1. It is not clear whether the strict distinction between βαρβαρισμός (wrong vocabulary, spelling, or pronunciation) and σολοικισμός (wrong syntax) is here maintained. Possibly Batis may have offended (1) by using a word (δεσπότης) abhorrent to all free men of Greek blood, or (2) by using it in the wrong case, or (3) by mispronouncing it: cp. Sandys History of Classical Scholarship i. 148, for the comprehensiveness of the term σολοικισμός. But if it be held that σολοικισμός cannot occur in one isolated word (cp. Quintil. i. 5. 36), then it may be supposed that the reference here is to grammatical blunders in other words ejaculated by the unhappy Batis.
3. Βαβυλώνιον ζῷον: a comparison suggests itself with the Assyrian bulls represented in reliefs (cp. Tennyson’s Maud, “That oil’d and curl’d Assyrian Bull”).—The reading of P, ἕτερον ἀνδρός, might mean ‘far different from a man’ (viri: not ἀνθρώπου, hominis).
4. Hegesias’ use of στρατιωτικός may be compared with de Lys. c. 12 (of Iphicrates) ἥ τε λέξις πολὺ τὸ φορτικὸν καὶ στρατιωτικὸν ἔχει καὶ οὐχ οὕτως ἐμφαίνει ῥητορικὴν ἀγχίνοιαν ὡς στρατιωτικὴν αὐθάδειαν καὶ ἀλαζονείαν.
7. ἐστιν αἰκιζόμενος: not simply a periphrasis for αἰκίζεται.
8. For Hector’s insensibility cp. Murray’s Rise of the Greek Epic pp. 118, 132.—The savagery of Achilles was, nevertheless, generally felt to need extenuation, as may be seen from the curious explanations proffered in the scholia: e.g. ὁ δὲ Καλλίμαχός φησιν ὅτι πάτριόν ἐστι Θεσσαλοῖς τοὺς τῶν φιλτάτων φονέας σύρειν περὶ τοὺς τῶν φονευθέντων τάφους, κτλ.
11. Cp. Virg. Aen. ii. 268 ff. (the vision of the mangled Hector).
κωκυτῷ τ’ εἴχοντο καὶ οἰμωγῇ κατὰ ἄστυ.
τῷ δὲ μάλιστ’ ἂρ ἔην ἐναλίγκιον, ὡς εἰ ἅπασα
Ἴλιος ὀφρυόεσσα πυρὶ σμύχοιτο κατ’ ἄκρης.
οὕτως εὐγενὲς σῶμα καὶ δεινὰ πάθη λέγεσθαι προσῆκεν ὑπ’
ἀνδρῶν φρόνημα καὶ νοῦν ἐχόντων. ὡς δὲ ὁ Μάγνης εἴρηκεν, 5
ὑπὸ γυναικῶν ἢ κατεαγότων ἀνθρώπων λέγοιτ’ ἂν καὶ οὐδὲ
τούτων μετὰ σπουδῆς, ἀλλ’ ἐπὶ χλευασμῷ καὶ καταγέλωτι.
τί οὖν αἴτιον ἦν ἐκείνων μὲν τῶν ποιημάτων τῆς εὐγενείας,
τούτων δὲ τῶν φλυαρημάτων τῆς ταπεινότητος; ἡ τῶν
ῥυθμῶν διαφορὰ πάντων μάλιστα, καὶ εἰ μὴ μόνη. ἐν 10
ἐκείνοις μὲν γὰρ οὐδὲ εἷς ἄσεμνος στίχος οὐδ’ ἀδόκιμος,
ἐνταῦθα δὲ οὐδεμία περίοδος ἥτις οὐ λυπήσει.
εἰρηκὼς δὴ καὶ περὶ τῶν ῥυθμῶν ὅσην δύναμιν ἔχουσιν,
ἐπὶ τὰ λειπόμενα μεταβήσομαι.