THE FIRST OLYNTHIAC
(Note.—Most of the allusions in the Olynthiacs are explained by the Introduction to the First Philippic.)
§ 4. power over everything, open or secret. The translation generally approved, 'power to publish or conceal his designs,' is hardly possible. The [Greek: kai] in the phrase [Greek: rh_eta kai aporr_eta] (or [Greek: arr_eta]) cannot be taken disjunctively here, when it is always conjunctive in this phrase elsewhere, the whole phrase being virtually equivalent to 'everything whatever'.
§ 5. how he treated, &c. The scholiast says that Philip killed the traitors at Amphipolis first, saying that if they had not been faithful to their own countrymen, they were not likely to be faithful to himself; and that the traitors at Pydna, finding that they were not likely to be spared, took sanctuary, and having been persuaded to surrender themselves on promise of their lives, were executed nevertheless. Neither story is confirmed by other evidence.
§ 8. in aid of the Euboeans: in 358 or 357. See Speech for Megalopolitans, § 14 n.
§ 13. Magnesia. There seems to have been a town of the same name as the district.
attacked the Olynthians. This refers to the short invasion of 351 (see vol. i, p. 70), not to that which is the subject of the Olynthiacs.
Arybbas was King of the Molossi, and uncle of Philip's wife, Olympias. Nothing is known of this expedition against him. He was deposed by Philip in 343. (See vol. ii, p. 3.)
§ 17. these towns: the towns of the Chalcidic peninsula, over which Olynthus had acquired influence. This sentence shows that Olynthus itself had not yet been attacked.
§ 26. But, my good Sir, &c. This must be the objection of an imaginary opponent. It can hardly be taken (as seems to be intended by Butcher) as Demosthenes' reply to the question, 'Or some other power?' ('But, my good Sir, the other power will not want to help him.') There is, however, much to be said for Sandys's punctuation, [Greek: _ean m_e bo_eth_es_eth umeis e allos tis], 'unless you or some other power go to their aid.' After the death of Onomarchus in 352, the Phocians were incapable of withstanding invasion without help.