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DEMOSTHENES

THE ORATION AGAINST LEPTINES

EDITED WITH NOTES

BY THE

REV. JOHN R. KING, M.A.

FELLOW AND TUTOR OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD.

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Printed by R. & R. CLARK, Edinburgh

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IN the present edition the text of Anton Westermann (Ausgewählte Reden des Demosthenes, Berlin, 1874) has been adopted, and I have also derived great advantage from his Notes.

The Prolegomena and Commentary of F. A. Wolf have also been carefully studied, as well as the Variorum Notes in Dindorf's Edition. (Oxford, 1849.)

Reiske's pages are inserted in the margin, as being generally recognised for purposes of quotation; and reference is invariably made to them in the Notes when passages are quoted from other portions of Demosthenes.

J. R. KING.

OXFORD, July 7, 1881.

D•

INTRODUCTION.

THE speech against Leptines was delivered in B.C. 355. Some time before, perhaps in the previous year, Leptines had proposed and carried a law which repealed all grants of exemption from the ordinary AETOVрyía of the State, except those made to the descendants of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, and declared it unlawful to propose any similar grants in the future. The law was based on the difficulty which had been recently experienced in finding a sufficient number of qualified persons to undertake the Aerovрyía, and justified by the fact that some who had enjoyed the exemption were unworthy of the privilege. It was, however, not likely that a measure prejudicially affecting so many private rights should remain unchallenged, and we learn that before the present action Leptines had been threatened with three prosecutions (§ 145). One of these had fallen through from the death of its promoter, Bathippus, and the other two had in some way or other been compromised by Leptines. Meanwhile the time had expired during which he could be personally held liable for proposing an illegal measure, and all that it was now competent for an objector to do was to move the rejection of the law before the νομοθέται. This was done conjointly by two of the aggrieved persons, Apsephion, son of Bathippus, and Ctesippus,

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