to the Athenians refusing to restore Pylus after the ratification of the truce, Ol. 89. 4. See Thucyd. L. 5. 35.

236. Τας γναθους αλγησετε, i.e. In eating the Μυττωτος which he is cooking for them.

342. The best account of the Korтaßopos is in the Scholia, and at v. 1241.

363. Prisoners condemned to death were executed one only in a day, and drew lots who should die first.

373. Those who would be initiated at Eleusis sacrificed a pig, which cost three drachmæ. (See also Plat. Rep. L. 2. 378.)

413. The eclipse of the sun, Ol. 88. 4, mentioned by Thucydides; and in the Nubes, v. 584.

449. Κεἴ τις στρατηγειν, &c. This (as the Scholiast says) is a reflection perhaps on Alcibiades, but undoubtedly on Lamachus, who was always strenuous for continuing the war.

456. Mars and Enyalius were two different divinities. (See Sophocles, Ajax, v. 179.)

465. The Boeotians refused to come into the truce with Athens. See Thucyd. L. 5. 17.

530. The musick of Sophocles praised. Euripides's little sentences and short replies.

642. Αττ' αν διαβαλοι, &c. This alludes to sick stomachs, which are most inclined to eat what is most prejudicial to them.

697. Simonides and Sophocles, now an old man; their avarice.

699. This is not to be literally understood; for Cratinus was alive seven years after the invasion of

Attica by the Spartans, but he had given himself up to drinking, and declined in his parts and reputation.

712. The senate seemed to have named the Oewpoî, that is, the Areopagus, as I imagine.

728. The chorus here (as in Acharnens. v. 626.) pull off their iμaria, or mantles, or upper garments, that they may dance the Parabasis, or the anapæstick digression, with more ease.

735. Aristophanes banished (as he says) low ribaldry from the stage, and made comedy an art; he attacked without fear the most powerful men, particularly Cleon. Carcinus and his sons, Morsimus and Melanthius, tragick poets, satirized. Ion of Chius, his hymn on the morning star now lately dead. See the account of him in the Scholia.

756. These verses are repeated from the Nubes, which proves that drama to have been exploded.

884. Ariphrades: his strange lust.

951. Charis, the tibicen. Morychus and Melanthius; their gluttony. Parody from the Medea of the latter. Stilbides and Hierocles of Oreus, professed prophets. Bacis; three of that name (Schol.), a Boeotian, an Athenian, and an Arcadian. Sibylla, her prophecies.

966. Ceremonies in sacrificing: extinguishing a lighted torch in the water, with which they washed; carrying the vessel with barley, a garland, and knife in it, round the altar to the right; throwing whole barley among the people, &c. It appears (see Thesmoph. v. 402. and Aves, 795) that women were present in the theatres, which is amazing, when one considers the extreme indecency, not of words alone, but of actions,

in these spectacles. The preceding scene at v. 881, is a more than common instance of it. See also Lysistrata, v. 1095.

:

Possibly the chorus, not the audience, might be in part composed of women, for it is they who are called oi Оewμevoi. The sacrificer asked before the libation, Τις τηδε ; and the standers-by replied Πολλοι καγαθοι: then they sprinkled them with the holy water, and begun the prayer; after which they cut the victim's throat (1018. he calls it Tov olv. Is this a general name for all victims, or should one read To Ovμa? it appears to be a sheep, not a hog: the Schol. at verse 1019 sacrifice to Peace without any victim in the festival called Συνοικεσια.) Then having dressed the victim and piled wood on the altar, they offered up the two, sprinkling them with wine and oil and barley flour (ra Ovλnuara). The Mavтes wore laurel-crowns.

1056. Αγε νυν απαρχου, &c. The Απαργμα seems to be the first cut, due to the Mavris. After the offering they dressed the inward parts and the tongue, made their libation, and then eat them.

1240. A cuirass was worth ten minæ; a trumpet, sixty drachmæ ; a helmet, one mina.

1253. Evpμaia, an Egyptian purge. See Thesmoph. 864. In this play one would imagine, that the scene must change at v. 179, (where Trygæus arrives at the gates of heaven mounted on his winged steed), and from thence to v. 829, it lies in heaven: but how the chorus get thither I cannot imagine, as they have no hippo-canthari (or horse-beetles) to carry them to that place.

OBSERVATION.

Bentley dates the time of the action of this play as above, Ol. 90. 2. Palmerius dates it a year sooner, Ol. 90. 1.; Sam. Petitus two years earlier, Ol. 89. 3. Archonte Alcao; and I cannot but think the last to be in the right. What the two former chiefly go upon, are these lines: Οἱ σου τρυχομεθ' ηδη

Τρια και δεκ' ετη

This, I think, Petitus has answered by saying, that the poet himself, v. 605, places the beginning of the war three years higher than the common account, that is, from the declaration against Megara, Ol. 86. 2. Archonte Antilochida, which was the first cause of the Peloponnesian war. So that this drama appeared during the Dionysia, which immediately preceded the truce, (mentioned by Thucydides, L. 5. c. 20) when it was on the point of being concluded, and before the Spartan prisoners, taken at Sphacteria, were restored, as the following lines seem to intimate;

Αρ' οισθ', όσοι γ' αυτων εχονται του ξυλου

Μονοι προθυμοῦντ' αλλ' ὁ χαλκευς ουκ εά : which the Scholiast rightly explains of these captives, though Palmerius makes light of their interpretation, and tries to give the passage quite another sense, understanding the words, έχονται του ξυλου, of the Γεωργοι, and o xaλkeus of the armourer, who lived by the war; not reflecting that the words 'undoubtedly relate to the Lacedæmonians, among whom these arts belonged only to slaves, whose inclinations could have no influence in determining the state either to war or to peace. And besides in the lines 270 and 280, and 311, (Evλaßeiσ0'

εκείνον τον Κερβερον, &c.), there could be no manner of humour, if we imagine Brasidas and Cleon to have been Whereas Ol. 89. 3. in spring-time,

dead three years. it was but a few months from the battle of Amphipolis, which happened at the end of the summer before. As to that line, 294, ПIρiv èтeрov av doidvкa, &c. it may as well be understood of Lamachus, Hyperbolus, or any other favourer of the war, as of Alcibiades; or if it be applied to him, what occasion is there to think it is meant of his Σrparnyia in Peloponnesus (Ol. 90. 1)? What is said of the Argives at v. 474, and 492, is only a reproach for the neutrality which they had observed during the war; or their inclinations might well be suspected even at this time, before they had actually formed a new confederacy against Sparta, as it afterwards happened. For what could be more natural, than that a powerful state, which by long peace had been for many years acquiring new strength, while their ancient enemies had been continually weakening themselves by war, should (at a time when their truce with Sparta was on the point of expiring) attempt to form a league by drawing their discontented allies from them, and setting themselves at the head of a new confederacy, which necessarily must kindle a new war in Greece. As to the aversion the Boeotians and Megarensians had to peace (mentioned v. 465 and 480) see Thucydides, L. 5. 17. As to v. 210. Εκεινον πολλακις σπονδας ποιουνTwv, it alludes to the Spartan offer of a truce, Ol. 88. 4, which was rejected; and the suspension of arms agreed upon Ol. 89. 1, and ill-observed, the Lacedæmonians continuing their conquests in Thrace,