William Watson Goodwin, Commentary on Demosthenes: On the Crown

---

1. αὕτη...πρώτη, this was the first step taken and the first settlement effected in our relations with Thebes: ἐγίγνετο refers to the progress of the business in coming to a settlement. See Weil's note: “κατάστασις est ici le contraire de ταραχή.” Cf. XX. 11, ἐπειδὴ δ᾽ ἡ πόλις εἰς ἓν ἦλθε καὶ τὰ πράγματ̓ ἐκεῖνα κατέστη (after the rule of the Thirty), and Ar. Ran. 1003, ἡνίκ᾽ ἂν τὸ πνεῦμα λεῖον καὶ καθεστηκὸς λάβῃς.

5. παρελθεῖν ὥσπερ νέφος, to pass by like a cloud, or to vanish like a passing cloud. The simplicity of this simile was much admired by the Greek rhetoricians, who quote it nine times (see Spengel's index). See Longinus on the Sublime, 39, 4: ὑψηλόν γε τοῦτο δοκεῖ νόημα, καὶ ἔστι τῷ ὄντι θαυμάσιον, ὃ τῷ ψηφίσματι ὁ Δημοσθένης ἐπιφέρει...ἀλλ᾽ αὐτῆς τῆς διανοίας οὐκ ἔλαττον τῇ ἁρμονίᾳ πεφώνηται. He then discourses on the fatal effect which would result from a change in the order of the words, or from the omission or addition of a single syllable (as ὡς νέφος or ὥσπερ εἰ νέφος).

7. τούτων, i.e. than my measures.

In the last sentence of § 188, the orator suddenly breaks off his narrative, and digresses into a most eloquent defence of the policy of Athens in resisting Philip, and of his own conduct as her responsible leader. See note before §§ 160—226.