heliodorus, 1, 17: "See, master, that you do not fail the second time." Venetian Codex: "not against [kata] the second." The common reading is better. And because of the similarity of those little words, it often happens that one or the other is neglected. Porphyry, On Abstinence 4, 7: "they abstained from whatever birds are carnivorous, and many [abstained] entirely [kathapax] from living creatures." I found "many also [kai] entirely," which is not without force.

³ Codex, "if indeed" [eiper].

⁴ Codex, "arming" [oplesin], by the perpetual confusion of the vowels i [iota] and e [eta]. Cicero, To Atticus 1, 1: "Your Hermathena A statue combining Hermes and Athena delights me greatly, and it is placed so beautifully that the whole gymnasium seems to be an offering to the sun [heliou anathema]." It is not easy to say what "offering to the sun" means here. The only true reading seems to be Casaubon’s conjecture "an offering of that one [illius]." The scribe, who wrote while the teacher was dictating, hearing illious anathema, believed both the first and second words were Greek, and thus we now have the reading "offering to the sun." Elsewhere "i" [iota] becomes "u" [upsilon]. Themistocles relates (Epistle 11=20), that he fled to Admetus, king of the Molossians: "and we sat at the hearth; for so Kratesipolis (Admetus’s wife, who is called Phthia by Plutarch, Life of Themistocles 24) commanded: and little Aridas was in my power, and a sword in the other [hand]." Codex: "Arubdas." The choice is uncertain.