§ 4. _two or three years ago_ (lit. 'this is the third or fourth year
since). It was in November 352 B.C. If the present Speech was delivered
before November 349, not quite three years would have elapsed. (The
Greek words, [Greek: triton _he tetarton etos touti], must, on the
analogy of the Speech against Meidias, § 13, against Stephanus, II. §
13, and against Aphobus, I. § 24, &c., mean 'two or three', not 'three
or four years ago'). The vagueness of the expression is more likely to
be due to the date of the Third Olynthiac being not far short of three
years from that of the siege of Heraeon Teichos, than to the
double-dating (on the one hand by actual lapse of time, and on the
other by archon-years--from July to July--or by military campaigning
seasons) which most commentators assume to be intended here, but which
seems to me over-subtle and unlike Demosthenes.
_that year_: i.e. the archonship of Aristodemus, which ran from July
352 B.C. to July 351.
§ 5. _the mysteries_. These were celebrated from the 14th to the 27th
of Boedromion (late in September).
_Charidemus_, of Oreus in Euboea, was a mercenary leader who had served
many masters at different times--Athens, Olynthus, Cotys, and
Cersobleptes--and had played most of them false at some time or other.
But he was given the citizenship in 357 for the part which he had taken
in effecting the cession of the Chersonese to Athens, and was a
favourite with the people. He was sent on the occasion here referred to
with ten ships, for which he was to find mercenary soldiers.
§ 6. _with might ... power_. A quotation, probably from the text of the
treaty of alliance between Athens and Olynthus.
§ 8. _funds of the Phocians are exhausted_. The Phocian leader
Phalaecus had been using the temple-treasures of Delphi, but they were
now exhausted.
§ 10. _a Legislative Commission_: i.e. a Special Commission on the
model of the regular Commission which was appointed annually from the
jurors for the year (if the Assembly so decreed), and before which
those who wished to make or to oppose changes in the laws appeared, the
proceedings taking the form of a prosecution and defence of the laws in
question. The Assembly itself did not legislate, though it passed
decrees, which had to be consistent with the existing laws. As regards
legislation, it merely decided whether in any given year alterations in
the laws should or should not be allowed.
§ 11. _malingerers_. The scholiast says that the choregi were persuaded
to choose persons as members of their choruses, in order to enable them
to escape military service, choreutae being legally exempted. Other
exemptions also existed.
§ 12. _persons who proposed them_. This can only refer to Eubulus and
his party.
§ 20. _Corinthians and Megareans_. From the pseudo-Demosthenic Speech
on the Constitution ([Greek: _pe_ri suntaxe_os_]) and from Philochorus
(quoted in the Scholia of Didymus upon that Speech) it appears that the
Athenians had in 350 invaded Megara, under the general Ephialtes, and
forced the Megareans to agree to a delimitation of certain land sacred
to the two goddesses of Eleusis, which the Megareans had violated,
perhaps for some years past (see Speech against Aristocrates, § 212). A
scholiast also refers to the omission by Corinth to invite the
Athenians to the Isthmian games, in consequence of which the Athenians
sent an armed force to attend the games. Probably this was also a
recent occurrence, and due to an understanding between Corinth and
Megara.
§ 21. _my own namesake_: i.e. Demosthenes, who was a distinguished
general during the Peloponnesian War, and perished in the Sicilian
expedition.
§ 24. _for forty-five years_: i.e. between the Persian and
Peloponnesian Wars, 476-431 B.C.
_the king_: i.e. Perdiccas II, who, however, took the side of Sparta
shortly after the beginning of the Peloponnesian War. He died in 413.
(The date of the beginning of his reign is unknown, but he did not
become sole king of the whole of Macedonia until 436.)
§ 27. _Spartans had been ruined_: sc. by the battles of Leuctra (in
371) and Mantineia (in 362).
_Thebans had their hands full_, owing to the war with the Phocians,
from 356 onwards.
§ 28. _in the war_, when Athens joined Thebes against Sparta (in 378).
'The allies' are those members of the Second Delian League (formed in
378) who had been lost in the Social War which ended in or about 355,
when Athens was at peace with Thebes and Sparta. (See Introduction,
vol. i, p. 9.)
§ 31. _procession at the Boedromia_. The Boedromia was a festival held
in September in honour of Apollo and Artemis Agrotera, Probably a
procession was not a regular part of the festival at this time. The
importance which the populace attached to such processions is
illustrated by the Speech against Timocrates, § 161.
§ 34. _is it then paid service, &c_.: almost, 'do you then suggest that
we should _earn_ our money?'
§ 35. _adding or subtracting_: sc. from the sums dispensed by the State
to the citizens.
_somebody's mercenaries_. The reference is probably to the successes of
Charidemus when first sent (see Introd. to Olynthiacs).