§§ 1, 2. Exordium ( προοίμιον). Having been defeated by false testimony in my suit against Phormion, I have come into court to claim a verdict against those who compassed that outrageous and atrocious wrong. I ask the jury to give me a friendly and favourable hearing; and, if I make good my case, to grant me the redress which is my due.
In the former trial, the defendant Stephanus in particular gave false evidence against me, prompted by corrupt motives; and I propose to prove this from his own testimony. A brief recital of the relations between Phormion and myself will help the jury to form an opinion on the villaing of Phormion and the falsehood of his witnesses.
The Exordium is not unlike that of Or. 54, where, as here, the προαύλιον (Ar. Rhet. III 14) or, as we should say, the keynote of the whole speech is struck in the opening words: ὐβρισθεὶς ὦ ἄνδρες δικασταὶ καὶ παθὼν ὑπὸ Κόνωνος κ.τ.λ. Cf. 21 § 1; 57 § 1.—The appeal ad captandam benevolentiam, πρῶτον μὲν εὐνοϊκῶς ἀκοῦσαί μου, also occurs in Or. 54 § 2, and similarly the formula εἶτ᾽ ἐὰν (ἠδικῆσθαι καὶ παρανενομῆσθαι) δοκῶ, βοηθῆσαί μοι τὰ δίκαια (cf. 21 § 7; 27 § 3; 37 § 3; 38 § 2), and lastly the promise of brevity, ὡς ἂν οἷός τε ὦ διὰ βραχυτάτων (cf. 36 § 3; 27 § 3; 37 § 3).
καταψευδομαρτυρηθεὶς ‘Crushed by’ (or ‘having been the victim of’) ‘false testimony.’ Cf. Or. 21 § 136; 33 § 37; and Plat. Gorg. 472 B. Haipocr. καταψευδομαρτυρησάμενος: ἀντὶ τοῦ παρασχὼν τὰ ψευδη (αν ψευδῆ?) μαρτυρήσοντας. Δημοσθένης ἐν τῷ κατὰ Στεφανου. The lexicographer intended doubtless to refer to Or. 29 (ὺπὲρ Φάνου πρὸς Ἀφοβον ψευδομαρτυριῶν） § 6, where the middle participle explained by him is to be found. The mistake possibly arose out of a confusion between the titles of the two speeches, κατὰ Στεφάνου and ὑπὲρ Φάνου (A. Schaefer in Neue Jahrb. 1870, vol. 101 p. 523).
ὧ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι occurs 24 times in Or. 36, and 21 times in this speech, but never in the rest of the speeches of Apollodorus in private causes, though found 9 times in Or. 59, in Neaeram, delivered by the same speaker in a public cause (Huettner).
παθὼν ... ὑβριστικά Or. 23 § 56.
δέομαι .. ἱκετεύω .. ἀντιβολῶ Cf. infra § 85, Or. 27 (Aphobus A) § 68, and 57 (Eubul.) § 1; Lysias Or. 18 § 27, and 21 § 21. Such combinations of two or three nearly synonymous verbs are very common in the undisputed speeches of Demosthenes (e.g. Or. 36 § 47 ἄγεις εἰς μέσον, δεικνύεις, ἐλέγχεις; ib. 52 ἐλαύνεις, συκοφαντεῖς, διώκεις; ib. 57 δεῖται καὶ ἱκετεύει καὶ άξιοῖ; Or. 54 § 33 δικάζομαι καὶ μισῶ καὶ ἐπεξέρχομαι). The speech ὑπὲρ Φορμίωνος alone contains nearly forty such passages; of the speeches delivered by Apollodorus, the first oration against Stephanus has more than 30, while in the rest there is hardly anything of the kind, though in the second speech against Stephanus, § 28, we have δέομαι καὶ ἱκετεύω. (J. Sigg in Neue Jahrb., Suppl. vi p. 419.)
μέγα γὰρ—τυχεῖν Or. 57 § 1 τοῖς γὰρ ἐν κινδύνῳ καθεστηκόσιν εἰκὸς εὐνοικωτἐρους ὑπάρχειν.
εὐμενῶς Almost equivalent to εὐνοικῶς in the last sentence; εὐμενής, however, is not so trivial a word as εὔνους. The former is frequent in Attic verse, the latter is generally found in prose; the former is most often used of the gracious condescension of a deity; the latter of the kindly feelings of ordinary human beings. Or. 4 § 45, τὸ τῶν θεῶν εὐμενές, illustrates the rule, while the exceptions in the present passage and Ep. 3 § 45, and in Isocr. 4 § 43 and in Plato, Rep. 607 D, may be paralleled from Herod. VII 237 ξεῖνος δὲ ξείνῳ ... εὐμενέστατον πάντων.
βοηθῆσαι—δίκαια Or. 54 § 2 = βοηθοῦντας άποδοῦναί μοι τὰ δίκαια (54 § 42).
