William Watson Goodwin, Commentary on Demosthenes: On the Crown

2. προείλεθ᾽ ἡ πόλις, more formal than ἔδοξε τῇ πόλει, perhaps implying (as H. Jackson suggests) a choice from epigrams sent in by competing poets—ἵν̓ εἰδῇς...μιαρόν: explained in § 290.

EPIGRAM. This cannot be the real epitaph inscribed on the public monument of the heroes of Chaeronea. It has too little poetic merit and too slovenly a style to be accepted as genuine. It is not in the older MSS., and it appears in the Anthol. Graeca, IV. p. 249 (Jacobs). We can be sure of one genuine verse (9), which is quoted by Demosthenes in § 290.1 (see note on this verse). A small fragment of an inscription has been found at Athens, cut (acc. to Köhler) between 350 and 300 B.C., which contains parts of six words of an epigram in the Anthol. Pal. VII. 245: this epigram was evidently inscribed to the heroes of Chaeronea. The full epigram is as follows, the letters found in the inscription being printed in heavy type:—

Ὦ Χρόνε, παντοίων θνητοῖς πανεπί- σκοπε δαῖμον,

Ἄγγελος ἡμετέρων πᾶςι γενοῦ πά- θεων

Ὡς ἱερὰν σῴζειν πειρώμενοι Ἑλλάδα χώραν

Βοιωτῶν κλεινοῖς θνῄσκομεν ἐν δαπέ- δοις.

This, though genuine, cannot be the inscription quoted by Demosthenes, as it does not have the verse μηδὲν... κατορθοῦν; but there were undoubtedly many epigrams commemorating the men of Chaeronea.

v. 1. ἔθεντο ὅπλα, arrayed them- selves (lit. placed their arms): see Arist. Pol. Ath. 8.29, ὃς ἂν στασιαζούσης τῆς πόλεως μὴ θῆται τὰ ὅπλα μηδὲ μεθ᾽ ἑτέρων, i.e. who takes sides with neither party. So Plat. Rep. 440 E. This is enough to show that the old interpretation of τίθεσθαι ὅπλα (as in Thuc. II. 2, twice), to pile and stack arms, is untenable, though it still lingers.

v. 2. ἀπεσκέδασαν, scattered, brought to nought: a patriotic exaggeration as applied to Chaeronea, perhaps referring to some special exploits of the Athenians. Diod. (XVI. 86) says, μέχρι μέν τινος ὁ ἀγὼν ἀμφιδοξουμένας εἶχε τὰς ἐλπίδας τῆς νίκης. Cf. Lycurgus (Leoc. 49), εἰ δὲ δεῖ καὶ παραδοξότατον μὲν εἰπεῖν ἀληθὲς δὲ, ἐκεῖνοι νικῶντες ἀπέθανον.

v. 3. ἀρετῆς καὶ δείματος must depend on βραβῆ, arbiter, by an hyperbaton which would be incredible in the genuine epitaph; οὐκ ἐσάωσαν ψυχὰς ἀλλ̓ being introduced in place of a participial clause like οὐ σώσαντες ψυχάς. The meaning evidently is, in the battle, while they sacrificed their lives, they left to the God of Death to judge whether they showed courage or fear. There is a similar hyperbaton in Xen. Hell. VII. 3, 7: ὑμεῖς τοὺς περὶ Ἀρχίαν καὶ Ὑπάτην,...οὐ ψῆφον ἀνεμείνατε, ἀλλ᾽ ὁπότε πρῶτον ἐδυνάσθητε ἐτιμωρήσασθε (West.).

v. 5. οὕνεκεν Ἑλλήνων belongs to vv. 3, 4.—ζυγὸν αὐχένι θέντες, a strange expression for classical times, but common in later poetry, as in the Anthology (Blass).

v. 6. ἀμφὶς ἔχωσιν (with μὴ), have about them, wear, like a yoke: cf. Od. III. 486, σεῖον ζυγὸν ἀμφὶς ἔχοντες.

v. 7. τῶν πλεῖστα καμόντων, of men who most grievously laboured, referring to the defeat; to these words ἐπεί (v. 8) refers back.

vv. 9, 10. μηδὲν...ἐν βιοτῇ, it is the gift of the Gods (for men) never to fail and always to succeed in life, i.e. this is a miraculous exception in mortal life; opposed to which is the fixed rule that death is appointed for all, μοῖραν...ἔπορεν (sc. Ζεὺς βροτοῖς). The two verses contain the ἐκ Διὸς κρίσις; but the change of construction in μοῖραν...ἔπορεν is awkward, and ἐν βιοτῇ is an unnatural addition to v. 9. It is now known that μηδὲν ἁμαρτεῖν ἐστι θεοῦ (or θεῶν) καὶ πάντα κατορθοῦν is a verse of the epigram of Simonides on the heroes of Marathon, of which two other lines are preserved:

Ἑλλήνων προμαχοῦντες Ἀθηναῖοι Μαραθῶνι

χρυσοφόρων Μήδων ἐστόρεσαν δύνα- μιν.

Kirchhoff (Hermes VI. pp. 487— 489) quotes from a MS. scholium: λέγει δὲ Σιμωνίδης ἐν ἐπιγράμματι ῥηθέντι αὐτῷ ἐπὶ τοῖς Μαραθῶνι πεσοῦσιν Ἀθηναίων τὸν στίχον τοῦτον, Μηδὲν ἁμαρτεῖν ἐστι θεοῦ καὶ πάντα κατορθοῦν. See Bergk, Poet. Lyr., Simon. fr. 82, with the note. See Themist. Or. XXII. p. 276 B, ἐπεὶ δὲ τὸ μηδὲν ἁμαρτάνειν ἔξω τῆς φύσεως κεῖται τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης,...τὸ ἐπίγραμμα ἀληθέστερον ὃ Ἀθήνησιν ἐπιγέγραπται ἐν τῷ τάφῳ τῷ δημοσίῳ: καὶ γὰρ τοῖς θεοῖς μόνοις τὸ πάντα κατορθοῦν ἀπονέμει. These two quotations refer to a verse in which “never to fail and always to succeed” is called a divine prerogative; while in the same words in the inscription quoted by Demosthenes these are called a privilege sometimes granted by the Gods to favoured mortals (see § 290). The original verse of Simonides, μηδὲν... κατορθοῦν (without ἐν βιοτῇ), was probably used, as a well-known verse, in the genuine epigram on those who fell at Chaeronea (still without ἐν βιοτῇ), but with a different meaning; and in this new sense it was quoted by Demosthenes in § 290. The writer of our epigram probably borrowed the genuine line (perhaps from the text of Demosthenes), and added the whole of v. 10. See notes of West. and Bl.