VIII. 411, "noctem addens operi." The meaning is, "night also was employed in preparing the war-engines." As the present remarks are intended rather to draw attention to the subject than to give it a complete discussion, I subjoin the passages, hoping that the list will be increased by the observation of students of Virgil and Tacitus. NOTES. By J. P. MAHAFFY, A. M., Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, and Professor of Ancient History. ARISTOPHANES, Ιππῆς, vv. 258-65. ἐν δίκῃ γ', ἐπεὶ τὰ κοινὰ πρὶν λαχεῖν κατεσθίεις, THIS passage has greatly troubled the commentators. In the first place, the last lines, καὶ σκοπεῖς πράγματα, are certainly no proper conclusion to the passage, and are, therefore, against the authority of all the MSS., inserted after v. 26o, where the repetition of σκοπεῖς γε, immediately after σκοπῶν, makes them very awkward. But, in the second place, almost every word in vv. 262-3 gives rise to doubts and difficulties. Why should Cleon's prey be brought from the Chersonese? What does Staßaλúv mean? and shall we read διαλαβών, making it and ἀγκυρίσας wrestling metaphors? What is meant by turning away the shoulder, and how can ἐνεκολήβασας, of which the meaning seems to be to swallow, be reconciled with any process in wrestling? These latter difficulties are, in my opinion, all produced by the false assumption of some of the scholiasts, that Aristophanes jumped from the metaphor of pulling figs into that of wrestling. The passage is far simpler without this assumption, and does not require its words to be tortured. We only require to accentuate ὠμόν (ν. 263) instead of uov, and to repudiate the unwarranted transposition of the last verses (264-5) into the middle of the metaphor, where they dislocate well-connected lines. From this point of view, kɛxηvóra refers, most aptly, to the gaping of the overripe fruit. καταγαγὼν ἐκ Χερρονήσου means 'drawing him down from Chersonesus' (where he had, probably, gone on private business) as from a high branch of the tree. εἰς Λῆμνον πλεῖν was a proverb for men evading a legal summons on pleas of private business. I suppose the cleruchies in the Chersonese afforded similar causes of absence. Siaßadav ȧykúpiσaç is difficult, but not διαβαλὼν ἀγκύρισας the latter word, which points to the ȧykúpioμa, or fig hook, as Hesychius says. The words therefore mean, ‘having hooked him by calumny.' Most later editors have diaλaßov and nykúpioas, to which I object, as it introduces two changes in the text unnecessarily, and the former merely to support a false theory of explanation. ̓Αποστρέψας τὸν ὠμόν, is not, as the commentators strangely believe, 'turning away his shoulder,' or 'your own shoulder,' either of which operations is unknown in wrestling, and both equally absurd; but it is 'turning aside the unripe fig, so as not to pull it with the ripe one. Figs often grow in pairs on the tree, but never I think in large clusters. I have never seen more than three together. avròv EVEKOλńẞaσas, 'you gulp down the ripe one.' There is no other proper meaning for yoλŋßálш than this, given by Hesychius, and it perfectly accords with the sense. The retrospective sense given to avròv, referring it to the ripe fig, and not the raw, will offend no scholar acquainted with the use of the pronoun in Aristophanes, ex. gr. Σφήκες, 239 : τῆς ἀρτοπώλιδος λαθόντ ̓ ἐκλέψαμεν τὸν ὅλμον καθ' ἥψαμεν τοῦ κορκόρου, κατασχίσαντες αὐτὸν (sc. τὸν ὅλμον). The last two lines are, I think, in their right place. After describing, under the metaphor of the gathering of figs, Cleon's treatment of the VTEú0uvo, who were by far |