§§ 16—17. As to our own character, no one has ever seen us playing drunken pranks on other people, and we cannot see how our opponents can call us ‘hard’ on others, if we claim redress. Conon's sons are welcome to belong to their disorderly clubs, but I shall be surprised if this or any similar plea will enable them to escape with impunity.
οὔτε παροινοῦντες οὔθ᾽ ὑβρίζοντες .οὔτ᾽ ἄγνωμον κ.τ.λ. This refers to § 14 παροίνους... καὶ ὑβριστὰς ..ἀγνώμονας δὲ καὶ πικρούς. The MSS have οὔθ᾽ ὑβρίζοντες, which Baiter alters into οὐδ᾽ ὑβρίζοντες. It would be better perhaps (with Bekker) to leave οὔθ᾽ ὑβρίζοντες, and to alter ούτ᾽ into οὐδ᾽ before ἄγνωμον. The break between the second clause and the first is clearly greater than between the two parts of the first (viz. παροινοῦντες and ὑβρίζοντες). Cf. 55 § 4.
ἑωράμεθα This form of the perf. of ὁρᾶν (for the older Attic ὦμμαι, the 2nd and 3rd sing. of which occur in Dem.) is also found in Isocr. antid. § 110 μηδ᾽ ὑφ᾽ ἑνὸς ἑωρᾶσθαι, possibly the earliest extant instance (the antidosis belongs to B.C. 355; the present speech to B.C. 355 or 341).
συγχωροῦμεν κ.τ.λ. ‘They are welcome, so far as we are concerned, to the attributes of Priapi and Sileni.’ For the dat. cf. § 44 πονηροτέροις ἡμῖν εἶναι συνέβαινεν.
εἰς...τρέπεσθαι Passive; ‘recoil upon the head of.’ Ar. Ach. 833 πολυπραγμοσύνη νῦν εἰς κεφαλὴν τρέποιτ᾽ ἐμοί. (Dem.) Epist. 4 § 10 οἱ θεοὶ...τὴν ἄδικον βλασφημίαν εἰς κεφαλὴν τῷ λέγοντι τρέπουσι.
οἱ τελοῦντες κ.τ.λ. ‘who initiate one another with Priapic rites.’—πολλὴν αἰσχύνην ἔχει, ‘involve deep disgrace even to speak of.’
τί ταῦτ᾽ ἐμοί;] Or. 20 § 20 τί τοῦτο τῇ πόλει;
