ὥσπερ βιβλία κτἑ.: “They can only make speeches, they cannot defend a position” (ἐρωτᾶν καὶ ἀποκρίνεσθαι, i.e. διαλέγεσθαι Crat. 390 c). Cf. Phaedr. 275 d δεινὸν γάρ που τοῦτ᾽ ἔχει γραφή, καὶ ὡς ἀληθῶς ὅμοιον ζωγραφίᾳ (the art of painting)' καὶ γὰρ τὰ ἐκείνης ἔκγονα ἕστηκε μὲν ὡς ζῶντα, ἐὰν δ᾽ ἀνέρῃ τι, σεμνῶς πάνυ σιγᾷ. ταὐτὸν δὲ καὶ οἱ λόγοι: δόξαις μὲν ἂν ὥς τι φρονοῦντας αὐτοὺς λέγειν, ἐὰν δέ τι ἔρῃ τῶν λεγομένων βουλόμενος μαθεῖν, ἕν τι σημαίνει μόνον ταὐτὸν ἀεί. Cf. also below, 336 b f., 347 e ff.
ἀποτείνει: freq. intrans. as here. Cf. Gorg. 458 b καὶ νῦν ἴσως πόρρω ἀποτενοῦμεν. More often with τὸν λόγον, μακροὺς λόγους and the like. Cf. 335 c, 336 c, 361 a. —
καὶ οὕτω: we should expect οὕτω καί, but thus also Rep. i. 354 b ἀλλ ὥσπερ οἱ λίχνοι τοῦ αἰεὶ παραφερομένου ἀπογεύονται ἁρπάζοντες (but just as epicures hurriedly taste of every dish successively placed before them), καὶ ἐγώ μοι δοκῶ οὕτω ὁρμῆσαι (to have hastened on), ix. 585 a ὥσπερ πρός μέλαν φαιὸν ἀποσκοποῦντες, πρὸς τὸ ἄλυπον οὕτω λύπην ἀφορῶντες ἀπατῶνται as though regarding gray as white in comparison with black, so regarding the absence of pain as pleasure in comparison with pain, they are deceived.
δόλιχον: (from δολιχός) the long course. “They reply in a speech of endless length.” The δόλιχος was the severest of all the foot-races; in it the length of the stadium was traversed twelve times, at least, and perhaps twenty or even twenty-four times. The Spartan Ladas, victorious in this race, fell dead at the goal. Cf. 335 e τῶν δολιχοδρόμων τῳ. Phocion uses a similar figure (cf. Plutarch Phoc. 23) καλῶς πρὸς τὸ στάδιον (παρεσκευᾶσθαι δοκοῦσιν), τὸν δὲ δόλιχον τοῦ πολέμου φοβοῦμαι, so also the comic poet Epicrates (Meineke Com. Gr. iii. 366) ἐπεὶ δὲ δόλιχον τοῖς ἔτεσιν ἤδη τρέχει.
