Hellenica (The History of the Peloponnesian War and Its Aftermath). Xenophon

Alexippidas, Misgolaidas, Isias, Aracus, Euarchippus, Pantacles, Pityas, Archytas, and lastly, Endius, during whose year of office Lysander sailed home in triumph, after performing the exploits above recorded,"—the interpolation, probably, of some editor or copyist, the words "twenty-eight and a half" being probably a mistake on his part for "twenty-seven and a half." Cf. Thuc. v. 26; also Buchsenschutz, Einleitung, p. 8 of his school edition of the "Hellenica."

⁶ Lit. "by sycophancy," i.e. calumnious accusation—the sycophant's trade. For a description of this pest of Athenian life cf. "Dem." in Arist. 1, S. 52; quoted in Jebb, "Attic Orators," chap. xxix. 14; cf. Aristoph. "Ach." 904; Xen. "Mem." II. ix. 1.

⁷ Or, "a summons to the 'place d'armes' was given; but." Or, "the order to seize the arms was given, and." It is clear from Aristoph. "Acharn." 1050, that the citizens kept their weapons at home. On the other hand, it was a custom not to come to any meeting in arms. See Thuc. vi. 58. It seems probable that while the men were being reviewed in the market-place and elsewhere, the ruling party gave orders to seize their weapons (which they had left at home), and this was done except in the case of the Three Thousand. Cf. Arnold, "Thuc." II. 2. 5; and IV. 91.

⁸ See above.

⁹ An annotator seems to have added here the words, occurring in the MSS., "the buskin which seems to fit both legs equally, but is constant to neither," unless, indeed, they are an original "marginal note" of the author. For the character of Theramenes, as popularly conceived, cf. Aristoph. "Frogs," 538, 968 foll., and Thuc. viii. 92; and Prof. Jowett, "Thuc." vol. ii. pp. 523, 524.

¹¹ I.e. serfs—Penestae being the local name in Thessaly for the villein class. Like the Είλωτες in Laconia, they were originally a conquered tribe, afterwards increased by prisoners of war, and formed a link between the freemen and born slaves.

¹² Cf. "Mem." IV. iv. 3; Plat. "Apol." 8. 32.

¹³ Cf. Lysias, "Or." 18. 6.

¹⁴ Probably the son of Lysidonides. See Thirlwall, "Hist. of Greece," vol. iv. p. 179 (ed. 1847); also Lysias, "Or." 12. contra Eratosth. According to Lysias, Theramenes, when a member of the first Oligarchy, betrayed his own closest friends, Antiphon and Archeptolemus. See Prof. Jebb, "Attic Orators," I. x. p. 266.

¹⁵ The resident aliens, or μετοικοι, "metics," so technically called.

¹⁶ Isocr. "De Bigis," 355; and Prof. Jebb's "Attic Orators," ii. 230. In the defence of his father's career, which the younger Alcibiades, the defendant in this case (B.C. 397 probably) has occasion to make, he reminds the court, that under the Thirty, others were banished from Athens, but his father was driven out of the civilised world of Hellas itself, and finally murdered. See Plutarch, "Alcibiades," ad fin.

¹⁷ Or, "the peacemaker, the healer of differences, the cementer of new alliances, cannot," etc.

¹⁸ Cf. Thuc. viii. 90-92, for the behaviour of the Lacedaemonian party at Athens and the fortification of Eetioneia in B.C. 411.

¹⁹ I.e. of the political clubs.

²⁰ I.e. may enjoy the senatorial stipend of a drachma a day = 9 3/4 pence.

²¹ See Thuc. viii. 97, for a momentary realisation of that "duly attempered compound of Oligarchy and Democracy" which Thucydides praises, and which Theramenes here refers to. It threw the power into the hands of the wealthier upper classes to the exclusion of the ναυτικός όχλος. See Prof. Jowett, vol. ii. note, ad loc. cit.

²² "A Sicilian game much in vogue at the drinking parties of young men at Athens. The simplest mode was when each threw the wine left in his cup so as to strike smartly in a metal basin, at the same time invoking his mistress's name; if all fell into the basin and the sound was clear, it was a sign he stood well with her."— Liddell and Scott, sub. v. For the origin of the game compare curiously enough the first line of the first Elegy of Critias himself, who was a poet and political philosopher, as well as a politician:—

      "Κοτταβος εκ Σικελης εστι χθονος ευπρεπες εγον

       δν σκοπον ες λαταγων τοξα καθισταμεθα.}" Bergk. "Poetae Lyr. Graec." Pars II. xxx.

²³ Or, "these are sayings too slight, perhaps, to deserve record; yet," etc. By an "apophthegm" was meant originally a terse (sententious) remark, but the word has somewhat altered in meaning.