William Watson Goodwin, Commentary on Demosthenes: On the Crown

3. πότε...ἐκεῖσε; this question is made a genitive with τοῦ. The sub ject of βαδίζειν is ὑμᾶς, the Athenian army. The embassy probably departed for Thebes at once, so as to lose no time in securing the confidence of the Thebans; but the army could not march further than Eleusis until it was invited by Thebes to cross her frontier. This was done in due time (§ 215.1), after negotiations at Thebes (§§ 211—214). To facilitate this movement when the summons should come, the people were asked to empower the embassy at Thebes, in concurrence with the generals at Eleusis, to order a march to Thebes at any moment, and to decide all questions about the march itself (τῆς ἐξόδου).

5. χρήσασθαι τῷ πράγματι, to manage the (diplomatic) business.

6. τούτῳ...νοῦν: this special call for close attention was made to excite the audience with the expectation of hearing just what the embassy was to ask of the Thebans, and to impress them the more by the unexpected answer μὴ δεῖσθαι Θηβαίων μηδέν. It was indeed an unheard of thing for an embassy to be sent to a semihostile state in such an emergency, with no demands or even requests, but with an unconditional offer of military help whenever it might be asked for. Aeschines does not fail to misrepresent this noble act of Demosthenes, and to criticise the course of the embassy: see III. 145, τὸ βουλευτήριον τὸ τῆς πόλεως καὶ τὴν δημοκρατίαν ἄρδην ἔλαθεν ὑφελόμενος, καὶ μετήνεγκεν εἰς Θήβας εἰς τὴν Καδμείαν.

9. ἐν τοῖς ἐσχάτοις, in extremis. —ἡμῶν...προορωμένων (also with ὡς), on the ground that we foresee (the course of events) better than they (τὸ μέλλον is omitted with Σ): cf. τὸ μὴ δύνασθαι προορᾶν, Plat. Theaet. 166 A.

10. ἵν̓...ὦμεν διῳκημένοι, that we may (then) have accomplished what we wish: the perfect subjunctive here and in l. 15 (ᾖ πεπραγμένον) is future-perfect in time, in contrast to the simple future of πράξωμεν and ἐγκαλῶσιν (M.T. 103).

12. προσχήματος, ground of ac- tion: πρόσχημα is what appears on the outside, which may be either mere show or (as here) an honest exhibition of the truth. Cf. the double meaning of πρόφασις, ground of action or pretext, in § 225.5.—ἂν δ᾽ ἄρα, but if after all: cf. § 278.6.

13. κατατυχεῖν, to succeed (=ἐπι- τυχεῖν, Hesych.), acc. to Blass is not elsewhere found in classic writers. —αὑτοῖς ἐγκαλῶσιν, may have themselves to blame.