Deceleian War: i.e. the last part of the Peloponnesian War (413-404 B.C.), when Deceleia (in Attica) was occupied by the Spartans.
§ 99. Thebans… Euboea: in 358 or 357. See Speech for Megalopolitans, § 14 n.
§ 100. Oropus. See Speech for Megalopolitans, Section 11 n.
I was one. Demosthenes was, in fact, co-trierarch with Philinus (Speech against Meidias, § 161).
§ 102. See Speech on Naval Boards (with Introd. and notes), and n. on Olynthiac II, § 29.
obtaining exemption. The undertaking of the trierarchy conferred exemption from other burdens for the year, and (conversely) no one responsible for another public burden need be trierarch. The leaders of the Taxation Boards referred to in § 103 are probably not (as generally supposed) the richest men in the Naval Boards [Footnote: They may indeed have been so, but it was in virtue of their function as leading members of the Hundred Boards (for collecting the war tax) that they were grouped together as the Three Hundred.] (responsible for trierarchy), but those in the Hundred Boards responsible for the war tax. In each of these Boards there was a leader, a 'second', and a 'third', and these, all together, are almost certainly identical with the 'Three Hundred' responsible for advancing the sum due. When these were already advancing the war tax, they became exempt from trierarchy, and their poorer colleagues in the Naval Boards (to which of course they also belonged) had to bear the burden without them. But under Demosthenes' law the trierarchic payment was required from all alike, in strict proportion to their valuation as entered for the purposes of the war tax; and the Three Hundred (the leaders, seconds, and thirds) were no longer exempted. (This explains their anxiety to get the law shelved.) Even in years when they were not exempt, before Demosthenes' law was passed, they only paid a very small share in proportion to their wealth, since all the members of each Naval Board paid the same sum. It appears, however, that (though the Three Hundred as such cannot be shown to have had any office in connexion with the trierarchy) the richer men in the Naval Boards arranged the contracts for the work of equipment, and that when they had contracted that the work should be done (e.g.) for a talent, they sometimes recovered the whole talent from their poorer colleagues. (Speech against Meidias, § 155.)
§ 103. lie under sworn notice, &c. ([Greek: en hupomosia]). One who intended to indict the proposer of a law for illegality had probably to give sworn notice of his intention, and the suggestion made to Demosthenes was that when such notice had been given, he should let the law drop.
§ 105. the decree, &c.: i.e. either a decree suspending the law until the indictment should be heard, or one ordering the trial on the indictment to be held.
§ 107. no trierarch, &c. A trierarch who thought the burden too heavy for him could appeal against it by laying a branch on the altar in the Pnyx, or by taking sanctuary in the Temple of Artemis at Munychia. A dilatory or recalcitrant trierarch could be arrested by order of the ten commissioners ([Greek: apostuleis]) who constituted a sort of Admiralty Board.
§ 111. the laws, &c. The laws alleged to have been violated were copied out, and accompanied the indictment. With regard to the laws in the present case, see Goodwin's edition, pp. 313-6.