1. καὶ παραπλήσια: we have here only a single passage of what must have been one of the most eloquent speeches of Demosthenes.
3—5. οὐκ εἶπον μὲν...Θηβαίους: a most famous example of climax (κλῖμαξ, ladder), in which the antitheses of μέν and δέ give a wonderful effect. Each of the three leading negatives (οὐκ, οὐδ᾽ , οὐδ̓) introduces a pair of clauses of which the second is negative, and which as a whole it negatives. Thus the first οὐκ negatives the compound idea, I spoke, but proposed no measures; then the positive conclusion thus attained, I did propose measures, is taken as an assumption in the next step. Without the help of μέν and δέ the mixture of negatives would have made hopeless confusion. Quintilian (IX. 3, 55) thus translates the passage, skilfully using quidem for μέν and sed for δέ: non enim dixi quidem sed non scripsi, nec scripsi quidem sed non obii legationem, nec obii quidem sed non persuasi Thebanis.
7. ἁπλῶς, without reserve, abso- lutely.—τοὺς...κινδύνους: for the order see note on § 176.11.
8. τὸ ψήφισμα...γενόμενον: cf. Aesch. III. 25, πρὶν ἢ τὸν Ἡγήμονος νόμον γενέσθαι, and II. 160, ποῖον (νόμον) γενέσθαι κωλύσας.
