P. 510. Όπου τυραννος εστιν αρχων αγριος.] Α severe reflection on the Athenian people. P. 511. The price of a pilot from Ægina to Attica was two oboli (about two-pence halfpenny); from Attica to Pontus or to Egypt two drachmæ (fifteen-pence halfpenny). Ρ. 514. Εν τω πιθω την κεραμειαν μανθανειν.] Proverb. To begin with a jar before we have made a gallipot. Hor. Art. Poet. Amphora cœpit Institui, currente rotâ cur urceus exit? P. 515. Eis pur0opopav.] The administration of Pericles was the ruin of the Athenian constitution. By abridging the power of the Areopagus, and by impairing their authority, who were the superintendents of education and the censors of publick manners, he sapped the foundations of virtue among them; by distributing the publick revenue among the courts of justice, he made them mercenary and avaricious, negligent of their private affairs, and ever meddling in those of their neighbours; by the frequency and magnificence of the publick spectacles, he inured them to luxury and to idleness; and by engaging them in the Peloponnesian war, he exposed them to be deserted by all their allies, and left to the mercy of the braver and more virtuous Lacedæmonians. Isocrates 1 looked upon the first of these alterations only, as the ruin of his country. (Orat. Areopagit. p. 147, &c.) 1 Though he had no prejudice to the person of Pericles, and does justice to his disinterestedness and honesty in the management of the publick money. (See Isocrat. Orat. de Pace, p. 184.) Ρ. 515. Εις μισθοφοραν.] The Mισθος Δικαστικός here spoken of by Socrates was three oboli a day paid to 6000 citizens (for so many sat in the courts of justice), which was to the state a yearly expense of one hundred and fifty talents; i.e. reckoning ten months to the year, for two months were spent in holidays, when the courts did not meet. Α Μισθος (appointed by Agyrrius about Ol. 96. 4, see Aristophan. Εκκλησιαζουσαι, ν. 102, 185, 284, 292, 302, 380, and also his Plutus, v. 330, which last passage is wrongly interpreted by the Scholiast, by Spanheim, and by Kuster;) a Muros (I say) was given by every Athenian citizen who came to the EKKλnoia, or assembly of the people. The ill effect which this had upon their manners is painted by Aristophanes with much humour in several of his dramas, and particularly in the Vespæ. Ib. Των τα ώτα κατεαγότων.] From such as affected to imitate the manners of the Lacedæmonians, and constantly practised the roughest exercises of the Palæstra, particularly boxing, the bruises and scars of which were visible about their temples and ears: so in the Protagoras, p. 342. Οἱ μεν ωτα τε καταγνυνται μιμούμενοι αυτους (τους Λακεδαιμονιους) &c. Ρ. 516. Επι τελευτη του βιου.] See Plutarch in Pericles, towards the end. Oi Ib. Οἱ γε δικαιοι ἡμεροι.] Hom. Odys. Όσοι χαλεποιτε, και αγριοι, ουδε δικαιοι. θ. ν. 575. Ib. Els To Bapa pov.] This is not related either by Herodotus, or by Cornelius Nepos, or by Justin. Ρ. 517. Ουτε τη αληθινή, ουτε τη κολακικη.] This shews that Plato meant only to distinguish between the use of eloquence and its abuse; nor is he in earnest when he says, Ουδενα ἡμεις ισμεν ανδρα αγαθον γεγονοτα Tа TоITIкα, (for he afterwards himself names Aristides, as a man of uncommon probity) but only to shew that he had puzzled Callicles, who could not produce one example of a statesman who had abilities, or art, sufficient to preserve him from the fury of the people. P. 517. Ovs' eyw yeyw.] Hence it appears that he only means to shew how much superiour the character of a real philosopher is to that of a statesman. P. 518. Thearion, a famous baker, mentioned by Aristophanes (ap. Athenæum L. 3. p. 112. see also Casaubon. in locum) in Gerytade et Æolosicone, and by Antiphanes, another comick poet, (who lived fifty or sixty years afterwards) in his Omphale. We should read here Αρτοκοπος, not Αρτοποιος. The Οψαρτυτικα of Mithacus is a work often cited by Athenæus, L. 12. p. 516. The Sicilian and the Italian Greeks were noted for the luxury of the table. See Plato Epist. 7. p. 326 and 336. Ρ. 519. Σου δε ισως επιλήψονται.] I do not find what became of Callicles; but Alcibiades had already fled from his country, for fear of falling into the hands of the people. Ρ. 521. Ει σοι Μυσον.] Perhaps, Ουκ ει σοι Μυσον ἥδιον καλεῖσθαι, ως ει μη, &c. i.e. Not; if you would choose to fall into that helpless condition, (before described by Callicles, p. 486,) which you must do, unless you practise the art which I recommend. The Mysians were proverbial, as objects of contempt. Mvoŵv Aela was said of any poor-spirited people, who tamely sub mitted to every injury. Aristot. Rhetor. L. 1. P. 525. Пpoσnkel de TavтI.] 6. 14. on this passage. Ρ. 526. Εις δε και πανυ.] See Aulus Gellius, L. Plutarch takes notice that Aristides 1 was a favourite character with Plato. Mr. Hardion, who has written a life of Gorgias (collected with a good deal of industry from a variety of authors) and has given us a sketch of this dialogue of Plato, has yet been guilty of some mistakes, as where he fixes 3 the time of it to Ol. 95. 1, which is at least five years too late; and where he seems to say that Gorgias took Thessaly in his way to Olympia, which is a strange error in geography, &c. yet his performance, and particularly the analysis, is well worth reading. 1 In Vitâ Aristid. towards the end. 2 Dissertations sur l'origine et les progrès de la Rhétorique dans la Grèce Mémoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, &c. V. 15. p. 167, and 176. 3 Ib. p. 175. MINOS. Η, ΠΕΡΙ ΝΟΜΟΥ. THIS dialogue takes its name, (as also does the Hipparchus,) not from either of the persons introduced in it, but from the Cretan Minos, whose character and laws are mentioned pretty much at large. Socrates, and another Athenian nearly of the same age (who is not named), are considering the nature of laws in it; NOTES ON THE GREEK TEXT. Plat. Op. Serrani, Vol. 2. p. 313. P. 315. Human sacrifice, and particularly of their children, to Saturn was in use among the Carthaginians: the sacrifices of the Lycians and of the descendants of Athamas, though people of Greek origin, were barbarous; the ancient Attick custom is mentioned of sacrificing victims near the bodies of dead persons, before they were carried out to burial, and hiring EyxUTPIOTρiaι, (Schol. ad Arist. Vesp. v. 288.) and the still more ancient one of interring them in the houses where they died: both long since disused. 318. EK Kρηтns.] V. Herodot. and Plut. in Lycurgo, and Strabo. L. 10. p. 477. Ib. Λυκούργον.] The time of this dialogue is no where marked but we see from p. 321 that Socrates was now advanced in years; supposing him then to be only sixty, it is three hundred and sixty-seven years from the first Olympiad of Corœbus; but most criticks agree that Lycurgus lived one |