William Watson Goodwin, Commentary on Demosthenes: On the Crown

4. ἰδεῖν...ἀρχόμενα κ.τ.λ.: no one can read the earlier orations of Demosthenes in the light of later events without feeling the justice of this claim to sagacity which he puts forward. He, indeed, of all the statesmen of Athens, saw things in their beginnings, and steadily warned the people of the coming danger.

7. πολιτικὰ ταῖς πόλεσι, inherent in (free) governments: a striking case of a favourite Greek form of emphasis, which repeats the idea of a noun in an adjective. Here the whole idea could have been expressed either by πολιτικά or by οἰκεῖα ταῖς πόλεσι; but it is made doubly strong by πολιτικὰ ταῖς πόλεσι. The Greek constantly emphasizes by what we should call tautology, as in the repetition of negatives. In Aeschyl. Ag. 56, οἰωνόθροον γόον ὀξυβόαν, the whole idea could have been expressed by οἰωνῶν γόον ὀξύν, shrill cry of birds, but the idea of cry is added in both adjectives. πόλεσι here has the same reference to free governments which is usually implied in πολιτεία (see note on § 65.9): cf. Soph. Ant. 737, πόλις γὰρ οὐκ ἔσθ᾽ ἥτις ἀνδρός ἐσθ̓ ἑνός. With the whole passage cf. §§ 235, 236.

8. ὡς belongs to εἰς ἐλάχιστα, into the smallest possible compass: see § 288.5.

9. συστεῖλαι, to contract: συστέλ- λω sometimes means to shorten sail, as in Ar. Ran. 999; cf. Eq. 432, συστείλας τοὺς ἀλλᾶντας.

11. πεποίηται: in the same sense as πέπρακται (5): see note on § 4.6.

12. κατ᾽ ἐμὲ: most MSS. (not Σ and L.1) have τὸ κατ᾽ ἐμὲ, as in § 247.11.