Page:Philological Museum v2.djvu/411

On the Birth-Year of Demosthenes. 401 Tas Ta^6t9'5 Koi Xapovre^ aaTrica Kal copv wapd tov orjfxov^ TrepLTToXovai tyjv '^uopaVy Kal diaTpifiovGiv ev T0T9 CpvXaKrr]- ploi^. We shall by and by notice a difficulty which this passage raises : at present we need only observe the inference which it seems irresistibly to force upon us. Can it be ima- gined that, if a service was to be performed such as Pollux and Aristotle describe, and if an oath was also to be taken such as the former reports, the oath was taken at the end of this service, and not at the beginning of it ? Had not the young soldier frequent opportunities in the course of this period, either of nobly using, or of disgracing the arms entrusted to him? At what juncture could the oath be ex- pected to make so strong an impression on his mind as at the outvset of his career ! Or rather how preposterous would it have been to pass over this occasion, when military duties were to be actually performed, and to reserve the oath for another, when there was only an indefinite and uncertain prospect of them ! For though it could only be through some extraordinary accident that the youth was exempted from the duties of a TrepiTroXo^^ many years might elapse before he was called upon for foreign service. This argument gains additional force when we combine it with the fact, that the military age is spoken of as one undivided period, beginning at the eighteenth, and ending with the sixtieth year of life. (Harpocr. 'EttcovvjuoL') Hence Aristotle quoted by Photius {arpaTid ev tol^ eircovvjuoL^ : from his AOrjvaiwv TvoXireia)^ to explain ti^ rjv r} ev tol^ eTrcovvjUiOL^ crTparia' elcriv yap^ <j)rjaLVy eirijovvnwi^ oe/ca imev o twv (pvXcvv^ cvo ce Kai Teacra- paKOVTa 01 Twi/ r]XiKLU)v' 01 '€(prjj3oi eyy pacpofxevoL irpoTepov fiGv etc XeXevKaa/ueva ypa,(A,aaT€7a eveypaCpovTo' Kai eTre^y- pa(povTo avTol^ 6 t€ apyo^v e(p hv eTvey paCprjaav^ Kai evra;- i'viJiO^ o Tip TTpoTepcp €7ri^eSriiur]K(v^' vvv ce 6is tyjv povXriv dvaypd<povTai. These archons, whose names marked the ages of all the citizens liable to military service, were called cttw- vvixoL Toov ^Xlklwv '-, they were also called eirijovvfxoi twu X}]^€(jov^: which seems very decisively to prove that the ^ These words are perhaps corrupt. Boeckh omits them, as sensu cassa^ and wanting in Suidas and Photius. Platner (Beitr. p. 17«) interprets them ^'having received orders from the people as to the posts they were to occupy." ^ I am obliged to leave this assertion resting on the authority of Boeckh, who make»