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γῆς: Sauppe construes this with ἐκεῖ, citing ὅπου γῆς Rep. iii. 403 e, γῆς οὐδαμοῦ ix. 592 a, οὗ γῆς Menex. 235 c, and declaring that to connect it with πλεῖστοι is against the usus loquendi. Still, this latter const. seems a very natural sequence and climax to πλείστη τῶν Ἑλλήνων, and is maintained by Stallbaum, Kroschel, and Deuschle, and given in Kr. Spr. 47, 28, 7, where this passage is cited.σχηματίζονται: cf. Soph. 268 a ὡς ἀγνοεῖ ταῦτα, ἃ πρὸς τοὺς ἄλλους ὡς εἰδὼς ἐσχημάτισται (he has pretended to know), Tim. Lex. σχηματιζόμενος: προσποιούμενος ἢ συνταττόμενος.
τοὺς σοφιστάς: for the incorporation and assimilation of the antec., see G. 154; H. 995. (The article in such cases is more commonly dropped.) Cf. 359 d ἐν οἷς σύ ἔλεγες τοῖς λόγοις, Phaedo 66 e τότε ἡμῖν ἔσται οὗ ἐπιθυμοῦμεν φρονήσεως, Rep. iii. 402 c οὔτε αὐτοὶ οὔτε οὕς φαμεν ἡμῖν παιδευτέον εἶναι τοὺς φύλακας neither we, nor the guardians whom we say we have to educate.
ἐξηπατήκασι: a humorous reference to Protagoras's description in 316 δ ε, 317 a.
Many Athenians, who hated the democracy and bewailed the decay of morals, hoped to improve matters by an imitation of Spartan ways, and, as usually happens, copied them only externally. They made themselves conspicuous by stern looks, a mustache, a staff and short cloak, and engaged in gymnastics to such an excess, that, contrary to the law of Sparta, they zealously practised boxing. Cf. Ar. Av. 1281 ἐλακωνομάνουν ἅπαντες ἅνθρωποι τότε, ἐκόμων, ἐπείνων, ἐρρύπων ἐσωκράτων all men then had a Laconomania; they wore their hair long, went hungry and dirty, acted like Socrates, Dem. LIV. 34 οἳ μεθ᾽ ἡμέραν μὲν ἐσκυθρωπάκασι καὶ λακωνίζειν φασὶ καὶ τρίβωνας ἔχουσι καὶ ἁπλᾶς ὑποδέδενται who during the day look gloomy and say they live in the Spartan style, wear short cloaks and single-soled shoes, Plut. Phoc. 10 ἦν δέ τις Ἀρχιβιάδης ἐπικαλούμενος Λακωνιστής, πώγωνά τε καθειμένος ὑπερφυῆ μεγέθει (wearing a beard of monstrous size) καὶ τρίβωνα φορῶν ἀεὶ καὶ σκυθρωπάζων. The same fashion prevailed also, as it seems (ἐν ταῖς πόλεσι), in other cities.
Hermann Sauppe. James A. Towle. Commentary on Plato: Protagoras. Ginn & Company. Boston and London. 1889.
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